Lucchini Engineering is an Italian

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

constructor and racing team. Founded by Giorgio Lucchini in

Porto Mantovano Porto Mantovano ( Mantovano: ) is a town in the province of Mantua, Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located ...

in 1980, the company has built a wide variety of open-cockpit prototypes for use in hillclimbs as well as

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

s for endurance racing. Besides racing their own cars, their chassis have been sold to various

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

teams over the years. Lucchini has had some success over the years, including winning the

FIA Sportscar Championship The FIA Sportscar Championship was a sports car racing series created by John Mangoletsi and was eventually taken control of by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was a series similar to the FIA GT Championship, concentrating ...

's team and constructor championships in the SR2-class two years in a row (

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

). They have also won various European, Italian, and French hillclimb championships. Currently Lucchini sells the CN4 hillclimb car and the LMP2/08 LMP2-class

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

which runs in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

History

The motorsport company was founded by Giorgio Lucchini in Porto Mantovano in 1980 and manufactures a large number of open sports car prototypes for use in hill climbs in the CN group and in the Le Mans prototype series for long-distance races. The various vehicles were powered by Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ford, Opel, Judd and Nissan engines. Lucchini has had a number of successes over the years, including winning the FIA Sportscar Championship Team and Constructors Championship in the SR2 class in 2002 and 2003. Lucchini's cars have also won various European hillclimb championships, such as Switzerland's Philippe Darbellay taking part in 1991 a Lucchini S289. In 2006 Filippo Francioni won the Italian prototype championships with a Lucchini Alfa Romeo 12V. Giampiero Consonni drove Lucchini sports prototypes at the Italian Championships in the 1990s and also won a few races. From 2008 onwards, LMP2 prototypes were made with Judd engines, which were used in the Le Mans Series. Drivers were the Italian pilots Marco Didaio, Filippo Francioni and Mirco Savoldi. Although there are still numerous Lucchini racing cars around the world, the whereabouts of the sports car manufacturer is unclear, production was probably stopped in 2009. Numerous Lucchini vehicles can still be found at historic motorsport races. A well-known vehicle from 1986 (series SN86) is owned by German racing driver Helmut Bross.

Models produced

''List'': *SN86-33, Alfa Romeo 2.5, 1986 *SP288-050, BMW, 1988 *S289/055, Alfa Romeo, 1989 *SP390/072, custom made, 1990 *SP390/073, Alfa Romeo 3.0 24V, 1990 *SP90/077, Alfa Romeo, 1990 *SP91/084, Alfa Romeo 3.0 12V, 1991 *SP91/085, custom made, 1991 *P3-94/102, Alfa Romeo 3.0 24V, 1994 *P3-94/105, BMW, 1994 *P3-95/111, BMW, 1995 *P3-95/115, Alfa Romeo, 1995 *P3-96/116, Alfa Romeo, 1996 *P3-96/124, BMW, 1996 *P1-97/130, BMW, 1997 *P1-98/132, BMW, 1998 *P1-98/133, Alfa Romeo, 1998 *P1-98/136, BMW, 1998 *SR1-98/138, Ford, 1999 * SR2-99/139, Alfa Romeo 3.0 12V, 1999 * SR2-99/140, Alfa Romeo, 1999 *SR2000/141, Alfa Romeo, 2000 *SR2000/142, Alfa Romeo, 2000 *SR2001/143, Alfa Romeo, 2001 *SR2001/144, Alfa Romeo, 2001 *SR2001/145, Alfa Romeo, 2001 *SR2001/146, Alfa Romeo, 2001 *SR2002/147, Alfa Romeo, 2002 *SR2002/148, Nissan, 2002 *LMP2-04/152, Judd, 2004 *LMP2-04/157, according to customer requirements, 2006 *LMP2-04/158, according to customer requirements, 2006 *LMP2-08/165, Judd, 2008 *LMP2-08/166, Judd, 2008

References

{{Reflist

External links

Lucchini Engineering
Car manufacturers of Italy Italian auto racing teams European Le Mans Series teams FIA Sportscar Championship entrants Italian racecar constructors