No programme has been announced, but it is expected to take in a mix of ALMS races along with an appearance at Le Mans and possibly the British GT series.

Seperately, French outfit XL Motorsport, who ran a Ferrari 550 Maranello in several ALMS events this year, are discussing selling their cars with an unnamed team and then expect to build at least two more cars for next year.

The Pagani Zonda C12 is a limited production supercar built in Modena, Italy by Argentine Horacio Pagani and powered by an AMG-developed 7.3-litre V12 Mercedes-Benz engine.

>>> new models: Pagani Zonda C12S 7.3

Prodrive, who currently build the successful Ferrari 550 Maranello's which have won four rounds of this years FIA GT Championship in the hands of customers, have many years of sportscar experience. It has not been decided if the 6-litre V12 Murcielargo will be modified to compete with the Chrysler Vipers, Lister Storms and Ferrari 550 Maranellos in the GT class or whether the new mid-size Lamborghini, due for release next summer, will enter N-GT to take on the hordes of Porsches and the "baby" Lamborghini's expected road rival, the Ferrari 360 Modena.

At the same time FIA GT series organiser Stephane Ratel is considering allowing manufacturers back into the series, a move that would pave the way for Maserati to enter the series in 2004 if rumoured plans for a Ferrari Enzo-based sportscar come to fruition.

Andrea Piccini had qualified the no 23 Ferari on pole, just ahead of Jean-Marc Gounon in the sister no 22 car with Jamie Campbell-Walter putting the Lister Storm on the second row, ahead of Fabrizio Gollin in the fastest of the Chrysler Vipers. At the lights both Ferraris got away cleanly, but on the second lap the on-pace Lister Storm of Jamie-Campbell Walter took second and on lap six he squeezed past Andrea Piccini and into the lead. Mike Hezemans in the Carsports Chrysler Viper, starting eighth was the man on song and he quickly passed both the Ferrari and Lister to take the lead. On a drying track the Viper led much of the race before the no 23 Ferrari reasserted itself towards three quarter distance and eventually won with a 22 second cushion. The second BMS car came home in fifth place.

Also in GT, the DART Racing Ferrari 550 ran well, fighting its way up to second place before retiring with transmission problems on lap 37, while the new proyotype Lamborghini GTR-S driven by Emanuel Clerico and Lee Cunningham, encountered a few minor problems en route to 9th in GT, five laps adrift of the winners. In a race that swung in favour of each championship contender, Christophe Bouchet's fourth place saw him retail his FIA GT driver's title.

In N-GT Stephane Ortelli again dominated proceedings. After qualifying the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3-RS on class pole he and team mate Sascha Maassen lead from start to finish, beating the second place Cirtek Porsche by 32 seconds. First time out in wet conditions saw Tim Sugden and Andrew Kirkaldy bring the Voloqx Motorsport Ferrari 360, in its second FIA GT series run out, home third in class, two laps down, but just ahead of the first JMB Ferrari of Christian Pescatori and Andrea Montermini.

The Trofeo has been built to FIA N-GT specification and could run in the American Le Mans series GTS class. Risi Competizione have run Ferrari 360 GT's in the closing rounds of this years series, including a car in last weekends closing round, the 100km Petit Le Mans.

The first car, to be known as a Lamborghini GTR-S, will run out at Estoril this weekend in the closing FIA GT race, run by Reiter Motorsport, the car will be piloted by SuperTrophy regulars Lee Cunningham and Emmanuel Clerico.

Enge, sharing the car with regulars, Alain Menu and Peter Kox, quickly built up a lead as the Corvettes suffered early tyre problems. With just over an hour to go a suspension bolt worked loose and the two lap advantage that the Ferrari drivers had gained quickly evaporated. Enge returned to the track holding a 13 second class advantage, which the lead Corvette, now having found a better set up, chopped down before Enge suffered a puncture as he clashed with a GT class BMW M3 as he tried to pass. The Prodrive car was forced to pit and remerged to cruise home second, four laps up on the struggling second Corvette, which in turn finished well clear of the Rafanelli Ferrari 550, well off the pace but enjoying a fault free run.

In GT, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 360 GT ran home third, four laps down on class winners Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen ( Porsche 911 GT3-RS ) and two laps down on Randy Pobst and Johnny Mowlen in a similar car.