Lamborghini has revealed the SC63, the car it has designed to contest the World Endurance Championship from next year.
As part of its entry in the WEC’s Hypercar class, Lamborghini plans to enter two cars at next year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. The SC63 will also race in America’s IMSA series.The chassis was developed by Ligier and styled by Lamborghini’s design department, Centro Stile, to incorporate cues from its Revuelto road car.
Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti have already been confirmed among the marque’s drivers, with more due to be confirmed.
The car is powered by a newly-designed 3.8-litre V8 twin-turbo and a standard hybrid system. The LMDh regulations limit the total power output to a maximum of 500kW.
Lamborghini Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann called the SC63 “the most advanced racing car ever produced by Lamborghini.”
“The opportunity to compete in some of the biggest endurance races in the world with a hybrid prototype fits with our vision for the future of high-performance mobility, as demonstrated for road legal cars with the launch of the Revuelto. The SC63 LMDh is the step into the highest echelons and into the future of motorsports for our Squadra Corse.”
The cars will be run by Iron Lynx. The first track test of the SC63 is due to take place next month.
Iron Lynx team principal and CEO Andrea Piccini said they are “honoured and extremely excited” to “start a new chapter for Iron Lynx with Lamborghini.”
“Everyone at Iron Lynx is eager for testing to get underway. This is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges we’ve ever faced as a team, and we are now looking forward to seeing the SC63 on track.”
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Gallery: Lamborghini SC63 WEC Hypercar
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asd
13th July 2023, 10:54
That’s a decent looking car. I like the side air-inlet design.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
13th July 2023, 11:12
Another fool praying to the ACO gods.
Antz (@antznz)
13th July 2023, 11:59
Looks awesome! Amazing how branded WEC cars can be when they’re mostly a standardized shape..
I’d love to see a car this colour in F1.
Julio Herrera (@)
13th July 2023, 13:09
It looks amazing!!
Marcus (@marcusw)
13th July 2023, 16:39
I do wonder how much the actual aero design is properly developed on these LMDh cars. Obviously there are the usual ‘standard’ elements, and the designers are very much constrained by the chassis dimensions and powertrain layout, but I wonder how much freedom they have to design clever or efficient aero surfaces. How much of this if aesthetic form, and how much is performance enhancing function?
I think it looks fab by the way!
anon
13th July 2023, 17:45
@marcusw it is a combination of both aspects – there are certain specified parameters for the aerodynamics, such as a specified downforce to drag ratio of 4:1, so there will be certain aerodynamic elements which will be designed more for aesthetic form and to help the cars achieve the correct downforce to drag ratio, and some elements that will be designed for performance enhancement.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
13th July 2023, 17:52
They have a very specified target for aero efficiency in LMDh, downforce to drag ratio of 4:1.They have 5 “boxes” of freedom to design around the spec LMP2 chassis to create the brand identity but as far as aero performance goes, by rule, these bits will not have any better effect than what any other manufacturer can come up with.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
13th July 2023, 17:53
Ninjad.
Coventry Climax
13th July 2023, 16:50
Kvyat and Grosjean! Great! Crashes and fireworks!
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
13th July 2023, 17:59
Looks like a lambo
Coventry Climax
14th July 2023, 17:36
Not for much longer. The FIA will prohibit the use of outlandish, disrespectful colors as of the next race.
Qeki (@qeki)
13th July 2023, 19:19
Nobody expects them to beat Ferrari but imagine the scenes at southern france if it will Ferrari v Lambo. It will be a new legendary Le mans story
Tony M
14th July 2023, 9:17
They move Le Mans then?
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
14th July 2023, 9:20
Wait Le mans is in the south of France !!
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
13th July 2023, 19:57
So there’s a specified drag/downforce ratio, maximum power output level and BoP.
I assume (in the glory of my pessimism) that minimum weight is also nothing to encourage spending.
So basically it’s a merry-go-round of winning today, getting heavier, losing tomorrow? Everybody’s happy?
Or do I miss any differentiating factors?
Coventry Climax
13th July 2023, 21:43
Nope, that sums it up quite nicely.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
13th July 2023, 23:47
Seems like the rest of society now. Neatly packaged “sport” designed for the casual fan and the exposure of the manufacturers. I want to be interested because of all the shiny different looking cars, but comments like this bring me back to reality.
kpcart
14th July 2023, 4:30
What the hell you talking about. Atleast the best drivers come to the fore. F1 could do with some BoP, as it is a neatly packaged “sport” with one team only ever able to win and DRS for passinh lol
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
14th July 2023, 5:48
Not sure how BoP helps the best drivers come to the fore.
