According to Racer magazine, Lamborghini hasn’t officially said yes to joining the LMDh class in global endurance racing, but folks behind the scenes have green-lit the project and an announcement could come next month. Publicly, the brand’s head of motorsport for the U.S. said work on a factory endurance program is “90% of the way there,” the remainder to be sorted out by finding the right customer teams to lead the charge. Assuming this is what happens, Lamborghini will join Volkswagen Group siblings Audi and Porsche in the class, plus Acura and BMW. Cadillac hasn’t made its intentions public, but observers expect the American luxury brand to come clean during this month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and show its LMDh challenger. Hyundai’s apparently on the sidelines and leaning in, too. If all are counted, this would give the premier class for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seven entries come 2024, and potentially add to the top-class LMH field in the FIA World Endurance Championship .
As a refresher, there are two top-tier classes coming to global endurance racing. There’s Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) that begins in IMSA next year, and Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) that started competing in the WEC on May 1 this year. LMDh cars use a spec chassis provided by one of four suppliers, Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic, or Oreca. LMDh teams can use any engine and electronics they want, but they will all fit a spec hybrid unit supplied by Bosch, a spec lithium-ion battery from Williams Engineering and a spec gearbox from Xtrac. Max horsepower will be limited to about 680. Audi and Porsche opted for a Multimatic chassis powered by a turbocharged V8, and Lamborghini is expected to follow its family members. Every team can create its own bodywork, the limit being a 4:1 ratio of drag to downforce and a single aero package for the year to keep costs down.
The LMH class is based on roadgoing hypercars, a manufacturer required to sell 20 of the retail hypercars over a two-year period to qualify. Although output’s capped to around 680 hp as with LMDh, manufacturers can develop their own engines, gearboxes and hybrid systems. Discrete bodywork is allowed with the same drag-to-downforce ratio limit.
There will be balance-of-performance restrictions imposed on LMDh and LMH fields, and measures such as torque meters mounted on driveshafts to monitor overall output of each powertrain. So far, the LMH class includes new offerings from Glickenhaus and Toyota, alongside a grandfathered Alpine LMP1 car. Peugeot and ByKolles will enter the field next year and Ferrari the year after that, really long odds suggesting that Peugeot could race stateside as a Dodge. If all of these teams show up with two cars, 2024 could have 24 cars competing in the top class.
A Lamborghini project would give Audi and Porsche two years to gather the racing infrastructure and intelligence on the series. The knowledge helps the cause at Sant’Agata, but the delay is one of the challenges; Lamborghini needs to find a customer team willing to spend two years on the sidelines before the 2024 entry. The Squadra Corse said it’s more likely to move up to the top with one of its customer GT teams racing the Huracan GT3 now, but there its in talks with prototype teams as well.
Related Video:
