Even in a golden age of racing, a significant manufacturer has to be the first to leave at some point. In 2025, it was Lamborghini, shelving its SC63 programme after two underwhelming seasons. The second of which was a partial season campaign in IMSA’s Endurance Cup with Riley as the service provider, following the breakup with Iron Lynx and subsequent withdrawal from the WEC at the end of 2024.
Lamborghini has stated repeatedly that it wants to bring the SC63 prototype back into racing after a minimum one-year hiatus in 2026. For now, though, at least, it’s goodbye.
If it never returns, the SC63 will be remembered as the first LMDh/LMH prototype from a major automaker to exit both WEC and IMSA, while their contemporaries are poised to keep going for many more races to come.
It should also be remembered as a major milestone for the Italian supercar builder that’s been synonymous with the craft for decades. Lamborghinis have raced against Ferraris and Porsches for many years in GT racing, but until the 2024 introduction of the SC63, it had never built a car capable of competing for overall honours at Le Mans, Daytona, and Sebring against its great rivals.
That two Lamborghini SC63s took the chequered flag at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, which ended up being the car’s only crack at it to date, was an unprecedented achievement for the marque.
But the SC63’s short story is filled with what-ifs.
What if Lamborghini Squadra Corse ace Mirko Bortolotti hadn’t crashed during the car’s 2023 pre-homologation test at Paul Ricard? What if the ‘Two-car rule’ had never been introduced to the WEC, and Lamborghini and Iron Lynx had continued to run only one car in 2025? What if the SC63 didn’t retire only an hour into its first Daytona 24 Hours?
And what if Lamborghini’s leadership could have seen the tangible benefits of the SC63’s first significant update package before deciding in August to shelve the project for 2026?
Accidents happen in testing – but the timing of that 2023 accident just happened to be terrible for the long-term health of the SC63, as it had to be repaired and homologated with inferior parts, a compromise that hampered its performance in both series.
The ACO’s requirement that all Hypercar manufacturers run two cars still divides the room. Even if they had the means to add a second full-time WEC car at the time, Lamborghini and Iron Lynx’s split was another major setback for the SC63. As luxurious a brand as Lamborghini is in our minds, as much as we think its VAG ownership means that the company has an unlimited budget to go racing with, that’s far from reality.
Lamborghini was reliant on the additional capital and resources that Iron Lynx, Prema, and DC Racing Solutions provided. When they exited in a bitter split, one that has even seen Prema take Lamborghini to court over allegations of stealing confidential trade secrets, it once again left the SC63’s future in peril.
Riley stepped in at the 11th hour just to keep the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup effort going into 2025. Still, back-to-back mechanical retirements from Daytona and Sebring, and an early exit from the February IMSA Sanctioned Test at Sebring in between, didn’t inspire much confidence as Lamborghini envisioned a customer-driven future for the programme.
At Watkins Glen, the SC63 finally started to show real promise in representative race conditions, but before its next race at Indianapolis, and before the first ‘joker’ update was installed, Lamborghini made their decision to prioritise the new Temerario GT3 and Super Trofeo cars and take the SC63 out of circulation for 2026.
Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta saw Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, and Edoardo Mortara get within touching distance of the car’s first podium in its last race. They’d finish fourth, still the best result for the car in 17 races, over two years and in two series.
But it’s the result that, in an ideal world, would be the building block for bigger things in 2026, just as it was for the Aston Martin Valkyrie that finished second in the same race – not the heroic final chapter before the programme shuts down, whether it’s for one year or, more likely, forever.
For a few moments, we finally got to see Lamborghini versus Ferrari and Lamborghini versus Porsche, on the fastest, brightest stage in endurance sports car racing – even if the battle wound up being one-sided towards Lamborghini’s rivals in the end. Here’s hoping we will see that showdown again in the future…
Images © Jack Webster, David Lord, Andrew “Skippy” Hall / dailysportscar.com
