2008 Lamborghini Reventón

2008 Lamborghini Reventón

The Lamborghini Reventón has been entirely designed in Sant'Agata Bolognese, the original birthplace of the Lamborghini and the native home of every super car born under the sign of the bull. The design drawn up in Lamborghini's Centro Stile (Style Centre) is fine-tuned in close collaboration with the Lamborghini Research and Development Department. Thus, the Reventón is not only "haute couture" but it also stands out for its elevated dynamism whilst being entirely suitable for every day use.



The Lamborghini Reventón is not destined to remain a one-off. A total of 20 Lamborghini friends and collectors will be able to own this extraordinary car and, naturally, enjoy the incomparable pleasure of driving it.



The name Reventón has been chosen according to Lamborghini tradition. Reventón was a fighting bull, owned by the Don Rodriguez family. It is included in the list of the most famous bulls ever and is known for killing the famed bullfighter Felix Guzman in 1943.



Inspired by the fastest airplanes



The present day Lamborghini models are distinguished by the clear language of their shape. The coherent proportions of the Murciélago and Gallardo highlight their power and dynamism. Sharp edges, precise lines and clean surfaces: these are ingredients of a style reduced to the essential. Each element is created exactly according to its function; ornaments and decorations are totally foreign to a Lamborghini.



With the Reventón the Centro Stile designers have coherently developed this philosophy, inspired by another sphere where speed and dynamism reign absolute: modern aeronautics, responsible for the fastest and most agile airplanes in the world. This has created an extremely precise, technically striking style with a new vitality: interrupted lines and contorted surfaces create a fascinating play of light, giving the car incredible movement.



Made of carbon fibre and precision



Although it is based on the extraordinarily successful Murciélago LP640, the exterior design of the Reventón is completely new. Just like the base model, the exterior is made of CFC, a composite carbon fibre material, which is as stable as it is light. The exterior components are glued and fixed to the body comprised of CFC and steel.



The front is characterised by the acute angle of the central 'arrow' and by the powerful forward-facing air intakes. Although they do not supply air directly to the turbine like an airplane, bearing in mind the 650 hp, an abundant volume of air is necessary to cool the carbon brake disks and the six cylinder callipers.

The ReventOn, revealed at the Frankfurt auto show, is a radical, limited-production variant of the Lamborghini Murcilago LP640. Lamborghinis are not exactly automotive wallflowers to begin with, but "the Reventn is the most extreme of all," enthuses Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann.

Outside, the car is sheathed in all-new bodywork and wears a special matte gray finish. With the exception of the steel roof and doors, all body panels are a carbon-fiber composite. Inside, the driver faces a bank of three LCD readouts in place of the standard gauge cluster. The driver can choose among various display modes for the speedometer and tachometer; in addition, a g-force meter relays acceleration, braking, and lateral forces. The cabin itself is trimmed in copious amounts of suede and carbon fiber.

The mechanicals, however, are straight from the Murcilago LP640. The mid-mounted V-12, visible underneath the plexiglass engine cover, spins out just a bit more power here (650 hp, rather than 640 hp, at 8000 rpm). It's controlled via a six-speed e-gear paddleshift manual transmission and drives all four wheels. The wheels themselves have carbon-fiber appliqus bolted to aluminum spokes.

Lamborghini Murciélago LP640

Murciélago LP640

An updated 2007 model called the Murciélago LP640 replaces the 2006 Murciélago coupe. The "LP" stands for "longitudinale posteriore," which is Italian for "longitudinal rear" and indicates the position of the vehicle's massive V12 engine behind the cockpit.

The number 640 in the new moniker denotes the total hp rating of the tweaked V12 engine, up 60 hp from the outgoing Murciélago coupe's V12 thanks to a bump in displacement from 6.2 liters to 6.5 liters. Lamborghini says the added power shaves 0.4 seconds from the zero-to-62 mph sprint, bringing it down to a scant 3.4 seconds.

A convertible version of the Murciélago, introduced last year, retains the 6.2-liter 580-hp V12. It has a removable fabric top: When it’s installed, Lamborghini advises keeping the speed under 100 mph.
A more aggressive front bumper with reshaped air intakes and a large spoiler underneath distinguish the 2007 LP640 from previous Murciélagos and make the bold design of the outgoing coupe even wilder. A redesigned rear diffuser encompasses twin exhaust pipes, and the taillights are now all red.
Owners can show off the heart of their beast with a new optional glass engine cover. Archrival Ferrari has offered similar transparent paneling as standard equipment on its mid-engine models for more than two decades, starting with the 1987 F40.

The LP640 has an extra intake just ahead of the driver’s-side rear wheel that pipes cool air to the oil radiator. The 18-inch titanium wheels are new and lighter, wrapped in performance Pirelli rubber. Racing tires are optional.

