Ginetta working on 2017 LMP2 project for WEC, ELMS, USC and Asia

It has already started design and development work on a coupe LMP2 prototype, and company chairman Lawrence Tomlinson said Ginetta will be submitting an interest to Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship organiser, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.

The ACO wants to slim the number of LMP2 chassis manufacturers down to just four from 2017-2020 in an effort to better control the costs of the category.

It has invited all of the current and prospective manufacturers to submit an expression of interest in becoming a licenced supplier by June 10.

Those four brands will be able to supply the WEC, European Le Mans Series, Tudor United Sportscar Championship and the Asian Le Mans Series.

Tomlinson, a former shareholder in the Zytek Engineering, told AUTOSPORT: "LMP2 really appeals to us as it extends Ginetta's current ladder of career options.

"We've learnt a lot from our LMP3 programme [pictured], and that car actually forms a very good basis on which to build an LMP2 car.

"The P3 is already crash tested to the same standards as LMP1, so we have all of that data ready to apply to a P2 project and by absorbing Juno [last year] we have access to a much wider scope of manufacturing and design tools.

"We have already started the design work and done some testing on a modified version of an LMP3 chassis, to see about the feasibility of a P2 project.

"Ginetta has vast experience of building GT cars, and we're also the only company to make LMP3 a reality.

"We feel that LMP2 would be the next step and it's something that we feel we can do very well with the resources we have. We will be expressing our interest to the ACO."

Ginetta will join rival brands Gibson, Ligier [Onroak], BR Engineering, ORECA, Wolf and HPD as the brands most likely to submit expressions of interest.

It last contested Le Mans back in 2010 when it ran a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S for F1 world champion Nigel Mansell and his sons Leo and Greg. But the car retired after four laps when Nigel crashed.