- 62
- The Tri-State Area
The 1990s was, all at once, a golden age and catastrophe for top-flight production car motorsport, generating some of the most incredible road cars ever made and either killing them off through failure or financial ruin, or only making a handful as required by the regulations. Or all three
While there's some famous examples of this - the Nissan R390, Toyota GT-One, Mercedes CLK-GTR, and Porsche 911 GT1 to name a few - others flew very much under the radar because they hit all three issues at once. The Lotus Elise GT1 is a perfect example of this, but there was... another.
That came from Megatech-owned (ugh) Lamborghini, which saw the way the GT1 regulations were going and determined that its Diablo would make a perfect competitor for the category.
However, neither Megatech (ugh) nor Lamborghini had the expertise required to make the Diablo road car competitive in a class that was now becoming the domain of specialised race cars disguised as road machines rather than supercars with slicks, and drafted in French concern Signes Advanced Technologies - known for its preparations of sports and prototype race cars - to create it.
Somewhat predictably then, the Diablo GT1 (not to be confused with the Diablo Jota GT1 LM from two years earlier) was based on a custom tubular spaceframe chassis with a Diablo-esque body made in carbon fibre. Notably it featured some radical aero treatment, with longer sections at the front and rear that incorporated a big chin spoiler and integrated rear wing, as well as all the ducts and a pair of roof-mounted snorkels.
SAT produced two cars, with the white machine sporting a race-specification rear wing and slightly different front end compared to the road legal "Stradale". However both sported the stroked, six-litre V12 supplied by Lamborghini and good for almost 650hp.
Money being an issue for Megatech (ugh) and the advances made by Porsche and Mercedes for their barely disguised racing machines - never mind the cars that would come a year later - making such cars obsolete, the GT1 project was cancelled and it never reached the race track in its intended form. It did race though, bought by JLOC and campaiged for four seasons of JGTC. Yes, that's the infamous Nomad Diablo from GT3!
SAT retained the Stradale until it went into liquidation and the car was picked up by Mistral Motors which still owns the one and only GT1 Stradale today.
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