Lamborghini Previews New Huracán Super Trofeo

The arrival of the new Huracán is big news for Lamborghini, replacing the company's long-serving Gallardo. Not only had the previous V10 supercar been on the market since 2003 (admittedly with significant updates along the way), it also served as the backbone for the Super Trofeo series. Now it's time, however, for the Huracán to take over on the racetrack, too.

Previewed in the teaser image above wearing military camo, the new Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo has undergone its first shakedown at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome. Giorgio Sanna – who took over as Lamborghini's chief R&D test driver after the retirement of the legendary Valentino Balboni – led the test session, accompanied by factory pilots Adrian Zaugg and Fabio Babini and members of the company's driver development program.

The Huracán Super Trofeo will be phased in across all three of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo series around the world, including Europe, Asia and North America. Drivers not ready to upgrade to the new machinery, however, will still be able to race their Gallardos in a separate class – similar to how arch-rival Ferrari has phased in new models in its similar Challenge series.

Lamborghini Gets To Work On Huracán LP610-4 Super Trofeo

We all know the story of how Automobili Lamborghini got its start. The short of it is that Ferruccio, who had already started a successful tractor business, wanted to stick it to Enzo Ferrari, so he started making sports cars of his own. Lamborghini, however, never embraced motorsports to the same degree that Ferrari has – dabbling in Formula One engines in the early '90s and the occasional foray into GT racing – but these days the Raging Bull marque is getting more serious about racing. It partners with Reiter Engineering to field competition versions of its road-going supercars, and organizes its own one-make series with individual championships around the world.

That's where the new Huracán comes in. While the Ferrari Challenge has progressed from the 348 to the 355, 360, 430 and now the 458, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo has always been centered around the Gallardo. That's because the series only kicked off in 2009, and the Gallardo had been in production since 2003. But now that the Gallardo has been replaced by the Huracán, the Squadra Corse team is hard at work on their new Super Trofeo racer.

To that end, Lamborghini has recruited racing drivers Fabio Babini and Adrian Zaugg to conduct development work on the Huracán LP 610-4 Super Trofeo. Babini is a GT racing veteran who took a class win at Le Mans in 2001, while Zaugg came up the formula racing ladder, competing on A1GP and GP2 before signing on as a Lamborghini factory driver.

They car they'll be working on will be a stripped-out, track-tuned racing version of the new Huracán, retaining its 5.2-liter V10 to drive the same 602 horsepower to all four wheels. It could ditch the heavy dual-clutch gearbox in favor of a lighter, more hardcore sequential gearbox, and will likely pack a tighter, lower suspension, upgraded brakes, more extreme aero and other competition-spec goodies. The resulting racer will serve as the backbone for individual championships in Europe, Asia and North America. In the meantime, Lambo has taken the Huracán to the track for the Lamborghini Accademia, pictured above.