The Gallardo GT3 was built upon the foundation of the road-going Lamborghini Gallardo, itself a sports car produced by the Italian manufacturer from 2003 to 2013. The Gallardo was Lamborghini's best-selling model, with 14,022 units built during its ten-year production run. Its mid-mounted V10 engine and all-wheel-drive architecture made it an attractive candidate for conversion to GT3-specification racing.
Reiter Engineering, a German motorsport outfit with prior experience building the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT and Diablo GTR Super Trophy race cars, undertook the development of the GT3 variant. The philosophy behind the build was to use bolt-on aerodynamic components that conformed to cost-effective GT3 regulations, requiring the finished car to closely resemble its road-going counterpart.
The Gallardo GT3 was converted to rear-wheel drive for GT3 competition, departing from the all-wheel-drive layout of the road car. The 5.0-litre V10 engine was tuned to produce a maximum power output of 520 PS (382 kW; 513 hp) at 7,800 rpm, with 510 N·m (376 lb·ft) of torque at 4,500 rpm. Brembo racing brakes and OZ Racing wheels were fitted as standard components. The aerodynamic package consisted of bolt-on parts designed to meet the GT3 class's requirement that the car bear a close resemblance to the production road car.
The car evolved through successive iterations. The LP 560-4-based update introduced a more powerful odd-firing 5.2-litre V10 engine, and later the LP 570-4 GT3 variant raised power further. Each generation reflected the underlying changes made to the road-going Gallardo during its facelift period beginning in 2008.
The Gallardo GT3 made its competition debut in the 2007 FIA GT3 Championship, establishing Reiter Engineering as the primary constructor and running team for the car in top-level GT3 competition. The car proved immediately competitive against established rivals from Ferrari, Porsche, and Aston Martin.
The inaugural season of the ADAC GT Masters was held in 2007, and the Lamborghini Gallardo LP520 GT3 won the drivers' championship in that first year. Christopher Haase, Gianni Morbidelli, and Jos Menten shared driving duties for the Reiter Engineering team. The team claimed the drivers' championship with 214 points and the team championship with 332 points, winning six of the ten races that season, including the season finale at Hockenheim.
Reiter Engineering returned to the top of the ADAC GT Masters in 2010, this time with Peter Kox and Albert von Thurn und Taxis driving the Gallardo LP560 GT3. The pair won five races and finished on the podium in ten of the fourteen rounds, accumulating 147 points to finish 18 points clear of the second-placed team.
In 2007, the Japan Lamborghini Owners Club (JLOC) entered the Gallardo in the GT300 class of the Japanese Super GT Championship. The Japanese regulations required adaptation: the engine was restricted to 300 PS (221 kW; 296 hp) through air restrictions, and the car was required to be rear-wheel drive. The gearbox was a sequential six-speed twin-clutch unit. Japanese GT300 regulations permitted more liberal aerodynamic development than FIA GT3 rules, resulting in a more aggressive downforce package including a larger rear wing. The car took several seasons to reach consistent competitiveness, becoming reliably front-running during the 2009 season.
West Racing campaigned a Gallardo LP 560 GT in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series during certain rounds of the 2011 season. The team later announced it was developing a new car and ceased campaigning the Gallardo in that series.
DP7 Racing entered two Gallardos in the Speed World Challenge GT Series, driven by Dan Pastorini and Chip Herr.
While technically a separate series rather than a pure GT3 programme, Lamborghini's one-make Super Trofeo series drew heavily on the Gallardo GT3's engineering. In May 2009, Lamborghini introduced the Gallardo LP 560-4 Super Trofeo, billing it as the fastest one-make series car in the world. The race car used a direct-injection odd-firing V10 engine rated at 570 PS (419 kW; 562 hp) with a compression ratio of 12.5:1 and variable valve timing, developed in collaboration with Reiter Engineering. The car had a dry weight of 1,300 kg (2,866 lb) and used E-gear transmission as standard. The full race car and parts package was priced at €200,000 (US$284,300) plus tax and was available through Lamborghini dealerships. The series supported major European championships including the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, the FIA GT Series, and the World Touring Car Championship, typically featuring 18 races and a 30-car grid of privateer and dealer teams.
An updated 2013 Super Trofeo variant, the LP 570-4 Super Trofeo 2013, featured adjustable aerodynamic devices, a ten-position rear wing, and improved front brake cooling through remodelled brake ducts. It was unveiled at the final round of the 2012 Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo European series at Los Arcos in Navarra.
The Gallardo GT3 represented a significant chapter in Lamborghini's return to motorsport competition after years of limited factory involvement. The programme through Reiter Engineering demonstrated that the Gallardo's platform could be competitive at the highest levels of GT3 racing across multiple continents. Its multi-year development arc, spanning from the original 2007 car through to the Reiter Extenso R-EX introduced in 2014, allowed the Gallardo racing programme to outlast the road car's production run and bridge the gap until the successor Lamborghini Huracán GT3 was ready for competition.
The Gallardo GT3's success in the ADAC GT Masters, particularly the back-to-back championship wins in 2007 and 2010 for Reiter Engineering, established the Gallardo as a credible GT3 competitor and helped grow Lamborghini's presence in customer racing programmes worldwide. The Super Trofeo one-make series, which ran alongside the GT3 programme, also became a long-running and well-attended series that continued with subsequent Lamborghini models after the Gallardo's retirement.