Monday, December 23, 2024

Lamborghini reveals replacement for Huracan GT racer

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Lamborghini has unveiled the new super sportscar on which its next-generation GT3 racer will be based.

The Lamborghini Temerario, launched on Friday in Monterey California, is the replacement in the Italian manufacturer’s range for the Huracan road and race cars.

Racing versions will supersede the Huracan GT3 EVO2 in 2026 and the one-make Super Trofeo EVO2 car the year after.

They will be developed at the Lamborghini Squadra Corse in-house competition department also responsible for the Huracan racers and the SC63 LMDh prototype that started racing in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship this season.

The Temerario is a hybrid with a powertrain rated at just over 900bhp, but the GT3 racer will not incorporate the three electric motors of the road car and will be two- rather than four-wheel-drive as per the category’s regulations.

Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr, who is also acting motorsport boss after the departure of Giorgio Sanna, has also confirmed that there are no plans for the one-make Temerario Super Trofeo to incorporate hybrid technology.

“As long as you include high-voltage [systems] you exclude a lot of customers,” he said.

“Customer racing is the baseline and we have to do a car that the teams can operate.”

The Temerario, like the Lamborghini LMDh, is powered by a twin-turbo V8, but Mohr stressed that they were not the same powerplant.

“We are super-proud of the street V8, but the LMDh engine is a stand-alone unit produced by Lamborghini only for that car,” he said.

“The GT3 as well as the Super Trofeo will have as a base the street engine with all the complicated stuff we put in.”

The four-litre street engine rated at peak power of 790bhp revs to 10,000rpm, but Mohr revealed that this wouldn’t necessarily be the the case in the GT3.

“It has to be modified, so let’s see if the high-revving makes sense or not,” he explained.

“If you have to limit the power output of the car to 520-530bhp [the baseline figure in GT3] we will have to see what is the best compromise between driveability and efficiency.”

The Temerario GT3 will begin testing next year ahead of its release to customers for the 2026 season.

Mohr explained that the volume of cars that need to be built for the Super Trofeo explained the one-year offset between the introduction of the two race versions of the Temerario.

The Huracan GT3 was the first racer to be developed at Lamborghini Squadra Corse following its establishment in 2013.

It was released to customers in 2015, with the EVO and EV02 versions arriving in 2019 and ’23 respectively.

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