One-third of American Top Gear, Tanner Foust, spent a day in the Lamborghini Reventon, and here's his verdict: "Thumbs up big girl!" The fractional bit of additional horsepower didn't mean much to him, but he did say the brakes were more capable, and, surprise, the car is quite wide and people like to stare at it. After six hours on Italy's B-roads, that basically sums up his impressions. Since he didn't have too much to say in print, we really do hope he's saving the zingers for the show...
Apparently, dreaming up a new design for a rarefied vehicle is too difficult for Veno Automotive, a Polish spinoff of UK-based Heros Capital Ltd. Rather than relying on design experts, with their fancy degrees and engineering knowledge, the company cribbed the Lamborghini Reventon so closely that we predict flying lawsuits.Veno's car not only looks like a Lamborghini, the company claims it will perform like one, too. Underpinning the bodywork is supposedly a chassis that can make use of more than 1,000 horsepower. Coupe or convertible flavors are planned, with a low yearly volume of about 15. Carbon fiber will make up the bodywork, carbon-ceramic brakes are part of the package and there's an array of tech like night vision and an on-board computer with internet access. Power will initially come from Audi's 4.2 liter V8 in various levels of tune, and the company suggests that it will be able to wrest some LS9s from General Motors, a claim that's as plausible as space aliens at the White House. If V8s don't whet your appetite, there's also some idle chatter about an electric version. Our impression is that this car is just talk right now, and the pictures of the office look staged to some degree, so while the story is making the rounds, we wouldn't get our hopes up for anything real.
Automotive news moves fast. Sometimes faster than a Lamborghini supercar, even. Take the Reventon, which by now seems like yesterday's news. But after being revealed back in October 2007, Lamborghini has yet to begin delivering the $1.5 million supercars to their 20 eagerly-awaiting buyers. We would hardly have noticed, waiting for news of one rapped around a pole somewhere, until Lamborghini started announcing the selection of component suppliers for the Reventon.
The latest: coating specialist Zirotec, which will be supplying its Diamond Black coating to the exhaust system on the Reventon. The material was developed for nuclear reactors, and uses zirconia-based ceramics to insulate extreme heat. The coating is plasma-sprayed to the exhaust tubing in order to protect the composite bodywork, and gives the tailpipes a unique black finish. The material is also used in racing cars and on the Koenigsegg CCX.
Look! Up in the sky... it's a bird... it's a plane... it's an extremely rare and expensive supercar being suspended hundreds off feet of the ground by an Italian military helicopter! That's right, Lamborghini got the bright idea that it could make a big entrance at a conference today in Turin, Italy by having its halo car, the Reventón, flown in by military helicopter and placed atop the roof the Lingotto building, wherever that is. The conference, which was hosted by Lamborghini and about the Italian automaker, was called "Lamborghini and speed – a project in record time". It was apparently about how Lamborghini developed the Reventón so quickly and attended by "local, international and academic VIPs" as part of a larger conference called "Turin 2008 – World Design Capital". Hopefully this particular Reventón, of which only 20 will be made, stays firmly placed on terra firma from now on.
Sometimes people say the best gifts come in small packages. We beg to differ, because if someone were to deliver us the big 'ol box you see above, we'd probably think it was the best gift ever. In that box is Lamborghini Reventon number one of twenty. Apparently, it's the only example which will be sold privately via a traditional dealership -- in this case, Lamborghini of Las Vegas. The other nineteen were all spoken for before ever leaving the factory. We've attached a sampling of photos here, but to see the complete, step-by-step gallery of the car's unboxing in Sin City, you'll need to drop by Fresh Tarmac. If you're an Autoblog reader vacationing in Vegas, you know what to do if you jackpot one of those hundred-dollar slots.
Anything you can do, I can do better. That's pretty much been Lamborghini's attitude towards arch-rival Ferrari since Ferrucio Lamborghini starting building sportscars to spite Enzo Ferrari. Fast forward 45 years and with both men gone, the idea remains the same: if Ferrari could create an exotic supercar and name it after its founder, so can Lamborghini. Only in this case, the heritage is carried on by independent designer Pule Magau of carrozzeria Magvisio.
What you see before you is the Lamborghini Ferruccio. Like the Reventon, the Ferruccio was conceived as an ultra-exclusive uber-exotic based on the Murcielago LP640. But while the Reventon had its production run upped to 100, the Ferruccio was planned for only 10 road-going examples: five coupes and five roadsters. Also like the Reventon, the Ferruccio was supposed to sell for Є1 million ($1.5 million), but it very well might have been the manifestation of the Reventon that stopped the Ferruccio project in its tracks, siphoning off potential customers to the factory's own show-stopper.
The use of carbon fiber inside and out on the Ferruccio promised to undercut the Murcielago's 0-60 time to three seconds flat en route to a claimed top speed of 230 mph, with 330mm ceramic discs and six-pot calipers to keep the speed in check. Couple that with razor-sharp styling to rival the Reventon, and you've got an interesting package, if only it didn't cost so much. Magau, however, is reportedly working to reduce the costs. If those goals can be met and the deposits roll in, the Ferruccio project could turn from wet dream to startling reality.
Lamborghini apparently has a sense of humor; how else would you explain the exotic brand's website using an image of a small paper bag with a bull logo and the automobili Lamborghini script, described as a sick bag, as the entry to the merchandise section of its website? If the performance of its cars doesn't kick you in the gut, the prices will likely induce at least some swooning. A better use for this barf sack - which appears to just be an inside joke to the folks at Sant'Agata - would perhaps be toting the finest of chocolates. Too bad that they're out of stock (probably forever), so even if you wanted to toss your cookies into what's undoubtedly one of the highest performance puke diddies available, it's not possible. The time honored tradition of hanging your head out the side window after a particularly hot lap in, say, the Reventon is always an option, though. We wonder if they offer napkins?
When it comes to pure visual impact, there's not a thing on the road that has got anything on the Lamborghini Reventon. It's just so impossibly, relentlessly badass. It's got more sharp lines than a bag full of broken glass and more angles than a geometry set, yet manages to pull them all together in a package that makes Death itself run for cover. And with more than 640 demon horses on tap, it had better run fast.
In tribute to the ultimate Lamborghini's angrier-than-a-coked-up-teenager design, we're bringing you this gallery of images which recently escaped from lock-down at the Lamborghini factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese on the outskirts of Modena.
If you thought that the Lamborghini Reventon with all its origami angles was smokin' hot, you ain't seen nothin' yet. One nicotine-craven gearhead has crafted a model of the most exclusive of Raging Bulls out of nothing but cigarette boxes. Even with the enormous taxes governments place on tobacco products, we doubt the model Reventon approaches the $1.5 million cost of the real thing.
It might not be enough to make Marlboro rethink which Italian supercar-maker it's sponsoring, but it would sit perfectly in a model garage next to the F1 car made out of matchsticks on which we reported previously.
