Lamborghini News

[a007apl]

KUALA LUMPUR March 5 - Experienced German driver Norman Simon has signed a one-year contract to become the new driver for the Malaysian-based Amprex Motorsports racing team.

The 27-year-old, who is the test driver for Lamborghini, partner's Amprex's main driver and team owner Genji Hashimoto in this season's Japan Grand Touring Championship (JGTC) which starts next month.

Hashimoto said as his former partner Charles Kwan of Hong Kong had decided to concentrate on the Porsche Carrera Asia Cup this year, he had to find a new driver.

"Norman has ample racing experience in Europe and the United States as he competed in the British Touring Car Championship, European Touring Car Championship, Formula 3000 and the American Le Mans Series.

"Furthermore was the test driver for Lamborghini last year and since we are also using the Lamborghini engine this season, he was the right choice," he told reporters after the JGTC press briefing here Friday.

Hashimoto said the contract with Simon would be for one year with an option for another.

However, Amprex, the sole Malaysian entry in the Japan GT races, will miss the first two races of the season in Okayama (April 3-4) and Miyagi (May 22-23).

"Our new Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT machine will only be ready by early May and we need some private testings in Europe before taking part in the Japan GT Malaysia round at the Sepang Circuit on June 18 and 19. That's why we had to to skip the first two races," he added.

Amprex will be competing for the first time in the higher class GT500 this season after having raced in the GT300 for the past two seasons in a BMW M3GT.

Meanwhile, Grand Touring Association (GT-A) project manager for the Pacific region, Masaki Tanzawa, said they will seriously focus on promoting the Japan GT races, starting this year.

"We will be creating news values for the Malaysian fans by sponsoring local reporters to cover the six events in Japan. With the coverage, we hope to draw the interest of the fans in JGTC races," he said.

The JGTC race in Malaysia was held twice in 2001 and 2002 but cancelled last year due to fears of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

The other rounds in Japan are Round Four in Hokkaido (July 17-1, Round Five in Tochigi (Sept 4-5), Round Six in Oita (Oct 30-31) and the final round in Suzuka (Nov 20-21).

[kldconcept]

:shock:

[a007apl]

The Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT racer will make its first appearance of 2004 when Reiter Engineering enter round two of the FIA GT series this coming weekend in Valencia with Oliver Gavin and Peter Kox undertaking driving duties.
Since its debut at the final round of the FIA GT series last year, where it took part in practice sessions before it was withdrawn, the R-GT has undergone substantial revisions, and the 'mark 2' version is believe to have posted highly competitive lap times during recent private test sessions.
The first car will be delivered to French team DAMS, who will be assisting the car's builder, Reiter Engineering, during the Spanish race. British pilot Oliver Gavin is to drive the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT and will share the driving with Dutchman Peter Kox.

This will not be the first time Gavin has driven a Lamborghini with Kox, the pair having raced a Diablo before for the Reiter Engineering team. Gavin's relationship with Reiter goes back many years, in fact back to his season in 1996 with Opel Team Joest in the ITC.

'Hans Reiter phoned me a couple of weeks ago and asked whether I could help them out. I cleared it with GM and said I would be delighted. Peter and I were due to race the Murcielago together at the end of last season but it didn't work out,' said Oliver Gavin.

'Valencia should suit the car and, whilst this is only really a test before they deliver customer cars, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm sure Peter and I will enjoy it. It will be nice to do something different and experience another championship.'

'Hans and his team have worked really hard on this project and it will be good to see it all come to fruition. I can't really compare the car with my normal racing for Corvette as the ALMS and FIA GT specifications are very different," concluded Gavin.

[stradale]

Dutch car magazine Autovisie had an excellent article a while ago on the developement of the R-GT. The writer (and the magazine) knows Peter Kox pretty well, so he could even drive a couple of laps during testing sessions. As far as I know it's the only time a journalist drove an R-GT.

[a007apl]

Originally Posted by stradale Dutch car magazine Autovisie had an excellent article a while ago on the developement of the R-GT. The writer (and the magazine) knows Peter Kox pretty well, so he could even drive a couple of laps during testing sessions. As far as I know it's the only time a journalist drove an R-GT.

will you scan?

[stradale]

My dad has the article, so the next time I visit my parents I could try and scan it at their place.