Like its predecessor and the current Murciélago Roadster, the LP640 has a permanent all-wheel-drive system with electronic traction control, which doesn't just improve performance but is essential to tame this high-powered monster. Under normal conditions 70 percent of the engine's power is sent to the rear wheels. During intense driving up to 100 percent of the drive force can be sent to either the front or rear axles.
Also carried over from the previous raging bull is an electronically controlled adaptive suspension and six-speed manual transmission linked to a stronger rear differential and beefed-up axles. A paddle-shift sequential-manual transmission, which Lamborghini calls e-gear, remains optional. It offers two modes — Thrust and Sport — the latter having more aggressive shift parameters for split-second gear changes.
Massive brake discs — the front ones are roughly 15 inches in diameter — are a little larger than those on the outgoing coupe. Slightly thicker carbon-ceramic brake discs are optional and designed to reduce brake fade, where the brakes become less effective as the discs overheat from severe use, such as on a racetrack.
Eyes can distinguish the Murcielago LP640 from the car that debuted in 2001 and has since sold some 2000 copies. (LP640 represents the car's engine position-longitudinale posteriore-and its horsepower, 640.) A new front bumper, molded of carbon fiber like all the body panels except the steel roof and doors, provides more downforce. The side mirrors are resculpted, and a larger driver's-side air intake accommodates a bigger oil cooler. The rear diffuser's huge center exhaust replaces the previous quad pipes in an acknowledgement that many owners were installing similar setups via the aftermarket.

A bigger bore and a longer stroke for the 60-degree V-12 bump displacement from 6.2 to 6.5 liters and output from 580 hp to 640 hp, just in time to maintain bragging rights over the 612-hp V-12 in Ferrari's new 599GTB Fiorano. The Lamborghini's basic block design carries over, with new heads, intake and exhaust systems, and engine-control electronics. Balboni claims that the engine is "60 percent new."
The V-12 now can be served up under glass, which is a welcome development, since there is no sense in hiding the engine of one of the world's most extroverted supercars. Gear ratios for the six-speed manual or the six-speed e-gear, paddle-shift transmission also were modified. Lamborghini says that, with e-gear, the LP640 reaches 60 mph in only 3.4 seconds, an improvement of 0.4 second over the original Murcielago, and the top speed rises from 205 mph to 211 mph, a claim we had no opportunity to test. Not that Balboni would have let us, anyway.

Soon we are driving the 632-hp Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 behind Balboni, who is in his green Audi A4 diesel, and we can’t keep up. That’s because the narrow farm roads around the Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata, Italy, have three lanes, two visible ones for routine traffic and one invisible lane just for Balboni. He darts into it frequently to pick off slowpokes, the obliging Fiats moving to the right with barely a flashed headlight of complaint. The 81.0-inch-wide LP640, in our abnormally cautious hands, snorts and burbles and falls steadily behind.-->

The windup to warp speed happens in one long, startlingly smooth blast of intoxicating bull power. Better still, the clutch engages with a light pedal and facile fluidity, the bulky all-wheel-drive powertrain as tractable and complacent as a Honda’s from stoplight to stoplight. The LP640 is still a supercar by an older definition, meaning that it pushes and pogos and feels generally gargantuan. But the Murciélago now serves horsepower every bit as civilized as that from its nearby competitors at Il Cavallino Modenese.

What happened was an engine redesign. The 572-hp, 6.2-liter dry-sump V-12 became a 6.5, going up a millimeter in bore size and 2.2mm in stroke. Everything from the crank mains up was redesigned to extract more power, flatten the delivery of the 487 pound-feet of torque, and improve emissions, starting with reshaped combustion chambers in new cylinder heads. Variable-valve-timing mechanisms on both sets of cams are now rotary-type with infinite variability; before, it was a two-step system. The multichamber intake plenum changed from a crossflow to a vertical downdraft, the air ramming through oval tubes straight into larger valves.

Lamborghini, which proudly makes its own engine computers, completely rewrote the software (no doubt with some input from parent company Audi) to accommodate the new hardware. The engineers say they also cut 60 pounds out of the engine compartment.

You’ll know the LP640 by its larger oil-cooler scoop — there are almost 13 quarts on tap — on the driver’s-side rocker panel. A chin spoiler, a rear aerodynamic undertray, and a see-through engine cover are other cues to the LP640’s newness, as are redesigned taillamps and bumpers. Inside, the leather is crisscrossed by a modish diamond-pleat stitch pattern, and the dull instrument cluster finally gets — ta-dum! — a Lamborghini logo. In a few more years it may get chrome rings, too.

Lamborghini Gallardo

The Gallardo is probably the finest all-round supercar money can buy.



Facts At A Glance

CAR: Lamborghini Gallardo

PRICE: £134,000 on the road

INSURANCE GROUP: 20

CO2 EMISSIONS: 400g/km

PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 196mph / 0-60mph 3.8s

FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 14.5mpg WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE ? Length/Width/Height 4300/1900/1165mm

It takes quite some time to get your head around a Lamborghini Gallardo. After all, Lambos were always supposed to be cars that would leave the average driver with post traumatic stress disorder after the briefest acquaintance. Yet the latest Gallardo doesnt quite fit that billing. The doors dont open skywards, instead functioning much like a normal car.

