LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO R-GT 1

There are few categories throughout motor sport history that produced so many legendary cars as the GT1 class. It gave its legions of fans cars such as the McLaren F1 GTR, Mercedes CLK GTR, Maserati MC12, Porsche 911 GT1 and many more. However, one car that flies under the radar is arguably the best sounding of them all, and is certainly one of the most aesthetically dramatic. That car is the sensaitonal Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT. Raced throughout GT1's most competitive era, the R-GT not only competed against, but on occasion conquered the might of Maserati and Aston Martin in both the FIA GT and Japan’s Super GT championships. 

 

Back in the early 1990s Japanese Lamborghini Owners Club (JLOC) founder Isao Noritake decided he wanted to go racing with his favorite manufacturer, and after a self-developed Countach proved rather inadequate, he persuaded Lamborghini to produce a Diablo GT1 racer for. Just a single example was built in Sant'Agata and saw action in Japan's domestic Grand Touring Championship. Soon after the Volkswagen Audi Group purchased Lamborghini, it was decided to make motorsport a key element of the brand's identity. The FIA’s immensely popular GT1 class was chosen, and jointly developed by Audi Sport and Reiter Engineering, the Murcielago-based R-GT was unveiled at the 2003 Frankfurt Auto Show. JLOC immediately placed orders, purchasing four in total. On top of full Super GT campaigns the small but passionate team set their sights on the biggest race of them all, the Le Mans 24 Hours. The remaining chassis were split between Barber Krohn Racing in America, DAMS and IPB Spartak in Europe.

 

With a total of three class wins and a further two class podiums in major championships (Le Mans Series, FIA GT, American Le Mans Series) over its lifespan in GT1, the Murcielago R-GT was proven against the best. Lamborghini racing cars in general are rare since the marque didn’t go racing until the 1990s, but GT1 examples are even more so with just 16 existing across the Diablo and Murcielago models. History would have many believe that the R-GT was not the most successful version of the Lamborghini’s GT1 cars, but what it does not tell you is that the R-GT produced significantly faster lap times in period compared to its later R-SV successor. This is due to it participating in the fastest era of GT1, whereas the later R-SV raced in an era when performance had been reigned in through a balance of performance process.