For some owners having a full spec’d factory delivered +$500,000 Lamborghini Aventador parked in their garage just doesn’t cut it, they want something a lot more exclusive … a car like the Lamborghini Aventador J shown in 2012 or the more recent Veneno which was priced at €3,000,000 would be more along the lines they would love to own … but these are sold out and no longer available for purchase … these owners will now turn to having a one of a kind, unique bespoke car built just for them.
In a recent interview with Greg from DMC Luxury he was asked a few questions about creating a hyper car for a customer with unlimited funds … DMC came up with the $2,500,000 Aventador LP1200-4R concept.
What are some popular demands from Lamborghini owners wanting to customize their ride?
People that own a modern V12 Lamborghini are enjoying the lifestyle that comes with driving an exotic super car like the Aventador, they show the world they are not afraid of the intimidating performance of such a car and are able to enjoy the finest things in life … including the top of the line when it comes to high speed cars that can still be driven daily.
Most of them share one strong feeling in the end: they hate being perceived as common and really don’t like to show up at an exotic car event just to park next to a row of cars almost identical to their own … so they want to personalize it, be it with custom wheels, custom bodywork or a different interior … the trick to make a Lamborghini Aventador stand out even more from the crowd is to change the details to make it look just different enough to be noticed … installing a DMC Stage 3 kit on the Aventador will be a perfect way to make it stand out from the crowd …
However if the owner is really serious about being ‘different’ he will have a bespoke car created, have a set of wheels custom made just for his ride and ditch the original interior for a new set of seats, steering wheel, high end audio installation and a one of a kind leather upholstery … even twin turbo charging
the already potent V12 engine is an option to be considered.
What are the most challenging part if you want to turn your Lamborghini, say an Aventador into a batmobile? Or any other super hero inspired look?
The most challenging part would be to have the parts made, as all of the bodywork will be one-off it would take custom molds to have the part made from carbon fiber … add to this the issue of keeping the car street legal and those ‘Batmobile style’ sharp fins might become a problem in the long run.
What do you envision to be the most expensive part for the whole makeover?
Creating the bespoke, one of a kind body parts, wheels and interior … these are not ‘of the shelve’ parts you can go out and buy locally, most of them will have to be made from scratch, which has its price … once fitted to the car final adjustments for a perfect fit will take time and effort … increasing the overall cost even further.
What does an owner needs to be aware of before sending the car over for customizing?
It will get worse before it gets better … nothing scares an owner of a $500,000 super car more than seeing it taken apart … bumpers, fenders, doors, glass, interior, wheels … everything will be removed from the car leaving a bare chassis … which usually doesn’t look too nice … but the owner has to keep in mind the finished product will exceed his wildest expectations.
Tell us about the process, how it works and the duration of the whole makeover.
Every tuning or customizing project will start with several meetings between the owner and the tuning company to make sure they both understand what will be done, as a tuning company you have to understand what the customer wants … which might be more difficult that you imagine as some owners don’t really have a fixed idea on what they would like … they all want something ‘different’ and ‘impressive’, but do they like a classic line like the Miura from the Sixties or do they prefer a more ‘organic’ style like we’ve seen from Zagato for instance … or a futuristic look with lots of gadgets and LED lights … the sky is the limit when it comes to creating a one of a kind bespoke hyper car for that special customer.
Aesthetics and mechanics:
Exterior: things like aerodynamic design for faster speed / matte exterior wrap Naturally the first thing an owner would like to change on his super car is the way it looks on the outside, which let’s face it is still the first thing most onlookers will notice.
A complete facelift will be required to create the hyper car of the future, using completely different parts to cover the bare chassis again starting at the front with a more aggressive styling for the front bumper featuring large air intakes to feed air onto several radiators, interior, brakes … etc … the lower fin on the front bumper will be electronically controlled into different positions regarding speed and road condition, a similar system will be used on the custom side sills and lower rear diffuser … flexible parts will be in a low position for normal driving but can be raised when the condition of the street is bad or when you want to drive up a ramp or into an underground parking lot.
In fact the entire suspension is adaptable too, we are talking about a hyper car that will reach speeds well beyond the 350Km/h mark, so there is no ‘comfort’ setting like on a high end sedan, instead the suspension will actually lower the entire car at high speed while the ‘fins’ at the front, side and rear will
be raised so they don’t touch the road while the suspension is set at its lowest, creating the least drag and preventing air buffeting underneath the completely flat bottom section.
