The Price Is $17,500, And Possibly Your Life

This weekend will mark the American debut of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo series, to be held in conjunction with the ALMS event at Lime Rock Park. The Gallardo LP570-4 spec racers are already running a couple of seconds faster than ALMS GTC. That’s fast.

To encourage gentleman drivers to participate in the new-to-the-States series, Lamborghini has a screaming deal available. But potential emptors should definitely caveat, because there’s some risk involved.

Full details of the Super Trofeo package can be found here, but the basics are:

• $17,500 buy-in for half a car, or $35,000 for the full weekend
• 120 minutes of practice
• 40 minute qualifying
• two 50 minute races

I cannot lie: I’m looking at my already-smoking Amex and wondering if I should try it. This is what we call “cheap” in the world of pay-driving. $17,500 will just about put you in a competitive Grand-Am Continental ST car, which will have half the horsepower and two-thirds the tire and also is not RACING A $300,000 LAMBORGHINI IN FRONT OF ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND EVERY WOMAN WHO EVER SAID SHE HAD TOO MUCH SELF-RESPECT TO KEEP BEING YOUR MISTRESS. It’s a no-brainer.

But.

Some bad things could happen. Let’s talk about damage deposit. I’ve had jokers send me contracts for their LeMons car that had $7500 damage clauses written into them. I’ve seen situations where the “pro” crashed a Conti ST car and the “spank” had to pay the full cost of the car… and it’s amazing how much a race-prepped BMW Z4 or Civic can cost. I can only imagine how much the damage waiver might be in Super Trofeo.

It’s also not quite as safe as playing World of Warcraft at home. The driver you see in the rather chilling photo above survived with minor burns, but last weekend a driver lost his life at the Circuit Paul Ricard race. Make no mistake. These are very big, very heavy, very fast cars that can hit things very hard and there are no guarantees whatsoever that you’ll live to tell the story at your country club the following weekend.

Still, what could possibly be better than racing a Lamborghini? I can’t think of anything, and as Han Solo once famously said, “I can imagine quite a bit”.