Oreca

Team

In the 1970s and 1980s, drivers including Alain Prost, Jacques Laffite and Jean Alesi won the French Formula Three Championship for the team a record 11 times.

In the 1990s, Oreca ran a BMW operation in the French Supertouring Championship. It also won the FIA GT Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours in the GT2 class with a Chrysler Viper GTS-R and overall with a Mazda 787B in 1991, on their second attempt and first after a decade.

Also, the team prepared the Renault Clio S1600 for rallying and won the ice racing Andros Trophy with a Toyota Corolla driven by Alain Prost.

In the 2000s, Oreca assisted Renault Sport in building the new Mégane V6 for the Renault Eurocup Mégane Sport and fielding an Audi R8 in the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours with support from Audi France. Also for 2006 Oreca ran the Saleen S7R in the Le Mans Series. The Oreca Saleen S7R had already won the 2006 Spa-Francorchamps Le Mans race.

Oreca worked closely with Dodge on the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, producing well over 100 customer cars in the period 2006–2007 to GT3 specification.

Oreca entered a customer-specification Peugeot 908 HDi FAP with 'Semi-works' help for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as for the rest of the Le Mans Series races, taking overall honours at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and the overall championship ahead of the factory Peugeot teams.

In 2011, Oreca won the 12 Hours of Sebring race despite still using the Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP, a model retired at the end of the previous season.

In 2012 Oreca was selected to run the Toyota TS030 Hybrid LMP1 car with support from Toyota Motorsport GmbH in the FIA World Endurance Championship (including the 24 Hours of Le Mans). The car showed promising speed but did not finish at Le Mans due to a large crash involving one car and mechanical problems sidelining the other.

Manufacturer

On September 14, 2007, Oreca announced their plans to purchase sports prototype manufacturer Courage Compétition. Its first project was the Oreca 01, made for the LMP1 class. It was first raced at the 2009 1000 km of Spa with two entries.

During 2009, Oreca started producing the Formula Le Mans 'FLM09'. This was initially run in its own series named the Formula Le Mans Cup until 2010 when it was adapted to allow it to be run three other endurance series including the American Le Mans Series which gave the car its own category (LMPC). The idea was to give an affordable platform for smaller teams to get into endurance racing.

The Oreca 03 was introduced in 2011 to meet the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO)'s revised LMP2 regulations. Designed around a carbon-fibre monocoque and double-wishbone pushrod suspension, it was cost-capped and compatible with production-based V8 engines. Most customer teams opted for the Nissan VK45DE 4.5L, while others chose the Judd-BMW 3.6L V8.

Between 2011 and 2015, the Oreca 03 and its updated 03R variant accumulated over 60 race starts and secured more than 25 class wins across the European Le Mans Series, FIA World Endurance Championship, and the Asian Le Mans Series. Notable victories included wins at the 6 Hours of São Paulo and Shanghai with G-Drive Racing, and several ELMS titles with Thiriet by TDS Racing.

Several chassis are still active in historic racing under the Masters Endurance Legends series, both in Europe and the United States.

The Oreca 03 was launched to accommodate the new LMP2 regulations for 2011. In 2015, the Oreca 05 was unveiled, winning the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Oreca was selected as one of the four 2017 LMP2 manufacturers, and launched the Oreca 07. Two variations of the 07 were also created to race in different classes, in the form of the Rebellion R13, created for the LMP1 class to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the Acura ARX-05, created in partnership with Honda Performance Development for the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) regulations to race in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The R13 was later taken by Alpine and rebadged as the A480 to race in the Le Mans Hypercar as a "grandfathered" entry. Oreca also won the tender for the 2028 LMP2 regulations.

Oreca was also selected as one of four chassis suppliers for the LMDh sports prototype regulations, and currently supplies Acura and Alpine with chassis for their respective ARX-06 and A424 race cars. They will also supply Genesis and Ford from 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Models

References

References

1. (21 March 2011). "Oreca upset the order by taking the flag at the Sebring 12 Hours". The Guardian.
2. "Oreca 03 – LMP2 debut".
3. "Oreca 03 wins in WEC".
4. "Oreca 03R championship summary".
5. "ORECA 03 remains popular in historic racing".
6. (11 July 2017). ""Acura DPi Set to Begin Testing This Month"". sportscar365.com.
7. Dagys, John. (2020-09-10). "Report: Signatech Alpine to LMP1 for 2021 – Sportscar365".
8. Mitchell, Stewart. (2021-03-17). "Alpine A480 Le Mans Hypercar".
9. Euwema, Davey. (2025-06-13). "ORECA, Ligier, Gibson Win LMP2 Tenders – Sportscar365".
10. Mitchell, Stewart. (2023-01-27). "Acura ARX-06 LMDh Prototype Development Story".
11. (2023-06-09). "Alpine A424 LMDh revealed, starts racing in 2024".
12. Dagys, John. (2025-06-13). "Ford Confirms ORECA Chassis; Sayers to Lead LMDh Effort – Sportscar365".
13. Dagys, John. (2024-12-04). "Genesis Unveils GMR-001 Hypercar – Sportscar365".