As Lamborghini celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this 12 months, it’s gearing as much as tackle the final word problem for a sportscar producer: a bid for outright honours on the Le Mans 24 Hours. The assault on the centrepiece spherical of the World Endurance Championship with a brand new LMDh prototype run by the Iron Lynx crew would be the first such marketing campaign in these 60 years. It’s been a protracted haul to endurance racing’s prime desk for the marque, each within the context of its storied existence and the venture that has resulted within the prototype racer we now name the SC63.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, who branched out from producing tractors and farm equipment, shied away from motor racing. He constructed his first sportscar on account of dissatisfaction along with his Ferrari street automotive, believing that the main focus of the Prancing Horse was distracted from creating the final word gran turismo by its racing efforts. This antipathy was most likely tinged by his personal unsuccessful exploits in competitors. He crashed a modified Fiat Topolino on the 1948 Mille Miglia, his machine ending up inside a bar!
The corporate founder, who died in 1993, ceded management of Lamborghini barely 10 years after its creation, but nonetheless racing was off the agenda on the Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters between Bologna and Modena as possession of the marque handed by means of numerous arms. And when it did go racing, it wasn’t within the pure habitat for a sportscar model.
Chrysler purchased Lamborghini in 1987 and determined that Formulation 1 must be its playground. That resulted within the institution of Lamborghini Engineering below Ferrari design legend Mauro Forghieri and a 3.5-litre V12 used between 1989 and 1993 by Larrousse, Lotus, Ligier, Minardi and an arm’s size squad of its personal generally known as Modena Staff.
It wouldn’t be till the flip of the century that Lamborghinis correctly began competing within the burgeoning world of GT racing – and the vehicles weren’t developed by the manufacturing facility. GT boss Stephane Ratel had pushed by means of a rule permitting what he referred to as “particular tuners” to homologate vehicles for racing. Reiter Engineering took up the baton, going it alone with a GT1 model of the Diablo in 2000. Lamborghini, now within the arms of the Volkswagen group and below the management of Audi, initially offered assist – monetary and technical – when the German operation switched to the Murcielago in 2003.
The Murcielago R-GT was a race winner within the FIA GT Championship, however Reiter’s large success got here with the creation of the GT3 class in 2006. It could ship a complete of 132 GT3 Gallardos in a number of iterations and evolutions, constructed with tacit assist from Lamborghini. Reiter had to purchase full vehicles from the manufacturing facility, chucking all the pieces it didn’t want from the street automotive into a large warehouse, for the primary 50 examples. Solely then did the producer permit it to purchase simply the components it wanted.
Gallardo mannequin loved success when the GT3 formulation took maintain
Photograph by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Lamborghini was waking as much as motorsport. It had began its long-running Tremendous Trofeo collection in 2009 with a Gallardo developed by Reiter however constructed on the manufacturing facility like two earlier iterations of one-make racer, the Diablo SV-R and GTR of the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. The turning level on the street to a bid for outright Le Mans honours got here in 2013 with the institution of the in-house Lamborghini Squadra Corse operation to develop and construct each its spec racers and a brand new GT3 Huracan.
Squadra Corse was and is headed up by Giorgio Sanna, a someday Audi Sport Italia works driver within the big-banger Superstars touring automotive collection. Lamborghini’s commencement to the head of sportscar racing owes a lot to his tenacity. He has been described as “like a terrier” by one insider in his makes an attempt to get the prototype programme throughout the road.
Sanna’s need to take Lamborghini prototype racing predate the convergence course of that created the LMDh pathway into the WEC Hypercar class. The Italian producer was on the desk in 2019 as IMSA began engaged on the successor to the Daytona Prototype worldwide class launched in 2017.
“The request of the board was to have the ability to begin to race in 2024: we’ve got evaluated all of the completely different situations and one of the best one was Ligier” Giorgio Sanna
“We have been all the time in love with the philosophy of IMSA,” says Sanna, who factors out that the USA is the marque’s largest market. “We began with a robust curiosity to race in America with very good vehicles, subtle however sustainable from a price standpoint.”
Sanna can’t reply whether or not Lamborghini would have produced a automotive for a category provisionally generally known as DPi 2.0 had there been no convergence. However he means that it turned “fairly a straightforward resolution” as soon as the brand new class was cleared to race within the WEC in addition to in IMSA. Lamborghini will likely be represented in each collection subsequent 12 months with Iron Lynx and the SC63.
