I am an owner, so this isn't to discredit, but . . .

Shouldn't Lamborghini have to prove itself on the racetrack sometime?

Having the ALMS team drop out because of lack of commitment from the factory doesn't show much real confidence in the company or the competitiveness of their machines. Are we more than a very pretty face, when it comes to serious competition?

Just a thought . . .

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Alex Moseley

Well,

the factory isn't directly involved with racing. The job was done by Reiter Engineering in Germany.
Remember back, Reiter was the company which developped the Diablo GT #2 into a FIA GT Car, they know what they do, but looking at the Level FIA GT and ALMS has nowadays it's hard to be competetive against all these factory-supported teams.
Remember also that also Prodrive needed almost 2 years to turn the Maranello into a winning car, the italian company which had the order of the F-Factory to produce a car failed completely.

Anyway, I would prefer to have a Gallardo Challenge instead of wasting big money in FIA GT. The Challenge could have the same impact as on the F-Cars, special Models like the CS, improved reliability more hp and so on.
Racing with more or less stock cars is always better than building real race cars, these are too much away from production and therefore have only a very low influence on produced cars.

Raymond

I admit I know nothing about the various racing alliances and official sanctions past or present. But wouldn't it be healthy to see Lamborghini or a privately sponsored team compete seriously and confirm their high-powered reputation beyond very elegant street racer?

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Alex Moseley

Alex,

I don't agree, look at Audi in the ALMS, they win everything but nobody here in Europe is interested in this. Where as BMW and Alfa battle against each other in the European Touring Cars Challenge which is well reputated.
At the moment there is also to many political trouble in the FIA GT series, Ferrari pushes the Maserati MC12 which is nothing else than an Enzo with another body, of course the others have no chance against this car.
Having such cars back in FIA GT the cost will explode like years ago in the Group C.
As soon as factories are directly involved the politics starts and in the end the winner is the one who can spend the most money and/or has the best connection to the organizer to get a reglement which fits best to your cars. See Formula 1 as example, as soon as there is a proposed reglement change which Ferrari doesn't like they threat to leave Formula 1...

That's the reason why I like marque's challenge like the Modena Challenge and many others (Madza MX-5, Renault Clio/Megane, Maserati Trofeu) everyone has the same car, that's racing not a money destroying machine.

Raymond

Read an article last week which said that the DAMS team in FIA GT is also threatening to pull out unless Lamborghini put more into development of the R-GT. They want some improvements by the end of October!!

I would actually derive more personal satisfaction (and pride) going out and destroying some companies street derivative on the street (or at least knowing I could) than watching a far removed machine do it on TV. Racing hertitage is great, don't get me wrong. However if you go out on the street and get your ass stomped by a LAMBO, racing heritage is pretty useless...

Well Said JRV. Most Of The Time Track Cars Or True Race Cars Have Little Incomin With Street Cars.
Mike