SEPTEMBER 8, 2003

An announcement from Lamborghini

The Lamborghini company, a subsidiary of the European car giant Volkwagen, is to make an announcement about a motorsport program at the Frankfurt Motor Show tomorrow. There is little likelihood of any major program at the moment although Lamborghini was involved in F1 in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it was owned by Chrysler. In those days the engine was a 3.5-liter V12 designed by Ferrari's great engineer Mauro Forghieri. The engine was quite competitive in 1989 with Larrousse and Team Lotus also used the engines in 1990. Lamborghini's plans for its own team were not very successful but Larrousse picked up a podium in Japan with Aguri Suzuki and the team finished sixth in the Constructors' World Championship.

The engines were later used by Ligier and Modena Team but the program stagnated and by 1992 the engines were being used by Larrousse and Minardi although a new management at Chrysler revamped the program in 1993 and they were even tested in a McLaren by Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen. At the last minute however McLaren dived into its ill-fated alliance with Peugeot and left Chrysler with nowhere to go.

It is anticipated that tomorrow's announcement will be related to a GT program with the Lamborghini Diablo GT-R.