| a007apl |
09-09-2003 04:03 PM |
Lamborghini have finalised a 2004 sportscar racing program, with an announcement to be made on Tuesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show along with the unveiling of the first Murcielago R-GT prototype.
Centering around the 6.2-litre V12 Murcielago supercar, the race version will go head-to-head with the Ferrari 550 Maranellos and Chevrolet Corvettes currently doing battle stateside in the Anerican Le Mans Series. Vici Racing, who have this year been developing a GT Diablo built by Reiter Engineering with factory input and blessing, will run a single car.
On the basis of this step forward they have scaled back the Diablo program they had planned for this year, to concentrate on testing. However Vici Racing owner Ron Meixner conceeds that they may run the car later this year at the 1000Kms of Le Mans to work on tyre solutions.
Meanwhile the European challenge will be headed Reiter Engineering, the German tuner that developed the Diablo Supertrophy cars and ran the official guest car. Two Murcielago R-GT racers will be entered in the FIA GT series. Reiter drew up plans to run a number of the now redundant Diablo Supertrophy cars in this year's FIA GT series, after a promising toe-dipping exercise towards the end of last year, but shelved plans in order to concentrate on developing the Murcielago R-GT.
Lamborghini owner Audi is keen to see the Italian sportscar maker return to competition. The ALMS series represents involvement in their largest market, while the FIA GT series, which will next year see Maserati join the fray, will allow them to take on their two closest rivals, Ferrari and Maserati head on. With the FIA GT series going from strength to strength and to become a World Championship in 2005, after at least one race being held outside Europe next year, Bahrain is already confirmed, Lamborghini want to become bedded down in the series as early as possible.
At present Lamborghini will only build three R-GT's, two for the FIA GT series and the third for ALMS. There are no plans to offer customer-specification cars. The three cars will be delivered in December.
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