Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT
The Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT is a Gran Turismo racing car in the GT1 group that was developed by Reiter Engineering and the Audi sports department.
history
In 2000, Reiter Engineering brought the Lamborghini Diablo GT, a Lamborghini racing car specially developed for the FIA GT championship , onto the racetrack. As a successor, the Murciélago R-GT based on the Lamborghini Murciélago was developed in 2003 with the support of Audi . In order to adapt the vehicle to the regulations of the FIA and the ACO , the V12 engine from the Murciélago was reduced to six liters and the engine output was throttled by an air flow limiter. In addition, the all-wheel drive had to be removed and the vehicle converted to rear-wheel drive. The curb weight could be reduced to 1,100 kilograms by using body parts made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic . A large rear wing and other aerodynamic parts were attached to the body to improve airflow. The Murciélago R-GT was presented to the public for the first time in 2003 at the IAA in Frankfurt am Main and offered to customer teams for sale at a price of EUR 500,000.
At the last round of the FIA GT Championship in Monza in 2003 , Reiter Engineering brought the Murciélago R-GT to the racetrack for the first time. Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen completed the first qualifying with the vehicle, but did not participate in the race. At the second round of the FIA GT Championship in Valencia in 2004 , Reiter Engineering took part in a race for the first time. Oliver Gavin and Peter Kox immediately achieved a podium finish with third place. In the last four races of the season in the FIA GT Championship, DAMS was the first customer team to field two Murciélago R-GTs, but had technical problems and did not score any points. The Murciélago R-GT also found its way to the United States, where Krohn-Barbour Racing initially fielded one and later also a second Murciélago R-GT in the American Le Mans Series . However, there were no successes as the vehicles proved to be less stable. DAMS and Krohn-Barbour Racing therefore ended their involvement with the Murciélago R-GT at the end of the season.
Reiter Engineering used the Murciélago R-GT in 2005 in some races of the FIA-GT championship. However, the lack of reliability prevented good results and so the eighth place of Peter Kox and Gianni Morbidelli in Oschersleben , which brought in a championship point, was the only countable success. In the same year, Reiter Engineering also started its vehicle in the 1000-kilometer Monza race as part of the Le Mans Series . In this race, Peter Kox and Norman Simon demonstrated the potential of the Murciélago R-GT and were in the lead within their class, but retired less than an hour before the end of the race due to engine failure. JLOC from the Japanese GT Championship also competed in the same race, but could not finish the race either.
In the FIA GT Championship, Reiter Engineering competed under the name of its sponsors from 2006, initially as the B-Racing RS Line Team and later as All-Inkl.com Racing . Again the team had to record several failures. The best result was the sixth place for Christophe Bouchut and Peter Kox in the second race in Brno . Only two more points followed, which were achieved by two eighth places in Dijon and on the Hungaroring . Reiter Engineering also started the 1000 kilometer race at Spa-Francorchamps , in which, however, only one lap could be completed. In the same year , the Murciélago R-GT in the hands of JLOC drivers Marco Apicella , Kōji Yamanishi and Yasutaka Hinoi made its debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours . The race was not easy for JLOC, but the team stayed in the race for a long time. Nevertheless, JLOC was not classified as the Murciélago R-GT could not finish the last lap.
For the 2007 season, Reiter Engineering revised the Murciélago R-GT, which decidedly improved reliability. This effort soon paid off when Christophe Bouchut and Stefan Mücke won the opening race of the FIA GT Championship in Zhuhai and thus achieved their first race victory with a Murciélago R-GT. A second place at the third run in Bucharest was followed by a few more points, so that Reiter Engineering was able to achieve seventh place in the team classification. Marco Apicella, Kōji Yamanishi and Atsushi Yogō started again for JLOC in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but did not get more than one lap.
From 2008 Reiter Engineering no longer competed under its own name with its Murciélago R-GT, but instead concentrated on supporting the Russian team IPB Spartak Racing . After a rather weak start to the season in the FIA GT Championship, a total of eight points were achieved in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race alone . The Spartak Racing drivers Jan Lammers , Peter Kox, Roman Russinow and Tomáš Enge were already in fourth place after twelve hours and finally fifth in their class at the end of the race. At the following two races in Budapest it was possible to score again and so the team reached eighth place in the team classification. In the same year, IPB Spartak Racing also contested the Le Mans Series, in which the team reached the podium in three of the five races of the season and finally took third place in the team standings. IPB Spartak Racing was the only team with a Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT to take part in the Le Mans 24-hour race . However, the race did not go smoothly for Peter Kox, Mike Hezemans and Roman Russinow and so it happened that at the end of the race they were exactly one lap missing to be included in the classification.
IPB Spartak Racing achieved a class victory for the first time at the season opener of the Le Mans Series 2009 with Roman Russinow and Peter Kox. This was followed by second class place in the 1000 kilometer race of Spa-Francorchamps by Peter Kox, Filip Salaquarda and Erik Janiš . IPB Spartak Racing then ended its involvement with the Murciélago R-GT after only two races this season. Due to the lack of competition, these two results were enough to defend third place in the team standings. The Japanese team JLOC returned in 2009 with a Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in which Atsushi Yogo, Yutaka Yamagishi and Marco Apicella, however, retired after only one lap. Participation in the newly founded Asian Le Mans Series , which was held in two races in Okayama , was more successful for the team . Atsushi Yogo and Hiroyuki Iiri achieved class victory in the first race and achieved second class position in the second race, thus winning the championship in the GT1 class.
Thanks to this success, JLOC qualified for the 2010 Le Mans 24-hour race. In 2010, Reiter Engineering presented the successor model Murciélago LP670 R-SV for the new FIA GT1 World Championship .