Spec series do, I guess – but for some reason here we are on ex-f1fanatic, not on f2 or indy forums
anon
14th July 2023, 16:31
@minilemm there is a minimum specified weight of 1030kg for the cars. Additionally, with respect to the engines, it is not just the peak power that is proscribed; the overall shape of the power curve is broadly dictated by the ACO.
However, with respect to differentiating factors, the flip side of the engine regulations is that the regulations are also extremely liberal with respect to what sort of engine you can use.
Effectively, the main restriction is that you must use a four stroke petrol engine – to pick a few items, capacity, engine configuration or whether to use forced induction or normal aspiration is all up to the manufacturer. Similarly, whilst certain performance characteristics for the hybrid systems are proscribed, how exactly you want to achieve that is also fairly open to the manufacturers.
The design of the chassis for the Hypercar class is also quite open, and the transmission systems are also fairly flexible as well.
Coventry Climax
14th July 2023, 17:27
You must be joking, right?
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
14th July 2023, 18:19
Anon’s right. You could make an h-16 or a v-6 or an inline 12 or anything you want. It could be a turbo, supercharged or NA. I guess when the outputs are all mandated I find it hard to be interested in this series. I’m not sure what the designers are trying to do. Build a light, efficient engine so you can put more ballast down low? Just to have more ballast added if the car is successful. I like visible variety where F1 has pushed any innovation and variety under a vail, but if I can’t understand why it matter then it is pointless. Both of these series have gone to 2 different extremes that don’t really interest me anymore I guess. I’m grasping at finding some meaning in the WEC rules at this point.
anon
15th July 2023, 13:21
Coventry Climax, I’m not sure why you would think I was joking – the regulations state that the designers are free to design whatever type of engine they want, so long as it meets a few key criteria.
It therefore means that engine capacity, cylinder configuration and form of aspiration (i.e. forced induction or normally aspirated) are all unrestricted, and manufacturers are also allowed to use rotary engines as well as reciprocating piston engines. Similarly, the regulations do not impose any constraints on either the size of the engines or on the weight either.
That is because the ACO’s approach to the WEC has been to specify certain performance criteria, and to then leave it up to the teams to work out how exactly they meet those criteria. The LMDh category also uses the same engine criteria, as IMSA also has the philosophy of largely leaving it up to the manufacturers to decide what they want to use – thus, you can have a 2.4 litre twin turbocharged V6 and a 5.5 litre normally aspirated V8 in the same category, with a range of options in between those two.
@darryn the idea of encouraging manufacturers to innovate with their engines and to come up with lightweight, compact and efficient engines is pretty much what the ACO is trying to do.
I think that something which is missed about the WEC and the use of BoP is that the ACO only intervenes to a point to try and even things up. Whilst the ACO does add ballast, there is a hard cap of an additional 50kg in the rules; similarly, whilst the ACO can adjust the power output of the engine up or down, the maximum adjustment it will make is 4% of the target figure. Not all outputs are mandated either – there are certain specifics that are mandated, but beyond that, the ACO leaves it up to the teams to work out what to do.
The Glickenhaus and Vanwall entries, for example, aren’t going to be given any more help from the ACO – they’ve been given the most they’ll get, and from now on here it’s up to them to get the rest of the way. Peugeot, similarly, isn’t going to be given any further benefits in terms of engine power.
Contrary to what some posters here seem to think, the ACO will only help a team so far with BoP – the team itself still has to do most of the work to catch up.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
15th July 2023, 19:05
Thanks.
Gabriel (@gabf1)
13th July 2023, 22:03
Is grosjean leaving indycar?
Asd
14th July 2023, 11:19
No, he doesnt need to. WEC doesnt have many rounds.
David B
14th July 2023, 1:42
Grosjean and Kvyat!? I take it they don’t want the car back in one piece.
kpcart
14th July 2023, 4:27
For years they have had issues with the top class in WEC. But they now have a base to restore it to its original glory days. getting rid of LMP2 next year is good, we will have a stacked hypercar field: toyota,ferrari, peugeot, cadillac, porsche, lamborghini and privateer teams. We will see a really awesome driver line up next tear in top level wec, and also imsa. Manufacturers/privateers/performance BOP/great drivers will make for great endurance racing
Coventry Climax
14th July 2023, 17:32
They might as well all race Volkswagen Beetles, or Astra’s or whatever.
It’s fake-ified into a BoP-ped spec series, like the FIA fake-ifies everything.
greasemonkey
14th July 2023, 22:26
Unfortunately, I agree. Spec racing is a good thing. Tooth&nail tech/garage/dev racing is a good thing.
Pretending to be both is silly. We have a lot of silly racing to watch lately.