DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Launched at Goodwood this summer, Lamborghini aims for its new Temerario GT3 to be a new halo, flagship GT car for the iconic Italian brand.
And by new, they mean it. It’s literally all-new as the first car Lamborghini Squadra Corse has built from scratch as its own motorsport entity.
By Tony DiZinno, IMSA
The spine and chassis of the venerable Huracán GT3 Evo2 – the first iteration of which that debuted in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2016 – shares its origin from the previous era Audi R8 LMS GT3 within the Volkswagen Group portfolio of products.
The Temerario, by contrast, will be Lamborghini’s first to be entirely designed, developed and built at its Sant’Agata Bolognese factory in Italy.
“We’re now developing for the first time in Squadra Corse an entire new race car without a sister car,” said Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr. “The Temerario GT3, for sure, some people ask if you’ve also had in the past the GT3 car. Yes, it’s true, but the origin of the Huracán was with a sister car and then we made the evolution.
“Now the cars are completely different if you compare the Huracán to the sister car. But with the Temerario GT3, for the first time, we enter with a completely new car developed by us and the requirements on the GT3 category have grown a lot in the last years.”
The Temerario GT3 is on track to make its North American debut during the November IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway, primarily for homologation and regulatory preparations before an anticipated race debut at the March 2026 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
As Maurizio Leschiutta, Lamborghini head of motorsport explained, the importance of nailing the November 2025 test deadline is to lock the car in for the future.
“We need to bring the car to the sanctioned test in Nov. 15-16 because IMSA needs to see how all the scrutineering system works,” Leschiutta said. “There is no sanctioned test before Sebring (in 2026) so it really is the one shot for them to say, ‘OK, we understand what we’ll need to do the homologation and BoP (Balance of Performance) before we start Sebring in a fair way.’
“We want to start in a fair way. We understand the BoP is a tool used to balance the performance and we want to help IMSA and the other governing bodies as much as possible to have a fair balance of the cars. It’s important for us to be at the November at the sanctioned test.”
Speaking of Sebring, Leschiutta also confirmed that Lamborghini will run a private test at Sebring International Raceway after the IMSA-sanctioned Daytona test.
“It’s clocked about 5,000 kms all in. Our target is to reach close to 10,000 by the end of this year,” he said. “Right now it’s run in Vallelunga, it’s run at Imola, it’s run at Mugello, Misano and we have upcoming tests in Misano, in Barcelona, Paul Ricard and we are also targeting to do an endurance test at Sebring on top of the sanctioned test.”
Testing is one thing, but getting the new Temerario GT3 to its teams is another. As Mohr outlined, the biggest hurdle the company will face is developing and producing enough new chassis. The Huracán GT3 Evo2 will still be very much present in 2026, however for what races and with which teams remains to be seen.
“There may be even more than one or two races (where there will be a gap),” Mohr said. “At the moment, it’s clear that luckily our street cars are quite attractive and the people are buying them. It’s clear that the street cars have priority one regarding production capacity.
“Since our race car is also taking care of the capacity of the production volume, we have a limited factor of cars that we can build for next year. How we make the decision? We take it together with the board based on a strategic basis.
“What are the most important race series for us? IMSA for sure is one of them. It’s clear that here we’ll see the Temerario. Then we check, ‘OK, how many cars do we need for this race series to support our most supported teams.’ And avoiding as much as possible – it will not be avoidable everywhere – but a direct competition between the old and the new one. But it will not be avoidable, I can tell you this already in advance because we will not have enough cars for the beginning of the next season to manage all the needs.”
In 2025, Pfaff Motorsports, Wayne Taylor Racing and Forte Racing have run the Huracán GT3 Evo2 in WeatherTech Championship competition in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD). WTR scored the GTD win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Pfaff (third in GTD PRO at Detroit) and Forte (second in GTD at Road America) have a podium apiece this season.
The other variable with the new Temerario is when its new Super Trofeo variant will come into play. That is intended to follow initial GT3 production and is earmarked for 2027.
“The Super Trofeo is on track. The only thing is for sure there, the production volume is even a bigger challenge,” Mohr said. “To manage that with all of the teams and all of the cars on the grid. We still have to sit together in the company to manage this transition. The GT3 is a little bit easier, even if today we already have more requests of people that want to buy the new GT3 Temerario. But this is manageable and explainable.
“For sure on the Super Trofeo we have to do it in a careful way that we are not disappointing our customer base because this is clear. The GT3 is very important for the customer and also for the glory but the customer base of the Super Trofeo is super important for the interface between the street cars and motorsport. Also there, we are aware that we will not disappoint our best customers.”
That may be the phrase that best describes Lamborghini’s future outlook: maintaining commitment to its customers. As an all-new car, the Temerario is going to go through the inevitable learning process throughout its early months. Lamborghini is working diligently to ensure as much is ironed out on the front end before a larger deployment.
“The car is really entirely new. The drivetrain, everything is new. So it’s clear that in the beginning you want to sort out our problems before we go in the distribution to too many customers,” Mohr said.
“At the end of the day we want to fulfill the expectations to Lamborghini and not disappoint the people.”
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