I tried scanning with my dad's scanner before, but each time I got ridiculously large files. even though I used 150 dpi and JPEG format. So I hope I can get it to work...

[a007apl]

Originally Posted by stradale My dad has the article, so the next time I visit my parents I could try and scan it at their place. I tried scanning with my dad's scanner before, but each time I got ridiculously large files. even though I used 150 dpi and JPEG format. So I hope I can get it to work...

I hope too

[a007apl]

Krohn–Barbour Racing has confirmed its driver line-up for the two Lamborghini Murciélago R-GTs it will race in the 2004 American Le Mans Series (ALMS). David Brabham and Peter Kox will pilot car number five whilst joint team owner Tracy Krohn will drive car number six with Scott Maxwell. Both Lamborghini race cars are due to make their debut in the GTS class at the Mid-Ohio round of the ALMS in June. Australian David Brabham is a veteran of the ALMS series and the Le Mans 24 Hours. After four years racing for Panoz Motorsport he drove for Team Bentley during 2003 at the Sebring 12 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours and won the Daytona Prototype Class at the Rolex 24 Hours. Dutchman Peter Kox has competed extensively in both European touring car and international endurance series, most recently recording a GTS class win at the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS and taking podium places in all three ALMS races entered in 2002. Kox also undertook testing during development of the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT on behalf of Reiter Engineering, which has developed and built the car in conjunction with Audi Sport. Kox previously drove a Lamborghini Diablo GTR for Reiter Engineering in the 2001 FIA GT Championship. Joint team owner and businessman Tracy Krohn will pilot the second car alongside professional driver Scott Maxwell. Tracy Krohn graduated from the Panoz Racing School to race in the Panoz GT Pro Series, taking second position overall in 2003. Maxwell’s career has spanned open wheel series as well as sports car and endurance racing. He won the LMP 675 class at the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours as well as the 2002 Grand-Am Cup Series. “We’re extremely pleased to be campaigning this line-up of exceptional drivers, who will each contribute to bringing out the full potential of the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GTs,� said team owner Dick Barbour. “Each driver brings experience of driving in relevant series and taking podium positions. Each shares the philosophy of Krohn-Barbour Racing: we’re not here to make up the numbers and we go racing to win championships!� No stranger to winning himself, the 2004 inception of Krohn-Barbour Racing marks Dick Barbour’s return to team ownership, following his ALMS LMP 675 class championship title in 2001 and his ALMS GT class championship in 2000. Barbour drove to three victories himself in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1978, ’79 and ’80, and has also celebrated three Sebring 12 Hours wins as an owner and one as a driver. Krohn-Barbour Racing will run the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GTs from premises at Road Atlanta, Georgia, with factory support from Automobili Lamborghini. A team of Krohn-Barbour technicians will spend time at Reiter Engineering in Germany prior to the next ALMS race.

[stradale]

Originally Posted by a007apl Originally Posted by stradale My dad has the article, so the next time I visit my parents I could try and scan it at their place. I tried scanning with my dad's scanner before, but each time I got ridiculously large files. even though I used 150 dpi and JPEG format. So I hope I can get it to work... I hope too

This weekend I visited my parents and I got it to work. The scans are here: http://www.motorworld.net/forum/show...=140338#140338

Sadly it's in Dutch, but there's still enough to enjoy.

While I was at it, I decided to scan a lot more Lambo stuff. I'll be uploading that shortly...

[a007apl]

Lamborghini disembarks in China

"The Lamborghini brand is present in beyond twenty Countries, but soon it will be known also from new the rich ones of China: to june in fact the House of Sant' Agate, of property of the German Audios and guided from the president Werner Mischke participates for before the time to the Hall of Beijing.

In the occasion the name of the first official concessionaire Lamborghini in China will be rendered famous.

For Lamborghini confirmation therefore the trend positive that has seen the House to catch up just the record of sales in 2003, with the delivery of 1305 cars uniforms between "Murcilago" and "Gallardo", with a turnover of beyond 200 million euro"

[a007apl]

Regarding Lamborghini's future plans, information are rare. There a plenty of rumours but less certain facts. Relatively safe is that there are crank shafts of more powerful Gallardo V10 engines that do their rounds on the test rigs in Germany and Italy. Rates of over 600hp seem no problem and certain to come in a few years. This also raises the question what will happen with the Murcielago. Its current V12 generates 550hp but a 600hp Gallardo would force the Italians to upgrade the power of their biggest model as well. For that, the 1001hp Bugatti engine does not come into question, in contrast to specs of about 700hp.
On the other hand, all these measures on the engine side are going to come later. Before, we surly will see evolutions of current Lambo models. Roadsters for instance. Despite that designation, they will surly be cars in targa-style. Says, instead of a folding top, they will possess a detachable roof panel. And, also lightweight versions of both the Gallardo and the Murcielago are safe to come soon. Taking the image of the Italian Audi division into account, they are expected to become uncompromising radical sports cars, conceived to surpass any Stradale or GT3.

