Serious News
10-22-2013, 12:21 PM
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Italian automaker unwraps the 221-mph Veneno Roadster prototype racer.
After driving a red Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder for a week, I can say that the experience was exactly as I'd predicted: loud, pretentious, and a little scary. A Gallardo Spyder makes you the man (or woman) of any city you enter, all nicely equipped for a cool quarter-million.
But the red rocket you see here -- the 2014 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster -- is a Gallardo 18 times over, and not just in the $4.5 million price. It's one of nine cars that will be sold to people who cannot race in the American Le Mans Series and absolutely need a 750-horsepower prototype racer, with no roof, in their garage. And in everyone's face on the street.
It's lovely that Lamborghini wants to chop the roof off the three Veneno coupes it sold after the Geneva Auto Show in March. It's even tripling the production run. After all, for a car named after a fighting bull that gored someone to death in 1914, how could there possibly be only three?
The Roadster incorporates all the same ridiculous vents and carbon fiber body panels as the coupe, and like the coupe, it's much more than a modified Aventador. There's a carbon-fiber ring along the wheel rim that "works like a turbine" to cool the carbon-ceramic brake discs, and there's carbon fiber fabric trim that lines the headliner, seats and most of the interior. And add to those goodies an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing and the carbon fiber splitter that slices, dices and cools the enormous 6.5-liter V12 that's been massaged to produce 50 more horsepower than the regular Aventador. To get on the racing theme, a pushrod suspension with horizontally mounted rear springs, all-wheel-drive and a 5-mode 7-speed gearbox are all at the ready.
The Veneno Roadster shoots to 60 mph in fewer than 2.9 seconds and will hit 221 mph. Wire Lamborghini the $4.5 million and wish them a happy 50th birthday and the Veneno Roadster could be yours. Or there's always 18 Gallardos for you and your 17 best friends.
[Source: Lamborghini]
http://t.autos.msn.com/news/lambo-veneno-is-one-hot-roadster
After driving a red Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder for a week, I can say that the experience was exactly as I'd predicted: loud, pretentious, and a little scary. A Gallardo Spyder makes you the man (or woman) of any city you enter, all nicely equipped for a cool quarter-million.
But the red rocket you see here -- the 2014 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster -- is a Gallardo 18 times over, and not just in the $4.5 million price. It's one of nine cars that will be sold to people who cannot race in the American Le Mans Series and absolutely need a 750-horsepower prototype racer, with no roof, in their garage. And in everyone's face on the street.
It's lovely that Lamborghini wants to chop the roof off the three Veneno coupes it sold after the Geneva Auto Show in March. It's even tripling the production run. After all, for a car named after a fighting bull that gored someone to death in 1914, how could there possibly be only three?
The Roadster incorporates all the same ridiculous vents and carbon fiber body panels as the coupe, and like the coupe, it's much more than a modified Aventador. There's a carbon-fiber ring along the wheel rim that "works like a turbine" to cool the carbon-ceramic brake discs, and there's carbon fiber fabric trim that lines the headliner, seats and most of the interior. And add to those goodies an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing and the carbon fiber splitter that slices, dices and cools the enormous 6.5-liter V12 that's been massaged to produce 50 more horsepower than the regular Aventador. To get on the racing theme, a pushrod suspension with horizontally mounted rear springs, all-wheel-drive and a 5-mode 7-speed gearbox are all at the ready.
The Veneno Roadster shoots to 60 mph in fewer than 2.9 seconds and will hit 221 mph. Wire Lamborghini the $4.5 million and wish them a happy 50th birthday and the Veneno Roadster could be yours. Or there's always 18 Gallardos for you and your 17 best friends.
[Source: Lamborghini]
http://t.autos.msn.com/news/lambo-veneno-is-one-hot-roadster