Reiter engineering testing news!

[SALEEN S7R]

Source:www.crash.net

The Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT, dropped by the Krohn-Barbour team in the ALMS, bounced back with an impressive four days of tyre testing at Misano last week, completing 1800 kilometres at the invitation of Michelin.

The lone R-GT was run by Reiter Engineering, the German-based company that has built and developed the race versions for Automobili Lamborghini, and driven by Peter Kox, who drove for Krohn-Barbour after steering the prototype Murciélago to third place on its FIA GT debut in Valencia in April. Running a selection of slick, intermediate and wet weather tyres, the combination covered a distance equivalent to five FIA GT or ALMS races, and left Hans Reiter encouraged.

"On intermediate and wet weather tyres, the Lamborghini went really well, lapping faster than the Prodrive-built Ferrari that also ran at the track," he reported, "On the slicks, we need a little improvement because the R-GT is mid-engined and the tyre compound was designed for a front-engined car - but, even so, it was close. Sometimes the Ferrari was one or two tenths of a second per lap quicker, sometimes the Lamborghini was one or two tenths quicker - it varied from day to day."

Kox agreed that, with the right tyres, the Italian supercar could have been even quicker in the dry.

"This was a very constructive test, something to build on," the Dutch sportscar ace said, "The Lamborghini's performance is more impressive when you remember we were running on tyres intended for a front-engined car. I think even the Michelin engineers were surprised at how well the car performed."

Reiter added that his company had more tweaks destined for the car, ahead of what he hopes will be a return to the tracks in 2005. Krohn-Barbour has canned its ALMS campaign with the R-GT, and there has been no word from the French DAMS squad about its continued participation with it in the FIA GT series.

"There's more performance on the way," Reiter revealed, "We're bench-testing an evolution of the six-litre V12 which is already giving more power, and the next step will be to finalise an improved aerodynamic package for 2005."

Sounds promising, lets hope the car can mix it up with the Astons and Maseratis next year, this car could be a potential race winner, as we saw in Valencia FIA GT this year.

[tblincoe]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Sounds promising, lets hope the car can mix it up with the Astons and Maseratis next year, this car could be a potential race winner, as we saw in Valencia FIA GT this year.

although i am happy to see Reiter continuing development of the R-GT, i fear that the Lambo will be most affected by the change to ACO regs in the FIA-GT... remember how much Barbour struggled with the car in ACO trim.

[slicktsax]

well i just wonder who else will race the lambo besdies amprex and hopefully dams will keep running them. and do remember both fira gt and aco run same regs now

[FIRE]

Maybe Zwaans Racing.

[Fieldgate]

...maybe LambAudighini, if there aren't (m)any R8's out next year

[TerryC]

Originally posted by slicktsax
well i just wonder who else will race the lambo besdies amprex and hopefully dams will keep running them. and do remember both fira gt and aco run same regs now

JLOC R-GT currently in the JGTC?

[tblincoe]

pretty sure Zwaans will race 1 or 2...

[FIRE]

Originally posted by tblincoe
pretty sure Zwaans will race 1 or 2...

Or a Saleen. I think there's more chance they enter 1 car instead of 2.

[nsxr]

plus apex? out of maylasia run a lambo in the jgtc. They have plans of le man in 2005

[SALEEN S7R]

Zwanns would be a good guess, but with respect to the team they are not the best funded team in the FIA GT pit lane, do they really have the money and recources to make the car competitve? Id have thought something like a 550/575 would be a more sensible choice for them, no development work needed and the car should be fast straight out of the box.

[slicktsax]

well lamborghini is also releasing a road going murcielago r model. it should have around 680 hp. it's suppossed to compete with the ferrari enzo. it will use a 6.5 liter V12. now my question is. if teh road version has a 6.2 liter V12, the upcoming r model will have a 6.5 V12, why did lamborghini make the race car use 6 liters. natural aspirated engines are allowed up to 8 liters of displacement. the lister storm GT uses a 7 liter V12. the lambo race cars have been down on power during the whole 2004 season. why not use a 6.5 liter V12 that way they will have more power and more low end torque. plus the powerband will be more flat so the car will have better driveability through all 6 gears. hech even the pagoni zonda GR switched to a 7 liter V12. of course it's main problem was that the chasis wasn't stiff enough. well anyway that's my 2 cents. they should use a 6.5 V12 in the race car.

[SALEEN S7R]

I agree - they should use the 6.5 V12, but whos to say they wont? If its a better engine Im sure they will. Its a bit like the Ferrari 550s, when they first made their competition debuts the cars were 5.7ltr V12's, right up to 2002 where in the Spa 24hrs the BMS cars used the 5.7 V12 because they wasnt sure on reliabilty of the 6.0ltr V12 after Prodrives LM campaign that year. Now though of course everyone uses the 6.0ltr V12, apart from the car that runs in Australias Nations cup series, which incidently is entered for Dubai under the Cooper racing banner.

[TerryC]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Zwanns would be a good guess, but with respect to the team they are not the best funded team in the FIA GT pit lane, do they really have the money and recources to make the car competitve?

Hopefully, the sale of FIA GTRacing game would help them a bit .

Actually about the Lambo R-GT, especially the two that run in the JGTC, how come they are not too competitive yet? Are the cars still needing serious development at present?

