Team Modena technical director Sergio Rinland admits he has been 'pleasantly surprised' with the new Lamborghini Gallardo that the team will give a belated debut to in the British GT Championship this weekend at Snetterton.

The team had planned to enter one of the GT3-spec cars from the opening rounds of the season at Oulton Park but delays in taking delivery of the new machine means it will finally make its debut in the two hour race at the Norfolk venue this weekend.

The race debut will come little more than a week after the car took to the track for the first time at the same venue in the hands of Jos Menten, Sergio Garcia and Matt Owen – that test coming after ex-F1 engineer RInland and his team had stripped down and rebuilt the car to get a better understanding of how it works.

"The first thing we had to do once we had the car in our workshop was re-build the Lamborghini to our standards, though the car had been well prepared when we received it and the build-quality was excellent,” he said. “Then we took it to a seven-post rig to get data on various suspension spring and damper settings.

"That worked really well as when we took the car to Snetterton we didn't have to change anything on the set-up once the car was on track. I would never take a new car to a track without using a rig, you gain so much data by using one first on different configurations of suspension, springs and dampers. We did that with the Aston Martin and now the Lamborghini, and it is always rewarded.

"When we arrived at Snetterton we had a small problem with a fuel line - the sort of thing you expect with a new car - and that was sorted out pretty quickly. Once we had the car running it went out on the track and we started monitoring the tyre pressures and temperatures and seeing what the data and drivers had to say. It was pretty boring from then on - which means it was a good test! The car ran really well and when you leave a circuit early that is always a good sign.”

Rinland added that the nature of the GT3 rules would restrict what the team can do the Gallardo during the season ahead although he said he was confident that the team will hit the ground running it the first race this weekend.

"We are very restricted with the Lamborghini by the GT3 regulations, even the springs are homologated for Michelin tyres and in theory not suitable for Avons,” he said. “From now on we will have to just monitor the car and make specific set-up changes for various circuits, but there is not much more you can do. In GT1 you have a lot more freedom and leeway, but GT3 is much more restrictive, even down to what we can do on the engine - which is some ways is what makes it such a good formula though.

"Overall the Lamborghini pleasantly surprised us, we didn't really know what to expect but the car is beautiful. This is the first race Lamborghini I have seen and been involved with, and within 10 laps we were on a good race pace. If we put on new tyres and told the drivers to push then we could have been very quick.

"We are still learning about the car but we are already very confident for our debut and the races to come after. I think we have a car that our drivers can fight for the lead with."