At the rear we’ll have a special rear wing installed, not the usual single blade high riding unit usually seen on this kind of car but a two part wing that extends from the middle where two struts can be raised or lowered depending on speed … to have the perfect balance of speed, drag and down force on the
rear axle … adjustable flaps built into the front hood will have a similar effect on the front axle actually … much like a Formula One nose cone the front hood has a custom system that allows ‘on the fly’ modification of the amount of down force inflicted on the front wheels.
The two ‘wings’ at the rear double as an air brake when the owner has to decrease the speed quickly … normally under such circumstances the car would ‘dip’ forward … however as we have a custom made, adjustable suspension system, if the driver ‘hits the brakes’ not only will the rear wings come up in a 75 degree angle to use the wind as a brake, but the front suspension will stiffen up to avoid having the nose of the car go down too much … remember the flaps in the front hood to increase down force … well
they can also come up into the air to act as additional air brakes … all the while the exhaust at the back will probably be spitting flames to increase the already dramatic look with the fins in the air.
Being the car enthusiast that has everything we’ll be using the Aventador Roadster as a basis … the entire bodywork has already been modified as described above … but we’re not finished yet. Those removable roof panels look nice and can be stored up front in the original car … but this is a one of a
kind hyper car we are creating, so we replace the roof panels with new units, again made from lightweight carbon fiber … but the center part is made from airplane grade tempered glass … even with the roof ‘closed’ the owner will still have a sense of space and light through this ‘glass roof’ … which allows him to see the dual air intakes we’ve mounted on the completely custom made engine cover, feeding air into the twin intercoolers installed on top of each bank of cylinders.
If you look at the side of the original Aventador the massive air intake dominates the view, so our bespoke hyper car will retain that intake but we’ll still add a personal touch to it, a ‘swooping’ side fin that starts just behind the front wheel and goes up when it reaches the rear wheel, featuring the traditional Italian TriColore shades to make sure nobody forgets we are talking about a super car originally made in Italy. This fin will also make the rear a little wider so it completes the wider front fenders … F1 style all the way to the back of the car where these vertical side fins double as fenders, in complete race style fashion with multiple stabilization fins under the diffuser … the two center fins going up to form the struts for our dual rear wings.
Up front we replaced the bumper, fenders and hood … but also the original headlights are gone, instead there is a small, additional air intake on each side to tunnel air into the air-conditioning system for the occupants while new high power LED found their way into the bumper air intakes to replace the
headlights … turn signals are now an array of orange LED that ‘run’ in the direction required when activated… a similar setup is seen at the rear while on the side we install orange LED on the side sills that illuminate to show the other drivers when we are making a turn.
Mechanics: engine update. The V12 engine installed in the Lamborghini Aventador has a factory power output of 700hp, with DMC engine tuning this is already increased to 900hp using individual throttle bodies and modified ECU’s… but imagine adding a pair of turbochargers on top of this.
Thanks to the air intakes mentioned earlier cool air is forced into the engine bay to keep it all at a reasonable operating temperature, depending on pressure settings and fuel used we are looking at 1,200hp to 1,500hp without too much trouble … if you really want to go all the way I’m sure a power
output of 2,000hp can be achieved … but that just might strain the engine a little too much, let alone be a handful to drive in the city.
Interior: bespoke leather
As an owner you will most likely be spending a lot of time behind the steering wheel, so the interior will have to be totally customized too … not only a special combination of colors and some carbon fiber parts … those can be ordered by anyone straight from the factory … we are talking about something
so off the chart people will stare in awe when open the door and step out of your very own, unique hyper car.
Everybody has leather or Alcantara seats … in this car we are installing the world’s finest exotic alligator skin using a Norwegian construction for durability and added water resistance (we are talking about a Roadster remember, you never know you get caught in a thunder storm) with a contrasting stitching made from linen twine to make it more durable. Naturally the door panels will receive parts covered in alligator skin too, but otherwise these will be clear carbon fiber with gold leave inlay contrasting perfectly with the black shade of the carbon fiber and the very dark green tint of the bespoke leather.
The top of the dashboard and parts of the steering wheel will be covered in black, reversed calf skin to counteract reflections, but the lower part will use the same dark green alligator skin again, the central console will be restyled to make it really special using sections in clear carbon fiber, gold leave inlay
and hardened crystal switches illuminated by backlight when driving at night.
Techy stuff: B&O stereo, holographic navigation, hands-free voice control, biometric security.
In this day and age you don’t need to insert a key into the ignition anymore, just have it in your pocket and press the ‘Start’ button … as this will be a one of a kind bespoke hyper car we can take this into the future by having sensors built into the door handles … when the owner touches the door handle these
sensors will verify the fingerprints and only unlock the car if they match those programmed to allow entry … same thing with the ‘start’ button … if the fingerprints don’t match the car simply doesn’t start.