[marcush.]

i hear that Audi has taken a closer look at what Reiter is doing and as the Audi prime goal of 04 (DTM) was achieved there´s more time available for the responsible people to
bring the GT car forward.
In 04 the DTM was main objective ,followed by the LM/LMES
and a also ran was the lambo thing.05 is completely different.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Zwanns would be a good guess, but with respect to the team they are not the best funded team in the FIA GT pit lane, do they really have the money and recources to make the car competitve? Id have thought something like a 550/575 would be a more sensible choice for them, no development work needed and the car should be fast straight out of the box.

Agree

[BSchneiderFan]

But the 575 is pretty expensive too, no?

[TerryC]

I guess they meant the 575/550 are slightly more race developed than the Viper and therefore maybe more cost effective in a long run?

[Bramzel]

The 575's aren't more developed, it's just newer. Don't forget that the Viper's base is over 10 years old. And don't underestimate the amount of work Zwaans has done on their Vipers. You don't need a very high budget to know how to work on your car.

The 575 is just damn expensive, nothing more. And also a lot of people (including me) have a lot of doubts weather or not it's worth the money. At the moment it isn't imho. In that point the Murc is a much better choice I think, it's a lot cheaper and it has potential. It still has to prove itself, true, but the potential is there.

[TerryC]

Originally posted by Bramzel
In that point the Murc is a much better choice I think, it's a lot cheaper and it has potential. It still has to prove itself, true, but the potential is there.

It certainly has to prove itself. At the moment, say the DAMS R-GT are almost at the bottom of the list...whereas the Maserati MC-12 is always at the top, I'm talking laptimes of course.

[marcush.]

Looking at the amount of testing the Mazza has done ,Reiter has to raise their game considerably.
The 575 has never shown its superiority over the prodrive fury so that´s not really a benchmark.
And if you look at prodrive ...the Aston will be the Benchmark along the Mazza .

[Bramzel]

Originally posted by TerryC
It certainly has to prove itself. At the moment, say the DAMS R-GT are almost at the bottom of the list...whereas the Maserati MC-12 is always at the top, I'm talking laptimes of course.

True, but if you consider that you can buy 2 Murc's for the price of one MC12 I think the choice is rather easy for the smaller teams like Zwaans.

[TerryC]

Thanks for the info. Actually I didn't know the MC12 was costing that much!!!

[SALEEN S7R]

Neither did I - the Maserati people said the car should be around the same price as a Ferrari 575 if I remember rightly. And sure while the Lambourgini is cheaper it isnt half the price.

[jhansen]

Isn't the real issue development dollars?

Prodrive is well funded and turned the 550 into a success through intense development. When Care took the cars they were race winners. GM has spent an incredible amount of money on the C5R's, which are proven race winners. They will now develop the C6R's. Maserati has also done a considerable amount of testing and development along with some races this year. The car will hit the ground running in 2005.

The 575 should be competitive, or at least on paper it should be. But has anyone really developed this car? Are there any well funded teams running them? Reiter doesn't seem to have the same funds as Prodrive and the Lambo's development has been slow. But it is only the first year.

True race winning cars have money thrown at them through their entire life cycle. The development years are crucial. The cars need lots of testing miles, which should translate into small improvements to the car. And of course, they need to be raced.

Look at Prodrive and the Aston Martin project. The car is just hitting the test track. It will test through the winter and then race at Sebring. They will take what they learn at Sebring and test some more. Then Le Mans. Then more testing and maybe some races to close out the season. By 2006 the works teams will have an awesome race car. This method works. But I don't see this in the Lambo project.

[tblincoe]

Originally posted by jhansen
Isn't the real issue development dollars?

Prodrive is well funded and turned the 550 into a success through intense development. When Care took the cars they were race winners. GM has spent an incredible amount of money on the C5R's, which are proven race winners. They will now develop the C6R's. Maserati has also done a considerable amount of testing and development along with some races this year. The car will hit the ground running in 2005.

The 575 should be competitive, or at least on paper it should be. But has anyone really developed this car? Are there any well funded teams running them? Reiter doesn't seem to have the same funds as Prodrive and the Lambo's development has been slow. But it is only the first year.

True race winning cars have money thrown at them through their entire life cycle. The development years are crucial. The cars need lots of testing miles, which should translate into small improvements to the car. And of course, they need to be raced.

Look at Prodrive and the Aston Martin project. The car is just hitting the test track. It will test through the winter and then race at Sebring. They will take what they learn at Sebring and test some more. Then Le Mans. Then more testing and maybe some races to close out the season. By 2006 the works teams will have an awesome race car. This method works. But I don't see this in the Lambo project.

i agree 100%... there is no magic formula here for why some cars are more competitive than others. the reason why the Prodrive 550 is faster than the factory 575 is that there was more developmental testing done by the Prodrive factory than the Ferrari factory. There has been developmental work done by Ferrari (most notably during the Spa tests with GPC Giesse) on the 575, but it has been on a much smaller scale than what Prodrive did.

same goes for the Murcielago R-GT, but Reiter is doing some testing now, and will be releasing 25 new R-GTs to the public over the winter with a new 6.5L V12 which signals to me that more work will be done over the winter. what gets me though is that during every test i hear how the car went fast but could have gone faster because the Michelins used were intended for a front-engined car... we've heard this now since the R-GT's debut, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET SOME NEW TIRES??? if the tires are really having such a big effect then get on the ball and get that fixed, but if its not stop making excuses!