Lamborghini Temerario Ditches Hybrid To Go Racing

If you’d been put off the new Lamborghini Temerario by the fact that it’s gone hybrid, then we have good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s now a non-hybrid version. The bad news is that it’s built just for GT3 racing, so unless you want to jump through many, many hoops, you can’t use it for posing around Knightsbridge.

The Temerario GT3 arrives to replace the massively successful but now quite old Huracan GT3, and gets the same 10,000rpm-capable 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 as the road car (and should sound quite a lot better without having to deal with production car noise rules, too). Gone, though, is its electrified front axle, because GT3 rules don’t allow for hybrid systems. That also means that, per those regulations, the Temerario GT3 is rear-drive only.

The engine’s got new, smaller turbochargers to help reduce the 789bhp it makes in roadgoing form to 542bhp. Wild times we live in when road engines are having to be significantly detuned to meet racing regulations. It’s paired up with a six-speed racing gearbox as opposed to the road car’s eight-speed dual-clutch.

Despite losing more than 350bhp over the peak output of the road car, though, the GT3 will probably still show it a thing or two around a track. The usual slick tyre and stripped-out interior treatment will see to that, as will all that shiny new aero and carbon composite bodywork. It’s also rolling on new six-way adjustable KW dampers.

The chassis is the same aluminium spaceframe as the road car, but tweaked to allow for the quick removal and reattachment of subframes and with a roll cage integrated. All the mounting points for the now-absent hybrid gubbins have been thrown in the bin, too.

Designed to run in pretty much any series that allows GT3 machinery to run, Lambo’s planning a first competitive outing for the Temerario GT3 at the 12 Hours of Sebring next March. Before long, it should take over the mantle entirely from the old V10 Huracan, although Lambo says it’s committed to ongoing support for customer teams still running the old car. So, excited to see it running alongside Toyota’s upcoming extra-long GT3 racer?