However Sanna’s feedback underplay his efforts to persuade his board to take Lamborghini prototype racing. There was a radical examination of LMDh in 2020 and a proposal to provide a automotive at the side of Dallara. The venture was by no means signed off: it was apparently turned down greater than as soon as.
Sanna then modified tack. He regarded to piggyback on the Porsche-led LMDh programme that initially concerned Audi. Why Sanna’s efforts on this entrance weren’t profitable in gentle of the choice to axe the sister automotive to the 963 isn’t completely clear, although the consensus is that Porsche stated no to Lamborghini becoming a member of the get together. Sanna will solely say that “the group was seeking to provide you with a technique that fitted completely with the wants of each model”.
When Lamborghini lastly bought the sign-off, introduced in Might 2022, it selected to associate with Ligier Automotive, the one one of many 4 licensed LMP2 constructors with out an LMDh deal. Sanna explains that the board resolution was impartial of the one to align with Ligier.
Giorgio Sanna has been the architect of Lamborghini’s transfer into sportscar racing’s prime tier
Photograph by: Lamborghini Tremendous Trofeo
“Till you may have the inexperienced gentle you can not decide to anybody,” he says. “The request of the board was to have the ability to begin to race in 2024: we’ve got evaluated all of the completely different situations and one of the best one was Ligier.”
He admits that the “others have been already dedicated” by that stage. It seems sure that Lamborghini went again to Dallara at this level, solely to be advised that its offers with Acura and Cadillac meant it wouldn’t be capable of ship a automotive for 2024. Ligier, insists Sanna, is an efficient match for Lamborghini: “We have been on the lookout for a associate like Ligier, which is small however with the proper competence, similar to Lamborghini Squadra Corse.”
Squadra Corse has additionally developed its personal engine for the primary time. The brand new 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 is the primary bespoke racing engine produced by Lamborghini since Forghieri’s F1 V12. The associate for the engine venture is Autotecnica Motori, which was additionally concerned in developments to the Huracan GT3’s V10 within the EVO and EVO2 variations launched respectively in 2019 and 2023.
The deal for Iron Lynx to be Lamborghini’s associate in each the WEC and IMSA’s GTP class was introduced in November 2022, although it was within the works a very long time earlier than that. Iron Lynx, established in 2017 and a participant within the WEC since 2021 in GTE Am, had an eye fixed on Hypercar earlier than the link-up with Sant’Agata. The acquisition of a majority stake in single-seater powerhouse Prema in the summertime of 2021 by Iron Lynx guardian firm DC Racing Options was made with an eye fixed on the highest class of sportscar racing.
Step one was an entry into the LMP2 area final 12 months, with twin assaults on the WEC and the European Le Mans Sequence with a pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s. A brand new department of the crew generally known as Prema Engineering will successfully run the LMDh assault below the Iron Lynx banner from new amenities in Vicenza, near Prema’s current headquarters, in addition to in Detroit.
“When Prema turned a part of the household two years in the past, we began to arrange the crew that will likely be our LMDh crew,” says Iron Lynx crew boss Andrea Piccini. “We needed to point out that we might be able to be a associate for an vital model in such a programme. The thought of getting an LMP2 crew began earlier than the contact with Lamborghini.”
The Iron Lynx/Prema set-up is billed as Lamborghini’s “reference crew” by Sanna. What that really means is that it will be the marque’s only representative in Hypercar and GTP over the full lifespan of the SC63 up to the end of 2027. That’s a departure from the earlier intent outlined by Lamborghini. It had acknowledged that it had deliberate to comply with the enterprise mannequin it ploughed in GT3 by offering assist to a number of groups on a semi-factory foundation.
“We’ve to maintain in consideration the dimensions and the potential of our construction, and we choose to maintain targeted on one crew whether or not we’re managing one automotive, two vehicles, 4 vehicles, as a result of the programme may be very demanding,” explains Sanna. “We’re additionally the rookie within the area.”
Lamborghini’s LMDh programme will likely be run by the Iron Lynx crew on each side of the Atlantic
Photograph by: Lamborghini S.p.A.
The programme in 12 months one will likely be for a single automotive in WEC and one other in IMSA, although solely within the endurance rounds beginning with the Sebring 12 Hours in March. Additional US outings will comply with at Watkins Glen, the brand new Indianapolis long-distance race, and Petit Le Mans at Street Atlanta. The IMSA automotive will even be part of the full-season WEC entry for a two-car assault at Le Mans. A full IMSA programme and an expanded two-car assault on the WEC in 2025 seem seemingly, although Lamborghini and Iron Lynx are taking part in their playing cards near their chests for the second.
