Want to be a Lamborghini racing driver? Now's your chance

Um, sort of. If you have the sufficient funds and talent, you - yes you - can purchase this ready-to-go Lamborghini Super Trofeo racer. So, by definition... 

Lamborghinis, as you might already know, are not the first manufacturer that you associate with racing. Going fast? Of course. But going fast around with a professional behind the wheel? Not so much.

Well, if you believe the history, it’s because Ferruccio Lamborghini never wanted his cars to go racing. The story goes that he didn’t like the Ferrari business model of making road cars to support a racing team, nor did he like the fact that Ferrari road cars of the time tended to have highly strung, histrionic racing engines in them instead of the more tractable, road-ready engines he wanted in his cars. 

It’s a little ironic, if you think about it, in that Ferruccio’s team of engineers, scooped up after the fracas over at Ferrari, were all racing-mad. The V12 they produced – yes, that one, that continued to serve all the way through to the Murcielago SV – was apparently exactly what Ferruccio didn’t want: high-revving and race-ready. Thankfully, he eventually acquiesced and the rest is history. 

Lots of reasons, really – Ferruccio gave up his controlling hand in the company back in the 1970s and retired to Perugia. Lamborghini Automobili then went bankrupt, foundered and was then revived, then went through a period under Chrysler ownership. 

It was during the Chrysler period that racing really began in earnest, in a very large and expensive fashion: Formula 1. All of a sudden, Lamborghini’s V12-building prowess was put to the test in Formula 1. And, although the power and the sound were good, the results were… less so. The fantastic-looking Countach QVX followed in the 1980s, but a lack of money to support its racing campaign meant that race wins were never on the cards.   

Finally, in 1996, the Diablo SV-R kicked the racing car gambit off properly, with Lambo creating the Super Trofeo one-make series and entering a series of short-course and endurance events. From then on, Lamborghinis have been common contenders in circuit racing – much to the aural enjoyment of anyone within earshot. 

Spot on. It’s called the Huracán LP620-2 Super Trofeo, and is a 100 per cent race-ready Lamborghini, built in collaboration with Dallara, that you could take home today – if you were in the South Kensington area and had £200,000 burning a rather sizeable hole in your pocket. It had a few races in the Super Trofeo series (Super Trophy, in case you were curious) last year, but has only racked up about 2500 miles. In our opinion, it needs many more. 

As the name suggests, it’s a rear-drive version of the Huracán, with 620 metric horsepowers (about 612bhp) on offer from its 5.2-litre V10. In more good news, the transition from four- to rear-wheel drive, along with a healthy race car diet, means the Super Trofeo weighs 150kg less than the standard car at about 1270kg.

The LP620-2 ST goes quite a bit further than that, however – this is a complete race car.

Absolutely not. But you knew that already. Remember how we said it’s a complete race car? You’re going to have to be both canny and talented enough to get to grips with real racing tech – multifunctional steering wheels that control much more important things than the stereo, centre-lock racing wheels, safety harnesses, manually adjustable suspension and aero, many MOTEC things and enough safety devices to require two airline stewards to explain it. There is a lot to master here and none of it rewards inexperience or hubris. 

That said, there’s a 12-stage ABS system and a nine-stage traction control system; work your way up, get a feel for how the systems are saving you from yourself, and you should be able to stave off about 90 per cent of the disasters that would otherwise transpire from combining 612bhp, rear-drive and a mid-engined layout. 

Believe us – if you try, you can absolutely prang it. While there is ABS and traction control, there’s no electronic stability programme. So if you get it wrong, it’ll stay wrong – either until you fix it or until you find yourself summarily introducing yourself to a crash barrier. 

The good news is that if you can handle it, opportunities in GT3 racing await. So, who’s tempted?

If this doesn't pique your interest, perhaps head this way for TG's review of the Huracán Performante instead...