The 2024 World Endurance Championship [WEC] gets under way in March with the top Hypercar category contested by nine manufacturers. There will be LMH cars from Ferrari, Toyota and Peugeot, and LMDh cars from Porsche, Cadillac and BMW. These are all as seen in 2023, with the exception of a re-homologation of the Peugeot, including the upgrade of its in-house developed 90o bank angle, 2.6 litre V6 twin turbo.
LMDh newcomers to the WEC are the Alpine A424 with its single-turbo 3.4 litre V6 and the Lamborghini SC63 with its twin-turbo 3.8 litre V8. We logged the Alpine V6 in July 2023, and the Lamborghini V8 in August 2023. The third newcomer is an LMH, the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6-C, which we logged in November 2022, when it was first announced. At that stage, the identity of the Tipo 6-C’s engine provider was unknown. It is HWA.
HWA are the initials of Hans Werner Aufrecht, who, together with Erhard Melcher, founded AMG in 1967. In 1998, they sold a majority interest in AMG to DaimlerChrysler. HWA was founded in 1999, to take over the racing department of DaimlerChrysler. It ran the AMG Mercedes team in the DTM until the manufacturer opted to leave the series at the end of 2018.
HWA was responsible for the DTM racecars, including engine build and development. Since 2002, it has furnished Mercedes-badged Formula Three engines. These won the most titles in the Euroseries and the subsequent FIA European Championship prior to Formula Three becoming a spec series.
Based in Affalterbach, Germany, HWA remains an independent engineering specialist, involved in racing and high-performance cars. It recently announced the development of the HWA EVO, a road-legal sports car, described as “a furious reinterpretation of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II”.
On behalf of the Isotta Fraschini marque and Michelotto, which is building the Tipo 6-C, HWA is producing the full LMH powertrain, including an electrical front-wheel drive. The engine is a 3.0 litre V6 with a 90o bank angle and just a single turbo.