Racing Bull – Lamborghini Super Trofeo

If the idea of banging fenders on the race track in a $285,000 Italian exotic makes you feel a bit queasy, imagine 30 of them trading paint and swapping blows. In an effort to get some racing street-cred, and also keep pace with Porsche and Ferrari, Lamborghini has been running the Super Trofeo series at some of the finest racing tracks in Europe. A one-make series showcasing a factory built racing version of the Gallardo LP560-4.

The cars are all identical; utilizing sealed drive trains from the factory and allowing nothing more than suspension adjustments to set-up the cars. The warmed over naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 is producing 570hp, up just 10hp from the streetcar. The largest difference is the 2970lb curb-weight, which is roughly 400lbs lighter than the street version. The Super Trofeo is stripped out of superfluous amenities like; airbags, roll down windows, carpeting, noise insulation, even the passenger seat. Lamborghini has however chosen to carry-over the all-wheel drive system from the streetcar making it the only one make series car powering all four wheels.

Additions to the car are minimal. A full cage, installed by the factory, a racing seat, 6-point harness and a fire suppression system are added for safety. Slight body modifications are limited to a deeper front air-dam, side skirts, a larger rear spoiler and rear diffuser. Apparently the engineers don’t pay attention to the interweb forums when it comes to wheel sizing. Forgoing “totally sick” for real functionality they left the nineteen and twenty inch wheels to the boy racers at tuner shops. The Super Trofeos all use identical 18 by 10-inch wheels in front with an 18 by 11-inch in the back. Tires are 285mm and 305mm front/rear. The interesting thing to note about tire size is that from the streetcar, the rears only gain 10mm in width, while the fronts gain a staggering 50mm. This is enough to change the handling balance of the car immensely. The road version of the Gallardo is far from an understeering pig, these cars must feel downright tail happy.

If you do want to find out what it is like to race in the Super Trofeo Series, all it takes is money. The grid is full of ProAm and Gentleman drivers from around the world. Two drivers are allowed per car and the championship has separate awards for both professional and amateur drivers. Team points are also calculated to award the best performing car at the end of the season. Race weekends consist of one 30-minute practice session, one 30-minute qualifying session and then three 40-minute sprint races.

Porsche and Ferrari have been improving their cars for years based on lessons learned from racing. Historically, Lamborghini has never been a hardcore racing company lets hope that this is a change that sticks. The cars from Sant’Agata keep getting better with every generation. On the checklist for exotic car manufacturers, racing pedigree is all Lamborghini was missing.