When it comes to admiring Lamborghini cars on the track you only had a few options in recent years, either these were factory prepared Super Trofeo cars competing against each other in their own series, first in Europe only, later on also in Asia and North America … with the second option being offered by world renowned Reiter Engineering who has been building Lamborghini race cars since 2000 and sold over 100 Bulls for the track up to now.
For the 2015 Blancpain Super Trofeo season we’ll be seeing the brand new Huracan LP620-2 race car together with the 2014 specs Gallardo racer on the track while the in-house racing department at Sant’Agata, Squadra Corse, is also working on a Huracan GT3 edition, that will in fact share only about 20% parts with the Super Trofeo car … also remember Lamborghini actually had V12 engines being used in Formula One racing in the Eighties and before the Super Trofeo series started we had the Diablo SV-R on the track that was succeeded with the very impressive Diablo GTR, but in the end Lamborghini didn’t have their own racing program to compete with other makes on the track … that was handled by Reiter Engineering since 2000 in fact when this German based company came out with the Murciélago R-GT that by 2010 would be replaced by the Murciélago R-SV in the GT1 class.
In the more accessible FIA GT3 class it was again Reiter Engineering that would rule the tracks worldwide for more than a decade with their impressive Gallardo based race cars, first up the original Gallardo GT3 that would evolve into the 2013 Gallardo GT3 FL2 after the face list seen in Paris for the Gallardo LP560-4, while for the 2015 season Reiter Engineering has just unveiled their latest Racing Bull … the Gallardo R-EX or Reiter Extenso, a massively wide body evolution that will wreak havoc on the track next year.
In a recent interview published by Top Gear Squadra Corse’s chief test driver Giorgio Sanna made a rather bold statement: ‘I want to participate in Le Mans, and I want to win’ … now that won’t be happening with the Huracan GT3 or a GT1 version of the V12 flagship … to win at Le Mans you’ll need an LMP1 race car, and that is something we’ve never seen before from Automobili Lamborghini SpA.
The closest thing to Le Mans racing for Lamborghini was the 2010 entry of the nr69 Murciélago R-SV from Team JLOC, the Japanese Lamborghini Owner’s club … sadly after 138 laps this 6.5 Liter V12 Bull had to retire from the race and received a ‘Did Not Finish’ classification on the 43rd spot of the results for that year, of the 56 cars that started at Le Mans that year only 28 made it to the finish.
So now Lamborghini is considering to enter the 24h de Le Mans with their very own, internally developed LMP1 race car, but there is a long way to go before that will happen, and most likely the first attempt will be in the LMP2 class to prepare for the ultimate LMP1 series later on. Right now Squadra Corse is finalizing the Huracan Super Trofeo race car, which in fact will be the foundation for the Le Mans adventure.
Note that the Huracan Super Trofeo has been developed for racing straight from the start, this isn’t a converted street version like the Gallardo Super Trofeo was, the Huracan Super Trofeo was created next to the street legal LP610-4 model, in fact well-known Dallara was involved in the development of the new V10 race car … the LP620-2 Super Trofeo will cost a healthy €230,000 (+ taxes) to buy for the 2015 season and require an additional €170,000 to compete in the Blancpain Super Trofeo series.
This will get you a purebred race car in full FIA regulations setup, a weight loss of 152kg compared to the road car, rear wheel drive only (hence the LP620-2 designation) coupled to an Xtrac sequential gear box, reprogrammed ECU and body panels that only take 5 minutes to completely remove come together with a 12 stage ABS system and a 9 stage traction control … and Lamborghini still isn’t finished with their Huracan race car … the hard core GT3 version that is also in the planning will take the Super Trofeo even further into the LMP1 dream.
We already know the Squadra Corse department received confirmation they will be able to create race cars until 2018 with the extended IMSA partnership and the road to Le Mans is open because rumor has it Audi will leave the LMP1 class to try their hand at F1 racing, which is totally out of the question for Lamborghini in fact, but with talks about Ferrari being back in Le Mans in the near future too it might be a perfect marketing idea for Lamborghini to have their own LMP1 car compete against cars from Porsche and Ferrari …
