We are about one month away from the Press days at the 2011 edition of the IAA Frankfurt, one of the most important auto shows in Europe, and a venue where Automobili Lamborghini SpA has made a habit of showing special cars … like the Reventon four years ago and the Reventon Roadster two years ago (the IAA is only held every two years, takes turn with the Paris Motor Show) … and this time things look great.
As usual only a small statement was made, and a picture that really doesn’t reveal anything was sent to the press. ‘Racing towards Frankfurt’ and ‘Discover a new Lamborghini super sports car at the next Frankfurt Motorshow’ are the two key phrases on the image, together with the date and time of the official press conference, probably held by Stephan Winkelmann himself, on the Lamborghini stand.
So what are we to expect in a few weeks ? Officially your guess is as good as mine, lots of people have been writing about a production version of the Sesto Elemento, either only for track use or for road use, but in any case only available in highly limited numbers and priced at anything between €1,500,000 and €2,000,000 … could be, could be we are completely wrong and Automobili Lamborghini SpA once again managed to prepare something totally different and unexpected.
Well, maybe not totally unexpected, as we all have found a list of cars they are on the verge of putting in production … like a totally new model to replace the by now aging Gallardo. Talk about a Cabrera with a V10 pumping out at least 600 Bhp has been going round for a while now, but somehow I think a successor to a current model would be unveiled in Geneva as usual, so I’m guessing we won’t be seeing a Gallardo replacement to tackle the Ferrari 458 Italia until March 2012 … but I could be wrong.
If the IAA would see a Sesto Elemento being available for sale I’m almost certain it will be all sold out by September 13. 2011 anyway, and it will not be a street legal car, at least not if it looks anything like the concept unveiled at Paris last year … there is now way a Sesto Elemento in that form would make it onto the open road, so a track special it will be.
Or not ? We’ve also received mails about a Sesto Elemento Spyder … not as radical as the Paris Concept, but still a lightweight, limited edition model using Gallardo underpinnings and powertrain, but boasting a clear carbon fiber bodywork. Our graphics people made up a nice mock up of how such a car could look, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind seeing a Sesto Elemento Spyder as a swansong to the outgoing Gallardo … a kind of uber tribute to the most successful Lamborghini ever, a perfect way to end a chapter in the expanding Lamborghini history.
But there is more on the horizon from Lamborghini, we all know the brand new Aventador will be joined by a topless version, and hints are this isn’t going to take years this time, so will we get a close look at an open top V12 flagship next month ? Could be, and again we’ve put together a nice ‘photoshop’ of an Aventador LP700-4 Roadster … and it would surely look nice, as the basis are already stunning, and you can bet your life on the fact they will be putting a better roof on it this time, as beautiful as the Murcielago Roadster was, you can’t say putting on the roof was a simple task, especially not the first time around.
And while we are dreaming … why not go all the way, our in house artist put together an Aventador R-SV, wouldn’t it be great seeing a Super Trofeo 2012 season with V12 race cars ? I sure would love to see that, but I think this dream is one step too far at this moment. I’ve talked with the people behind Reiter Engineering, who built the Murcielago R-GT and the FIA GT1 R-SV version, the latter one is still viable for another four years in case you are wondering. They actually confirmed building a GT1 World Championship version of the Aventador isn’t an option at this time, with the current regulation they would have to lower the power output too far which would make the car have a very hard time competing with the rest of the pack … on the other hand a GT1 version of the Gallardo could be a much better option.
And last but not least we have the Estoque … we didn’t forget about this four door super sedan unveiled in Paris three years ago, plans to build a high power, comfortable GT model at Lamborghini have been put on ice for a while, but in several interviews Stephan Winkelmann, CEO of Automobili Lamborghini SpA, has confirmed such a car would be a perfect candidate for a third model line up at Sant’Agata.
But another model could take this third range, a lot of talk has been going round about a successor to the legendary LM002 off-road super sand buggy, remember it had a V12 engine and was stupendously quick for a 4×4 model of this kind … a 2012 LM-X would be nice too no ? But then I wouldn’t call it a new super sports car to be honest, so I guess this is one option for a later date.
So what is it going to be ? To be honest we have an idea, but nothing official, so we are not making any statements about this, but you can be sure it will be one stunning Raging Bull that will be uncovered by a few stunning fashion models in Frankfurt in a few weeks, the press will go wild over it and as usual the official press kit will be an instant collector’s item, just like the ones for the Sesto Elemento and the Aventador … our designer went to work on some of these models and came up with amazing renderings like an Estoque limousine to name one … make sure to check out our image gallery for this review too …
And for anything official I will see you in Frankfurt on September 13. 2011 …
