It's a war of flowing lines versus angularity.

Following the unveil of Mazda's new-for-2017 RT24-P Daytona Prototype international at the LA Auto Show, we have the first look at Cadillac's DPi-V.R and all of its razor-sharp glory.

Compared to the Mazda built by the Canadian-American alliance of Multimatic and Riley Technologies, the Italian designers at Dallara took a vastly different approach to executing IMSA's new DPi rules with the Cadillac. With clear instructions from IMSA to incorporate road-car styling cues into DPi bodywork, Cadillac drew rakish inspirations from its brutal sedans.

Where Mazda's RT24-P presents itself as a windswept creature—a form in harmony with its aerodynamic environment, the DPi-V.R employs a blunt-force philosophy throughout most of its custom carbon-fiber panels. Those harsher, more definitive lines, however, are far from inefficient.

The diverging DPi concepts are readily found in their front and rear fender treatments. Per IMSA's rulebook, large openings are required above each tire in the name of safety. Although the apertures play a vital role in reducing pressure (therefore reducing the likelihood of a high-speed blowover), the sizeable cutouts also generate a significant amount of turbulence in normal operation.

That turbulence, also known as aerodynamic drag, saps straightline speed. As a workaround, big factory LMP1 Le Mans teams (and soon after, many of the second-tier LMP2 constructors) found elevating and extending the fenders forward was an effective method to defeat some of that drag.

Cadillac's DPi-V.R, which is built upon Dallara's spec 2017 P2 chassis, makes full use of the same turbulence-cheating design with its nose, and again with the engine cover to eliminate a valuable amount of drag as air passes over the rear tire cutouts.

The RT24-P largely adheres to laminar airflow principles; its short, rounded fenders follow relatively smooth contours leading to its front wheel cutouts. The Mazda's rear fenders sport lower ramps leading to the cutouts, but there's a reason; the Cadillac's sidepods are notably lower and require taller ramps to meet the top of the DPi-V.R's tires.

There's more than a passing resemblance between the new DPi-V.R and Porsche's dominant 919 Hybrid. Marshall Pruett

Cadillac's bluff fenders are creatures of functionality. And while they borrow from proven drag-reducing methods employed by other prototypes, don't assume Mazda and the Riley-Multimatic design team forgot about the long/tall fender option.

The tall Cadillac-style fender treatments were tried in computational fluid dynamic software (CFD) and from what I'm told, the RT24-P's curvy departure from the norm was chosen after it produced an improvement in downforce and drag figures.

I'm also told the Mazda, as shown in LA, will race with a few bodywork updates, including the same type of dive planes found on the Cadillac, and other performance-related additions.

Only two significant commonalities can be found with the DPi-V.R and RT24-P: Both brands can credit Porsche's Le Mans- and FIA World Endurance Championship-winning 919 Hybrid for the beam-style design that spans the front fenders. Cadillac and Mazda also use vents in the beam to feed front brake ducts.

The DPi rules direct manufacturers to feed their engines through overhead intakes, and while the DPi-V.R and RT24-P clearly comply with the mandate, the motors digest air in different manners. The Cadillac's 6.2-liter naturally-aspirated V8 engine uses a pair of articulated ducts—one for each bank of cylinders—housed within its rectangular scoop.

Mazda's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder makes use of a nearly identical rectangular inlet, but ditches the exposed pipework in favor of tapering down into a funnel that leads to the compressor.

A strong Porsche 919 Hybrid presence can also be found at the back of the DPi-V.R. Marshall Pruett

Fans of IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship should have no problem telling the two apart, and with Nissan, the third DPi manufacturer, set to reveal its car in the next month or so, the new era of American prototypes will be the featured aspect of the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona event.

Interesting History

Cadillac's DPi-V.R picks up where the brand's most recent foray into prototype competition left off in 2002. The Cadillac Northstar program sparked to life in 2000, one year after Audi's initial foray into prototypes with a Dallara-built R8C open-top chassis and the R8C coupe created by England's RTN. The timing of Audi's swift rise to power would prove stifling for the upstart American prototype effort.

In the first of many interesting twists, Cadillac's Northstar LMP was designed and built by the father and son duo of Bob and Bill Riley, owners of the Riley Technologies firm that created Mazda's RT24-P (in concert with Multimatic). Its debut against Audi's brand-new challenger, the (soon to be) all-conquering R8, was less than flattering, and with the sizable mismatch in funding between the brands, any hope of bridging the gap was quickly forgotten.

The Northstar LMP's engine, a turbocharged version of the V8 Oldsmobile motor used in the Indy Racing League, was certainly unique, and some of the aerodynamic and mechanical packaging by the Rileys also made the Cadillac an interesting contender at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in a separate European campaign, and during the early days of the American Le Mans Series.

And if the DPi-V.R features rakish styling, Riley's original Cadillac prototype went wild with diving belt lines and crashing curves from nose to tail.

Limited success with the Riley car through the 2001 season drove Cadillac to hire renowned designer Nigel Stroud to take another swing at the Northstar LMP concept. Stroud's machine, featuring an all-new chassis and heavily revised aerodynamics, was indeed faster, but with three years of rapid development beneath Audi's devastating R8, the second-generation Northstar LMP was parked after one ill-fated season.

And in our final DPi crossover, what made Nigel Stroud such an attractive solution to Cadillac? He designed Mazda's 1991 Le Mans-winning 787B…

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