Lamborghini teases LMDh race car, headed to 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024

Lamborghini on Tuesday released a teaser of its new race car for the upcoming LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) class. While the first LMDh cars are scheduled to enter competition in 2023, Lamborghini doesn’t plan to hit the track until 2024.

LMDh and its companion LMH class were created to unite the top class in global sports car racing. They allow manufacturers to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)—including the 24 Hours of Le Mans—with the same car.

LMDh and LMH represent the versions of the rules to be used by IMSA and the WEC, respectively, although IMSA plans to market LMDh as GTP, referencing the class of prototypes from what arguably was the sanctioning body’s golden age in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Lamborghini, which has been mulling an LMDh entry for the past few months, plans to compete in both the WEC and IMSA series, including Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 12 Hours of Sebring, the automaker said in a press release.

Lamborghini doesn’t have a long racing history, but it’s been building up a factory program under the Squadra Corse banner in production-based GT classes, scoring three GTD-class wins in a row at Daytona between 2018 and 2020 with the Huracán. The LMDh car will be Lamborghini’s first factory prototype sports racer, and will be run alongside the GT programs and Super Trofeo one-make series.

One thing that attracted Lamborghini to LMDh is the requirement of hybrid powertrains, which aligns with the automaker’s road cars plans. Lamborghini claims to have built its last non-hybrid road car; all production models will now have some degree of electrification.

#48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 at the 2018 12 Hours of Sebring

Several other manufacturers, including BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche, are also committed to LMDh. Most plan to debut their cars in 2023.

Other manufacturers have opted for LMH, but that means they’ll still compete against the LMDh teams at Le Mans. Among the biggest names are Audi and Ferrari, the latter making its return to the top category at Le Mans for the first time since 1973.