At the 2010 Paris Motor Show Lamborghini stunned the automotive world with a lightweight concept car called the Sesto Elemento … or Sixth Element, being carbon fiber … featuring some amazing looking seats that consisted merely of pads glued straight onto the monocoque of the car.
Powered by a V10 taken from the Gallardo LP570-4 Superveloce feeding power to all four wheels this 999 kg heavy prototype offered some serious performance … the Sesto Elemento in Paris might have been just a prototype concept, but she was fully driveable and because of the impressive power to weight ratio of only 1.75 kg/hp the acceleration figures were magnificent to say the least … 0 to 100km/h in only 2.5 seconds.
About a year after the initial unveil in Paris of the Sesto Elemento, Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini SpA confirmed a very limited production run of 20 units during the press conference at the 2011 IAA in Frankfurt … with a unit price of $2,200,000 and deliveries planned from 2013 on … by June 2012 Lamborghini reported the Sesto Elemento to be sold out already.
Years passed, and nothing much was heard about the Sesto Elemento anymore … did customers receive their cars … if so, why haven’t we heard about it … I guess because people that spent $2,200,000 on a track only car don’t really get to use it on the open road, the Sesto Elemento is in fact not street legal in most parts of the world.
However recently we’ve seen a video of a Sesto Elemento being driving on the road, at night, in the Middle East … and now Lamborghini Hong Kong published a press release on how they delivered a Sesto Elemento to an owner in Hong Kong … so are the customer cars being delivered only now, or have the previous owners been able to keep their Sesto Elemento a secret?
Who knows, what counts is the fact there are at least two Sesto Elemento in private hands by now, and most likely a lot more that we don’t know about … rumor has it a total of 15 to 16 Sesto Elemento were built in the end … it is just a matter of finding out where they are located.
One is currently located at Lamborghini Hong Kong, or Kingsway Cars Ltd, the sole authorized distributor for Automobili Lamborghini SpA in Hong Kong … remember a while ago they had not one, but two Lamborghini Veneno Roadster delivered … there are a lot of high end Lamborghini in Hong Kong apparently.
Back to the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, the entire car is made from carbon fiber, even the suspension and the wheels are made from this lightweight material, but Lamborghini didn’t just put a normal clear coat over this beautiful material … instead they managed to use a coating that on one hand makes the structure even stronger … while on the other hand giving a very special shine by having tiny red particles in the top coat.
On the interior the Sesto Elemento doesn’t have regular seats, instead we get the admire the very special Forged Composite monocoque that actually has seats molded into the chassis itself, Lamborghini just adds a set of pads covered with red fabric to create a seat … with no adjustments whatsoever naturally.
So what if different people drive a Sesto Elemento? Fear not, the steering wheel complete with dashboard pod is adjustable in height and reach … and the pedals can also be moved forward or backward so the driver can reach them … in fact there is no real dashboard inside the Sesto Elemento, just a lightweight frame and a central console with three buttons … start/stop, Reverse and a light switch … back to basics.
The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is the ultimate experience in driving, being such a lightweight while still offering tremendous power and roadholding capabilities, the Sesto Elemento is truly a track car … no creature comforts inside, a big V10 engine just behind your ears and plastic side windows with a small sliding section.
It would be nice to see where more of these Sesto Elemento hide out of sight however …