Apart from the sports car sector, there too were rumours that said the Audi division plans an SUV. Easy thing because, they could fall back on either the Porsche Cayenne/ VW Touareg platform or, its Audi Pikes Peak/A7 modification or, Maserati's possibly A8-based aluminium off roader but, currently it doesn't seem that Audi intends to rival itself, Porsche or anyone else on this sector. However, Lambo considers a third model line but there are no decision concerning it so far. A four seater GT with the Murcielago V12 engine in the front is the most likely future Lamborghini whereas the second option, a smaller entry model - as we showed in 2001- doesn't appear probable.

[a007apl]

Acording to automobile Magazine Lamborghini will be comming out with some new models and variations of the Gallardo.
Gallardo Varations:

Rear will drive Competition model later this year

Barchetta 2005

550 hp GT model 2007

Brand New models:

a high performance All road crossover vehical 2010

And Mabey a an Enzo rival or a Espada replacement acording to Automobile Magazine

[a007apl]

Lamborghini to Unveil Murciélago Barchetta in Monterey, California


The Concorso Italiano is an annual car show held in Monterey , California , which focuses on cars of Italian origin (plus other exotic cars). The event takes place on Black Horse Golf Course. Held on Friday, August 13 th , 2004, this year's event will exhibit the official United States introduction to the production version of the Lamborghini Murciélago Barchetta. As well as featuring the introduction of the Barchetta, this year's Concorso will also display the Ferrari Dino and Reunion, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta 50 th Anniversary, as well as a focus on the new Maserati Quattroporte. Be sure to see countess other Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and other exotic cars.

[a007apl]

USA: Lamborghini under the impact the publishing company Titus Interactive announced the arkadnyy auto-simulator Lamborghini FX, which for RS and consoles develops the Italian studio Milestone (Racing Evoluzione, Superbike, Screamer Rally). Project entices players not only by the possibility to porulit' by the elegant machines of famous model, but also to into smithereens spread the automobiles of rivals with the aid of is unknown from where the undertaken onboard instruments. Besides this promises the set it is special effect, like the leaps, turns or ride on two wheels. The final goal of aggressively -glamurnogo automobile cruelty - victory in championship Lamborghini World Championship. Reliz of game takes place by future summer.
I use translator (original in Russian)

[a007apl]

19.03.2004 FINALLY IT'S OFFICIAL, ANDREA PICCINI & JEAN-DENIS DELETRAZ WILL DRIVE THE DAMS ENTERED LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO WHEN IT MAKES ITS FIA GT DEBUT AT DONINGTON PARK NEXT MONTH!!

It's finally official, Andrea Piccini and Jean-Denis Deletraz, will drive the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT with The DAMS team in FIA GT Championship.
The car will be delivered to the French team by Reiter Engineering the first week of June. This means that the debut is expected on June 27th in Donington.
Jean Denis Deletraz will be teaming up with Andrea Piccini. They competed together in 2002 with the Ferrari 550 Maranello and in 2003, for half a season, with Lister as well.
This strong and united couple, who had the 2002 title at the tip of their fingers, will once again be part of the FIA GT championship.
Andrea Piccini, “I’m very enthusiastic about this agreement. This will be an introductory season for us: we will have to break the car in and we will have to resolve all of the inevitable problems that will come up with such a “young� car. It will be hard work but exciting. I can’t wait to get on track in Donington and to make our debut with the Lamborghini Murcielago.�
Audi will be supporting the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT program with all of its technical knowledge and they will be at hand to update the car as fast as possible. The tyres haven't been chosen yet, but Audi's close collaboration with Michelin, leads speculation that the tyres used will be Michelins.
Once the car is delivered to DAMS, a two day shakedown will be scheduled on the Bugatti track in Le Mans.