If you ever want to understand why some people are willing to part with $246,000 for a Lamborghini, one day with a bright-yellow Gallardo Superleggera will make it all clear. People gawp and gape and wind down their windows to mouth the words “wow” and, in the case of spotty teenagers, “sick.”

Strangers become emboldened to ring your doorbell on a Saturday afternoon and beg for a closer look. Others will tail you home at 11 p.m., like pesky magnets, in pursuit of a closer look at a car that is a common sight only at Lamborghini’s plant in Sant’Agata Bolognese in northern Italy and possibly at South Beach in Florida.

The Superleggera is the hard-core version of Lambo’s entry-level supercar, the Gallardo, trimmed of 126 pounds, thanks to the extensive use of Superman-hard but lightweight carbon fiber. The engine cover, the rear diffuser, the underbody cover, the exterior mirrors, the rear spoiler, the side sills, and the inner door panels are all made of carbon fiber, and some of the glass—the rear window, for one—has been replaced with lighter-weight polycarbonate. Removing 126 pounds from a supercar is a good thing, but bear in mind that the 3434-pound curb weight is hardly light, as declared by the Italian term superleggera (“super light”).

Any new Lamborghini is an event, mainly because the lull between model releases is so painfully long. There were sixteen years between the Countach and the Diablo, a whopping twenty-eight between the Silhouette/Jalpa and the newest small Lamborghini, the Gallardo. But too often, the cars made news not with refinement and poise but with flashy bodywork, ludicrous top speeds, and handling so diabolical Lamborghini even named a car after it. Rudeness is at the core of the Lamborghini allure, but come on. Would you really want to ride a mechanical bull like the Diablo all the way up to 204 mph? The Diablo should have been equipped with dual-stage, front and side airsick bags.

Things are different at the little company from Sant'Agata Bolognese today, chiefly because the Italians have some very serious bosses from Audi peering over their shoulders. Proof of this is in the slightly less glacial pace at which Lamborghinis are arriving. The new Gallardo, due here in October, comes right after 2001's Murcilago, offering its own kind of proof that Lamborghini is serious about building world-class sports cars. The Gallardo is a comfortable, stylish, and thoroughly viable competitor to Porsche's 911 GT2 and Ferrari's 360 Modena-a daily driver of the type Ferruccio Lamborghini had in mind when he founded the company in 1963.

The legendary Ferrari-directed ire that prompted Lamborghini to make sports cars burns as fiercely as it ever did in Sant'Agata. The Gallardo's mission is to be the highest-performance car in its segment, and thus it uses some conventions of that segment as its starting point. Like the Modena, it has an aluminum spaceframe, optional automated-manual gearbox, mid-mounted engine, and twin front-mounted radiators that give the car its generous interior package. The Gallardo one-ups the Modena, though, in a few important areas. Instead of the 394-horsepower V-8 in the Ferrari, it has a 492-horsepower V-10. Instead of rear-wheel drive, it has a performance-oriented yet bacon-saving four-wheel-drive system. It is a bit heavier than the Modena, but its extra power puts it right in the low-four-second ballpark, acceleration-wise.

The V-10 that overcomes the Gallardo's 3153-pound curb weight is literally the centerpiece of the car. In contrast to Lamborghini's recent twelve-cylinder cars, power flows rearward from the engine to a tail-mounted six-speed transaxle. (In the Countach, the Diablo, and the Murcilago, the transmission is located forward of the engine.) A 90-degree V angle was selected to reduce the overall height of the undersquare (the stroke is longer than the bore) engine-a move that necessitated split crank pins to achieve even firing intervals. Other features include a dry-sump lubrication system that further lowers engine height and center of gravity, variable timing on intake and exhaust tracts, a two-stage intake manifold with long runners to optimize midrange output and short runners for peak power at high rpm, and dual electronically actuated throttles.

Against the clock, the Gallardo will register a sprint to 60mph in 3.8 seconds and keep going to 196mph. The four-wheel drive electronics arent quite as clever as those in a 911 Turbo when it comes to stepping cleanly off the line but get up to higher velocities and you wont begrudge that, the Gallardo behaving for the most part like a traditional rear driver. Only when youre really pushing it over scabby tarmac can you feel the front tyres biting for grip.



What impresses most is the body control. Drive the same section of road in a Porsche 911 or even a Ferrari F430 and there would be a lot more roll, squat and dive. The Lamborghini planes flat, almost sucked to the ground, its hefty 19-inch tyres and foursquare stance giving the driver almost unassailable confidence levels. Equipment levels have been enhanced and include items like the Lamborghini Multimedia System with CD changer, MP3 player and tuner.