Lamborghini and Reiter Engineering are teaming up once again on a new Gallardo GT3 race car that will be competing this year and next.
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For decades, the Tokyo Auto Salon was known as the premier auto show for customized Japanese vehicles; but over recent years, custom European exotics have found a new home in Japan.
Jon Olsson’s collection of exotics isn’t your average set of cars. Modified to the extreme in some cases, Olsson also puts his exotics to use in all weather conditions.
First shown during the 2012 Paris Motor Show in September, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP-560-4 will be the last version of the Gallardo offered.
Lamborghini unveiled its latest iteration of its Super Trofeo Gallardo, the LP570-4, which receives a significant aerodynamic upgrade over its 2012 replacement.
At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini unveiled its facelifted 2013 Gallardo LP560-4 model, and now the convertible variant has arrived.
Italian exotic sports car manufacturer Lamborghini is recalling 96 of its Gallardos and Gallardo Spyders ranging from model years 2004 through 2006.
The automotive industry is a global business that is constantly evolving and growing, and we here at AutoGuide know it can be hard to keep up sometimes. So here is a summary of the top stories you may have missed this week:
How fitting that shortly after Lamborghini announced that the Gallardo’s successor would have a much simpler lineup, a European source has confirmed that the Gallardo will get yet another special edition model before the end of this year.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary in Hong Kong, Kingsway Cars teamed up with Lamborghini to create a special edition Gallardo LP550-2 model.
Right and wrong aside, the thief who heisted Guy Fieri’s Lamborghini Gallardo deserves a sliver of credit — it’s not every day a punk rappels from a dealer ceiling to steal a car. Still, there’s no arguing with the fact that his arrest is a good thing.
Timepiece manufacturer Blancpain will be offering up a 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 GT3 race car at the upcoming RM Auctions in Monaco on May 12th, 2012.
Blancpain runs the Super Trofeo race series, which is a spec series strictly consisting of Lamborghini Gallardos. Up for auction will be one of those race cars, sporting a 5.2-liter V10 with 605-hp. It will be offered without a reserve, though it’s estimates to sell for around $105k to $130k.
Even better is that 100 percent of the sale proceeds will directly benefit the Monaco Association Against Muscular Dystrophy, a charity that Blancpain has been a long-time benefactor of since 2001. The race car was built by Lamborghini Motorsport Department Reiter Engineering and was driven by Marc A. Hayek and Peter Kox in the ADAC GT Masters and the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2011. It claimed the 2011 Amateur Class championship in the ADAC GT Masters series.
GALLERY: Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 GT3 Race Car
The successor to the popular Lamborghini Gallardo model is expected to make its debut next year and is currently rumored to be named “Cabrera.”
The current Gallardo model has been on the market – with 12,000 built – since 2003 without any major changes to its exterior, showing just how well an appropriately wild design can age. Lambo is hoping to repeat this success with an all new design that will be a revolution, not an evolution, according to Lamborghini’s CEO.
In a recent interview with Car and Driver, CEO Stephan Winkelmann said that the new Cabrera will make a “clear cut” from the Gallardo: “We always say that design is not an evolution but a revolution, and this will be the philosophy of the follow-up to the Gallardo.”
The new Cabrera will replace the Gallardo as the entry-level Lambo and will be an all-wheel drive exotic sporting an upgraded version of the current V10 engine. Early estimates have the Cabrera achieving around 600-hp with a dual-clutch automatic transmission. Surprisingly, Lamborghini has confirmed in order for the new car to work seamlessly, the Cabrera will not have a manual transmission option.
In order to keep the price tag affordable and respectable, Lamborghini won’t be employing the excessive use of carbon fiber which was found in their Aventador model. With that said, Lamborghini is still aiming to have the successor weigh in less than the current-generation Gallardo.
We just hope that the new Cabrera will have more influences than not from the Sesto Elemento (seen above).
GALLERY: Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
[Source: Car&Driver]
It may have taken Lamborghini almost 10 years to produce its 12,000th Gallardo, but the milestone for the exotic Italian automaker is one worth celebrating. Given its exclusivity, prestige, and price tag, it’s remarkable to think that 12,000 Gallardos are out there on the road today.
