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Lamborghini Super Trofeo series will rent you a race car for $35k, all expenses included

Racing isn't cheap. The cars often command six-figure price sums, race teams don't work for free and then you have to get the car to races while feeding it an endless supply of tires. It's no surprise then that owning a race team is a multimillion-dollar affair, but Lamborghini and its North American Blancpain Super Trofeo series is a new way for licensed racers to get behind the wheel of a racecar for a much lower price.
As a part of the single-make series, Lamborghini will supply racers with everything you need for competition - including a race-spec Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo - as well as a trackside hospitality experience... all for a relatively affordable $35,000 per race weekend. Of course, not just anyone with a spare $35,000 can hop behind the wheel and hit the track. Lamborghini says that all drivers must have an FIA-accredited racing license for the International Motor Sport Association category with a "C" or "D" rating.
When it comes to the actual racing, there will be two 60-minute practice sessions, 40 minutes of qualifying and two 50-minute races, meaning that these cars might be the most expensive rental cars ever at $8,700 per hour. In its inaugural season, the Super Trofeo will run in conjunction with two Grand-Am races, two America Le Mans Series races, an IMSA race in Canada and finally an IndyCar race weekend in California.

Lamborghini debuting limited-edition hypercar soon?

Rumor, anonymous sources, and Internet probing point to Lamborghini preparing a new limited-edition hypercar in the vein of the Centenario, Veneno, and Sesto Elemento. At the Frankfurt Motor Show last year, the carmaker's head of R&D told Car Advice, "Soon we will present to our most important customers a new version of what we call a one-off." The Supercar Blog reports Lamborghini did just that a few weeks ago at a private event in Italy. An anonymous source said the vehicle is codenamed LB48H, and looks like the 2017 Terzo Millennio concept. Assuming all of this is true, whatever's coming won't be a genuine one-off. Remember, the Sant' Agata brand made 40 Centenarios, four Venenos, and 20 Sesto Elementos. The only true one-off for recent sale was the 2012 Aventador J. According to The Supercar Blog, Lamborghini will make 63 of this newest revelation. We checked the production runs for every Lamborghini, no previous model got exactly 63 units. But the company started production in 1963 with the 350 GTV. The same way the Centenario referenced the 100th anniversary of Feruccio Lamborghini's birth, the LB48H could celebrate the company's beginnings in the second millennium — a natural tie-in with the Terzo Millennio (Third Millennium) inspiration. The name, and an Instagram post, bolster suspicions. Lamborghini's already said the next-gen Aventador due in 2020 and Huracan due in 2022 will get naturally-aspirated engines with hybrid power. We also know alphanumeric Lamborghini vehicle names identify aspects of the car. In the hybrid Asterion LPI 910-4 concept from 2014, the LP stood for longintudinale posteriore, as with current production models, the I stood for the Italian word for hybrid, Ibrido, the 910 for the horsepower. With the LB48H, we take the the L we know, we'll take the H for Hybrid. So what do the B and 48 represent? On June 18, Miguel Costa, who appears to head Lamborghini's Lisbon, Portugal dealership, published an Instagram post that said, "We made it possible! Soon!" For hashtags, he wrote, #masterpiece, #lamborghini, #lamborghinilisboa, and #lb48h. The #masterpiece and #lb48h hashtags soon disappeared from the post. When Jalopnik asked Lamborghini about the situation, the automaker said, "We are not confirming this." The Italian automaker uses these specials to preview design and technology elements headed for the range; the Centenario introduced rear-wheel steering that made its way to the Aventador S, for instance.

Lamborghini confirms Le Mans Daytona hybrid entry for 2024

Last August, Racer magazine reported that Lamborghini had green-lit a project to put a car in global endurance racing's Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) class, but wasn't ready to announce it yet. The brand's head of motorsport for the U.S. said at the time that work on a factory endurance program was "90 percent of the way there." Now, the last 10 percent has been completed, and the Sant' Agata Bolognese carmaker announced its LMDh car will start racing in 2024. The class, developed by the U.S. IMSA organization in collaboration with France's ACO, begins competing next year. Here's the refresher on the top to endurance racing categories, LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), both of which are allowed to run in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. 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 is limited to about 680. VW sister brand Porsche opted for a Multimatic chassis powered by a turbocharged V8. Sportscar365 believes Lamborghini will buy a Ligier chassis. Since the R8 and its V10 are headed for the dustbin, Lamborghini could use a V8 as well. Every team creates 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. As the teaser shows, Lamborghinis on the track will be known by their Y-shaped DRL signatures, too.  Audi had been planning an LMDh entry, but dropped out when it confirmed its eventual entry into Formula 1. So for the moment, Lamborghini will join other LMDh manufacturers Acura, Alpine — which will switch from its current LMH car to LMDh in 2024, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche. That latter brand is also going into F1, but hasn't axed any other programs. 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, held to the same drag-to-downforce ratio limit. The current LMH entries are Alpine, our own Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, and Toyota.