We often talk about the transfer of technological know-how from racing cars to road cars, about how motorsport improves everyday cars, but almost never about how the world of competition “arrives” from a cultural point of view on cars approved for road use. That is, how customers who will never go on the track can breathe that magical racing air in everyday cars.
Gone are the days when you could take a racing car to the track by road and then race at the highest levels by simply changing spark plugs and tyres (and sometimes not even those). Today, the theme of the racing car adapted for everyday use is interpreted in very different ways by each manufacturer.
But one of the most personal and fascinating is certainly the one made by Lamborghini. Its Squadra Corse department is in fact a large branch of the company, entirely dedicated to motorsport. Here they work to provide support to sports customers and to design and build the cars that compete in the most prestigious GT championships around the world. It is the same Squadra Corse department that makes the SC63, its first hybrid prototype in the LMDh class that races in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship and in the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship Endurance Cup.
But that’s not all, and here we come to us: since 2009 this department has organized the famous Lamborghini Super Trofeo, a true excellence in the global panorama of single-make championships. Here today they race with the Huracán Super Trofeo Evo and in three different continental series: America, Asia and Europe. Big stuff: six rounds on the calendar for each series, each divided into free practice, qualifying and two races of 50′ each; four categories of drivers in the race, Pro, Pro-Am, Am and Lamborghini Cup. The peak of the season is the World Final, where the Lamborghini world champions are crowned.
And then there is the GT3, a category that runs in championships open to different manufacturers, where Automobili Lamborghini competes with over 20 customer teams that have chosen the Huracán GT3 EVO as their vehicle. Here they have won over 40 international titles since 2015, the year the Huracán GT3 project debuted. Well, from all this was born first the Huracán STO (and the name says it all because it is the acronym for Super Trofeo Omologata) and then the Huracán Tecnica, basically an STO refined in its finishes and setup for more demanding daily use.
They are thoroughbred racing machines, with only rear-wheel drive, very refined aerodynamics and a 640-horsepower naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 that howls up to 8,000 rpm and which, thanks to various electronic controls (infinitely customisable up to total deactivation), can be managed by more or less anyone.
Here is the transfer of technological know-how from the track to the road that we were talking about. Customers who put cars like this in their garage take home a piece of motorsport history. It is no coincidence, on the other hand, that both the Sto and the Tecnica were all sold out at once and are now highly sought after on the collectors’ market and sold at prices almost double the original price lists. Models with few numbers, but very important for the brand image which in short translates into impressive numbers: in the first six months of 2024, the House of the Bull delivered 5,558 cars, with a turnover of 1.621 billion (+14.1% on the first half of 2023) and took home an operating result of 458 million. It is the best result ever in terms of deliveries, revenues and operating result, with profitability reaching 28.2%.
Obviously, you get to this point with less extreme models of the Tecnica, but – in a cascade, from the very model that more than others brings motorsport to the streets, all that wonderful madness typical of racing cars arrives in the production of “normal” Lambos (so to speak): from the design to the interior details, from the ignition system with a “protected” button to the electronic management of driving dynamics. A speech that customers understand very well because then when they go to customize their Lamborghinis they choose purple with gold rims, orange with black finishes, fluorescent green and red details. Just like the cars that race in the Super Trofeo.
Meanwhile, the presentation of the successor to the Huracàn is fast approaching, on August 16 at the Monterey Car Week. Will it be able to respect this very strong historical bond with motorsports of the previous model? And how can the madness and passion for such extreme cars be reconciled with the inevitable hybridization of the entire Lamborghini range? The Sant’Agata company will answer these and other questions very soon. But we are sure of one thing: enthusiasts will not be disappointed: Lambo are masters at entertaining their customers.
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