Just to compare, the Murcielago in its ten-year production run sold merely 4,099 cars – which is understandable considering how much more it costs than the smaller Gallardo. But nonetheless, we’ve seen some remarkable special edition models over the years including the Gallardo Trofeo Stradale, the LP550-2 Spyder, and the LP560-4 Bicolore.
The current-generation Gallardo first entered production back in 2003 and Lamborghini is expected to replace the model soon. The exotic Italian automaker even went so far as to hint at the car’s successor when they announced the 12,000th Gallardo, tweeting “Ready for what comes next?” Unfortunately that’s all they teased, but we really expect Lamborghini to break some news this year on the Gallardo successor.
GALLERY: Gallardo Trofeo Stradale
Many of usl dream of owning an Italian exotic like the Ferrari 458 Italia or Lamborghini Gallardo, but sometimes desperation causes us to get our hands on whatever we can, in whatever form we can. That’s where this awesome wooden Lamborghini Gallardo comes into play.
This handmade wooden Lamborghini Gallardo replica is out in Latvia, but the sellers are willing to ship it worldwide and currently has a starting bid of around $2,400. The eBay auction listing states that it was made at the factory of Arbo Ltd. and is constructed out of a wooden material called DendroLight. A quick peek around the Arbo website shows that they specialize in wooden windows and doors – not car replicas, in case anyone was wondering.
We love the description though, which calls the Gallardo a wooden car in very good condition, constructed in the year 2011. There are no doors, so the windshield is a bit lifted up to make it easier to step into the car. It has front and rear lights, turn signals and a horn. The best part? It’s a two-human powered car, a la pedal boat style. Funniest of all is the bullet point for the description? “Chicks magnet.” No doubt.
GALLERY: Wooden Lamborghini Gallardo
[Source: eBay]
A long while back, Italian exotic automaker Lamborghini made a bold claim that it would have something new for every major auto show. And now reports are coming in that Lamborghini will not just have one, but two debuts at the upcoming 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
One of the reveals will most certainly be the production model for the Aventador Roadster, a rumor that we had reported back in December of last year. The convertible exotic undoubtedly features a 700-hp, V12 powerplant and would be more than enough for an auto show debut. But Lamborghini clearly wants to take the center spotlight at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, so it’s believed a second vehicle will also make its way to center stage.
There’s unfortunately no confirmation as to what the second vehicle will be (where’s the fun in that?) but rumor has it that it could be a production variant of the Sesto Elemento or Lamborghini could just release yet another special edition Gallardo model.
But better yet, what if Lamborghini has an entirely new model set to debut at this year’s show? Perhaps Lamborghini has kept the Gallardo’s replacement under wraps, or maybe even a sedan or crossover will make its presence known. Whatever it may be, you can bet AutoGuide.com will be there to cover it live as it happens.
[Source: Teamspeed]
We just can’t get enough of the Nissan Juke-R project, and probably won’t until we get our grubby little hands behind its steering wheel. But until then, we’ll just have to continue living vicariously through those fortunate enough to experience the monster first hand.
While it was in Dubai to pace the 24 Hour race, Nissan took its Juke-R out to the Dubai International Marina where a makeshift course was created and the funky Japanese crossover was pitted against a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and a Ferrari 458 Italia. You know, just some of Germany and Italy’s finest supercars.
Now it goes without saying that we’d expect the Juke-R to look mighty impressive in the video against the exotics since it was probably staged by Nissan. But there’s no denying just how remarkable its performance looks and how undoubtedly fun it was for Lucas Ordonez, the first GT Academy winner, to pilot it. And obviously by watching the video, the drivers were putting on a show more than they were looking for a fast lap time.
We just hope a better resolution video surfaces soon.
Check out the video below.
Nothing probably irks us more than a bunch of people driving recklessly on the highway, but seeing a fleet of Lamborghinis doing it really makes us shake our heads. From the moment the video starts rolling, we’re anticipating disaster and of course it doesn’t fail to deliver.
It appears that this high speed freeway run took place out in Taiwan, and we don’t feel sorry one bit for the owner considering how many people these drivers also put at risk. Nonetheless, the Gallardo loses control and wrecks on the freeway causing quite a bit of damage to its front end and possibly more. Hopefully no one was hurt in the making of this video.
Watch the video after the break.
Porsche‘s new supercar, targeted squarely at the Ferrari 458, might be borrowing its underpinnings from the next-gen Audi R8.
