24 Hours of Le Mans

John Manchester on Zytek’s future

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

A conversation with John Manchester (Zytek Operations Director) cannot be complete without dedicating some time to the future. Zytek has been involved for a long time in sports cars and innovation is one of their fundamental pillars. We asked John if he was able to share some information on the new developments that are already looming in the horizon.

PLM- John, there’s been a lot of talks about Zytek working on a hybrid engine.

JM- Zytek is the world leader in electric vehicles. We have been working on that area for a long time and already in 1999 we developed a hybrid system for Panoz that you might remember about. In fact we consider this area unfinished business.

PLM- Are we talking of a fuel-electrical combination or…?

JM- Let me say we’re working on “a system” at the moment and it is not the time right now to reveal it. However it will have a link to sports cars racing.

PLM- You are definitely very busy on sports cars where competition has increased now with the arrival of Porsche in Europe.

JM- We are at the moment working heavily on engine development. There’s a big effort in that area and in fact we have stepped up our program totally revising cylinder heads, reducing friction considerably and improving performance in other areas as well.

PLM- Will you have these upgrades ready before the end of the season?

JM- In fact a series of upgrades will be offered to our customers during this season and the next. At Le Mans we will already have several engine upgrades available which will be offered to all Zytek-powered teams. I want to emphasize that all our upgrades will be available simultaneously to all of our teams.

PLM- So what’s next for the teams getting this upgrade?

JM- Well, we have planned 2 engine development phases this season and a “stage 3” for next season, we are committed to continuous evolution sharing that with our customers as soon as we can deliver.

PLM- What about the car itself, what’s the news on that front?

JM- On the car there’s very intensive development as well, We are evaluating different solutions including a coupé. The decision on this one is not yet finalized but within the next few weeks we should know whether we are pursuing this avenue or not. We want to produce our best car ever and be able to run it for next season.

PLM- Do you feel the gap with the Porsche is too big? What’s your view on that?

JM- Let me start by saying that you need to have the right package to be able to win races. The race at Silverstone last year showed that if you put the right package together you get the results, both Zyteks performed excellent. We have a very sound basis in the current car to improve and invest in aerodynamics and engine. In fact, as we have been talking, we are ramping up the operation on both areas because we know what we can get with the elements we have.

PLM- You sound extremely confident…

JM- I know we will be very very competitive in LMP2 next season, you can quote me on that. Furthermore I have no doubt in my mind that we can compete with Porsche.

PLM- Is the RS Spyder the LMP2 benchmark then?

JM- It is very good that Porsche is in the series. It raises the level of the series, of the manufacturers so that competition becomes tougher and cars quicker. This is very good. We all get better products and even when winning becomes more difficult we know we will improve.

PLM- John, the final question. Can you share any news on the LNT partnership announced earlier on the year? Is everything finalized yet?

JM- No, not yet. As soon as we are able to disclose the details we’ll be sharing that with the press.

John Manchester sounds motivated and confident when it comes to Zytek’s future developments. He knows he has the elements to battle Porsche at the same level and the next months will be key in assembling those together and getting the right chemistry on the track. Zytek has clearly picked up the gauntlet and working hard to be the best in LMP2, we can’t wait to see the results of that effort.