“Operating two groups is already fairly bold, which is why we dedicated solely doing one automotive on both sides, and solely the endurance races in IMSA,” says Piccini. “We wish to do issues step-by-step.”
4 drivers have thus far been revealed for what will likely be a six-strong squad. Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli, each members of the manufacturing facility line-up for the reason that Huracan entered competitors in 2015, have been first to be named, adopted by ex-F1 drivers Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat. The ultimate two will likely be introduced on the finish of this season. Mercedes GT star Raffaele Marciello was due to be one, however he has been poached by BMW. How they may line up throughout the 2 programmes hasn’t been revealed, although Grosjean’s bid to stay in IndyCar implies that he’ll concentrate on IMSA.
The SC63 was given a shakedown at Vallelunga just about on schedule initially of August, which was adopted by a primary correct check at Imola. The automotive racked up roughly 1500km over two days with Bortolotti, Caldarelli and Kvyat driving. The check programme then hit a setback when Bortolotti crashed the primary automotive at Paul Ricard.
Lamborghini and Iron Lynx have tried to minimize the importance of a break of greater than a month, Piccini suggesting that they’ll “nonetheless hold to the our schedule”
Lamborghini hasn’t revealed the extent of the harm, although it pressured the cancellation of a subsequent run at Spa initially of September. The total resumption of testing came only last week with three days of running at Almeria in southern Spain when Grosjean bought his first style of the automotive. Lamborghini and Iron Lynx have tried to minimize the importance of a break of greater than a month, Piccini suggesting that they’ll “nonetheless hold to the our schedule”.
Lamborghini by no means deliberate to absorb the primary spherical of the Michelin-sponsored Endurance Cup section of the IMSA collection, the Daytona 24 Hours in January, although it had hinted that it may reverse that decision primarily based on the outcomes of testing. That seems unlikely now, which implies the race debut of the SC63 will likely be on the opening WEC spherical in Qatar in early March.
Lastly, a marque that started with out racing aspirations will go face to face with Ferrari on the prime of the sportscar racing tree.
Lamborghini’s check programme with the SC63 LMDh has resumed after a hiatus
Photograph by: Lamborghini Squadra Corse
Not such an illustrious historical past
Lamborghini and Le Mans haven’t been pleased bedfellows through the years. No-shows, non-qualifications and retirements – two after a single lap – have featured within the marque’s sporadic appearances or non-appearances on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
A Lamborghini first graced the hallowed asphalt in 1975 when French privateer Paul Rilly, who needed to fulfil a life’s ambition by racing at Le Mans, ended up taking a Lamborghini Islero entered within the GTX class for manufacturing GT vehicles after abandoning plans to drive first a Ferrari after which a Porsche. A street automotive bought within the run-up to the occasion was rapidly transformed right into a racer, the modifications together with a suspension and brake sports activities equipment offered to Rilly by the manufacturing facility.
The automotive shared with good friend Roger Le Veve was beset by issues by means of qualifying and didn’t come shut to creating the minimize. Its finest lap was solely slightly below 5 and a half minutes.
A Lamborghini developed in Britain may sound like heresy, and positively was thought to be such in some quarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese. A British operation generally known as Amos Worldwide Motorsport had it in writing that it may develop the Diablo right into a GT1 automotive in 1995 and the promise of a provide of racing engines from the manufacturing facility.
The engine wasn’t prepared when the unfinished automotive, generally known as the AIM Lamborghini Jota GT1, was proven within the pits on the Le Mans Check Day on the finish of April. After a single check at Paul Ricard with a hack engine, the Le Mans assault was shelved. A authorized case adopted and the Jota GT1 by no means raced.
Reiter Engineering’s Murcielago R-GT raced at Le Mans yearly between 2006 and 2010. Or maybe that must be ‘raced’. 4 of the entries have been made by the Japan Lamborghini House owners’ Membership, which on two events managed however a single lap earlier than retirement. The primary of these early baths got here in 2007 when the driveshafts JLOC had developed for the automotive pulled out of the hubs.
Lamborghini’s latest historical past at Le Mans hasn’t been profitable, with JLOC struggling an early tub in 2007
Photograph by: Jeff Bloxham / Motorsport Images