The German sports car manufacturer is already well on its way to developing the part-carbon fiber car, though what they have so far borrows heavily from Audi. It’s not something Porsche is happy about, but Volkswagen, their parent company, sees sharing the underpinnings of the R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo as an easy way to save costs.
Despite corporate orders preference, Porsche may actually delay releasing its car until the 2020s in order to build it with a bespoke chassis. If they decide to adopt the R8 chassis, it would mean their new car could be on the market next to the second generation R8, versus hitting the market beside the third generation with custom underpinning.
[Source: AutoCar]
Lamborghini will reportedly move ahead with production of a LP550-2 Spyder variant, hitting the streets in a few months as a 2012 model year car. Unfortunately there aren’t many details surrounding the Spyder version of the LP550-2 (photo above) except that it will be “more demanding” and a “more emotional and gratifying drive”.
We can safely anticipate that an official announcement on the RWD LP550-2 Spyder will be made shortly, and we’re hoping there’s a possibility that it’ll make its debut at the upcoming 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show.
[Source: Teamspeed]
What to do with a twin-turbo Lamborghini Gallardo? That’s the question Robert Himler asked himself after getting his Italian exotic back from Underground Racing, once they completed a 1,250-whp build on the car.
Race a jet? Impress the ladies? How about: scare the sh*t out of his mom. And that’ sjust what he did, installing a Go-Pro camera on the dash to document the spirited ride through the city. And the reaction from her is, well, priceless. In fact, it’s quite hilarious, mostly because it’s what we’d expect all our moms to do if we ever had the opportunity to do the same.
Check out the awesome video after the break.
[Source: Autoblog]
Based out of Germany, Cosa Design has released a tuning package for the Lamborghini Gallardo giving it an aggressive Reventon-inspired design. In addition to the radical styling, Cosa Design also upgrades the horsepower to 540-hp and torque to 405 lb-ft from the factory 500-hp and 376 lb-ft. This also helps give the Gallardo a new top speed of 197-mph.
Even though the power upgrades might be enticing for a few owners, the body kit is a little unfortunate with the new front skirt, side skirts, rear apron, diffuser and rear wing clearly inspired by the more aggressive Reventon, but not quite as classy or refined.
Completing the package, Cosa Design also upgrades the suspension on the Gallardo, equipping it with a set of coilovers with adjustable height and stiffness and gives the Italian exotic a staggered set of 20-inch wheels paired with Continental Sport Contact rubber.
No pricing on the tuning package has been released. Hopefully that means parts are sold separately.
GALLERY: Cosa Design Lamborghini Gallardo
[Source: Worldcarfans]
Dennis Rodman, known for his outlandish appearance and behavior on and off the NBA court, had a 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo customized to fit his style… and possibly his style only. In true Rodman extravagance, he had his Gallardo repainted a unique gold flake finish featuring a rainbow-esque shade depending on how the light hits it. In his defense, this style of paint was probably cool and flashy enough back when he did it to match his style.
Who are we kidding. There’s no way to defend this type of paint job (which costs $15,000, no less) on one of Italy’s finest exotics. Though it’s worth mentioning that the entire exotic isn’t treated to the special shade; the sides of the vehicle are now in a gloss black thanks to a fender bender. As of March it sported only 7,000 miles on the odometer. It’s also worth mentioning that the Gallardo is apparently outfitted with $12,000 custom wheels, but that value might be a tad inflated.
[Source: Jalopnik]
Look, you have to try awfully hard to make any exotic, let alone a Lamborghini Gallardo, look bad. But somehow Galaxy Warrior (what a name) did exactly that with what they consider a styling package for the Italian exotic. While the front bumper isn’t as awful thanks to its hints at Reventon-inspired styling, the atrocious rear bumper just absolutely ruins the Lambo. Gone is the sleek, sexy and exotic styling the Gallardo is known for and enter in something we would expect to see on a Honda Civic.
What’s even worse than the idea that two Gallardos sport this kit is the fact that its manufacturer, ATS Automotive, is asking over $16,000 for it. This will net you the Reventon-like front bumper, a pair of side skirts, the repulsive rear bumper, rear wing and a dual-tipped rear silencer. And surprisingly at the price, the kit is made from fiberglass using temperature-resistant resins and comes unpainted.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come flying off the shelves.
GALLERY: Galaxy Warrior Lamborghini Gallardo
[Source: Carscoop]