Seat position memory is nice, but in this car the seats actually change shape according to the person sitting in them, the car already ‘knows’ who is getting into the driver seat and the passenger seat from the sensors in the door handle, so using inflatable ‘cushions’ built into the seats they can be formed perfectly for that one person sitting in them, even the headrest will be positioned at the ideal height and angle preset in memory.
Using this kind of ‘adjustability’ the seats actively help during cornering too … if you take a hard turn these cushions will inflate on one side and deflate on the other side so you are kept neatly ‘engulfed’ in the seat at any time. By using perforated leather for the center section of the seat and backrest an air
flow system inside the seat will prevent you from stepping out with a sweaty back.
The seat frame itself will be made from the patented Forged Composite … a very lightweight material that is extremely sturdy and allows the installation of multiple, separate cushions onto the frame … totally custom made for the owner with the added bonus of being adjustable as listed earlier.
The original display of the Lamborghini Aventador is an LCD screen, but for this bespoke hyper car the layout has been changed to look even more like a fighter plane … we add a HUD right in front of the driver to show the most important details like speed and rpm, but to the left and right of the dashboard
pod we mount another display that will show the image from the rear view camera installed … those large exterior rear view mirrors have been removed from the doors, they cause too much drag anyway, instead we have multiple, miniature HD camera installed on the front fenders just above the wheels, at
the front and at the rear of our hyper car.
In front of the passenger we have two thin displays that slide out from the dashboard and flip up, both are touch sensitive and can be used to control a multitude of settings on the stereo, the engine management, the suspension, exhaust valves, turbo pressure … just about the complete ‘setup’ of our hyper car can be modified and adjusted … within reason naturally, there will always be a computer system ‘watching’ your back to avoid making unreasonable combinations of settings.
Naturally the central console will also have a touch screen to allow the driver access to most of these settings, but for safety reasons the options on this central console display will be restricted once the car is moving, while the passenger can still change settings that would not interfere with a moving car
… at high speed many of these settings will be prohibited from being modified … you don’t want to set the rear wing in the ‘brake’ position at 300km/h when you don’t press the brake pedal … but the passenger can still slightly alter the angle of both front and rear ‘fins’ while driving and lower the suspension further … even the canter on the wheels can be modified this way to increase cornering speeds.
Most owners would argue the best music is the sound from that V12 engine and the roar emitted from the massive exhaust pipes, but from time to time they still want to enjoy a little music … this is where we mount a custom made system developed specifically for this car. Sure we have a large sub woofer
behind each seat and the doors hold tweeter and mid range speakers while we also add a smaller sub woofer underneath the dashboard (the lower a woofer ‘sits’ the better bass it will produce) but we also mount small speakers in the headrest of each seat … in fact both seats also hold a microphone …
used for the voice control of the navigation and hands free phone system.
When driving topless you can use the custom, color coded helmets delivered with the car that hold a complete headset (speaker and microphone) that in addition to the navigation and phone can be used as an intercom system to talk to your passenger/navigator … just like in Formula One offshore powerboats … at 350km/h having a conversation with your passenger while driving without a roof might be a problem … with our system you can just talk to each other at any speed … and the helmets are wireless, there is no cable that might get in the way while being plugged in.
So the lucky owner of our hyper car of the future will have a one of a kind super car nobody else is able to acquire. Sure it will be expensive but you will end up with a very special looking car that has been wind tunnel tested to offer the least possible drag while the ‘boosted’ engine will deliver more than enough power to reach speeds well beyond 350Km/h while acceleration from 0 to 100km/h will be in the low 2 seconds window … that is race car performance while you are still seated in the softest alligator leather and enjoying high end electronics in a car that can be completely customized from two touch screens inside the car …
Inside we encounter a perfect combination of dark green alligator hides, black clear carbon fiber and gold inlay while some of the switches are made from beautiful crystal … the exterior of the car will show similar shades … this car will be made from carbon fiber, but we will not have it completely clear coated
… the carbon weave would make it too busy, so instead we have details in clear carbon fiber with a matte top coat while the majority of the body panels will be covered in a very dark metallic green shade to complement the interior … the customer will be able to opt for either a high gloss top coat, a satin top
coat or even a fully matte coat … to make this car really stand out even more we will also be using gold inlay on the outside … not too much to avoid it from going over the top, but just enough to get that venerable luxury look while still keeping a race inspired feeling.
A one of a kind look … one of a kind performance … attention to detail and perfect workmanship … this is the hyper car of the future.