If you have been reading my event reviews you surely have noticed I’ve been visiting Viva Italia for many years now, in fact I went to the famous TT Circuit in Assen for the first time back in 2000, the 2016 edition was the 15th time I attended this event (2004 and 2010 didn’t happen), and despite the weird weather conditions I wasn’t disappointed … there were a total of 44 different Lamborghini present this year.
Naturally the Lamborghini Club Nederland had their own area on the paddock at Assen, packed with some of the most amazing Raging Bull built in Sant’Agata over the last 53 years, this time the famous black 400 GT 2+2 wasn’t present (the owner recently sold her in fact) so the oldest Bull on the paddock in 2016 was a silver metallic Jarama, an S model actually, and she sure stood out from the pack of exotic V10 and V12 models around her.
From the Nineties you could admire a number of Lamborghini Diablo at the Dutch club stand, a pair of early yellow ones were parked side by side, they were joined by a late model Diablo VT 6.0 in the same shade and one of only 20 Diablo 6.0 SE, this one finished in an amazing looking Oro Elios shade … keep in mind the Diablo will be the next model rise in value as seen by the Diablo SE30 Jota that sold recently.
Lamborghini stepping into the next millennium meant the release of the Murciélago, the long awaited successor to the Diablo is quickly becoming a valued model these days, the early ones are still reasonably priced, but the later LP640 and LP670-4 Super Veloce are getting expensive now … from the original Murciélago 6.2 production there were two units in Assen, a dark grey one and a bright orange one … a later LP640 model was represented in a stunning Nero Nemesis, matte black finish.
This brings us to the Lamborghini Gallardo series, with a production of 14,022 units over a period of 10 years it is only logical a lot of these V10 are around, and they also show up at events like Viva Italia … in all kinds of shades, and in different versions.
In 2003 the Gallardo 5.0 was introduced, and this V10 became a success … many of these early ones were sold in yellow, and it shows … from the four early Gallardo at Viva Italia three were finished in Giallo, with the fourth one being a white version, one of the yellow Gallardo was rolling on some amazing looking Vossen wheels by the way.
A limited edition Gallardo SE was unveiled in 2005, only 250 of these Special Edition would be built and they were available in a limited number of shades, pearl white metallic like the one at Viva Italia with a glossy black roof was one of those shades … that same year the Gallardo Spyder was introduced at the IAA in Frankfurt, the convertible version of the V10 Bull, needless to say orders poured in.
There were three Gallardo Spyder at this event, once again a yellow one, but also a stunning Verde Ithaca one on black wheels while the third one had me puzzled at first … it looked like Verde Ithaca but something was wrong about the shade … turned out this was in fact a black Gallardo Spyder under a green wrap, the hue of Verde was just not right.
In 2007 Lamborghini released a special lightweight version of the Gallardo, called the Superleggera, today probably one of the more sought after versions, especially the showroom fresh white one at Viva Italia … white was a very rare shade on the original Superleggera, a second original Superleggera was finished in Arancio Borealis while the successor, the Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera was represented in Assen in a yellow finish.
The evolution of the Gallardo became known as the LP560-4 model, and naturally two of those came to Assen too, this time in another popular shade … Bianco. One was the closed Coupé form while the second LP560-4 was a stunning Spyder with a two-tone black and white leather interior.
Now there was one more Gallardo V10 at Viva Italia this year … but you might not recognize her at first glance … in fact this Bull was hiding underneath a Batman inspired body that was entered into the 2016 edition of the famous Gumball 3000 by Team Galag, rolling on massive 26-inch Pirelli Scorpion tires … it was one of several Gumball 3000 cars that came to Assen actually.
This brings us to the current production models from Sant’Agata, the Aventador and Huracán series … 19 of these recent cars showed up in Assen. Three of the Aventador LP700-4 units could be admired, one finished in stunning Nero Nemesis and rolling on some amazing HRE wheels while a glossy black one came with a Novitec rear wing and Batman sign on the door. The third one was finished in a stylish Grigio Estoque on black wheels with yellow brake calipers … in fact it almost looked like a His and Hers kind of thing as it was parked next to an Aventador LP700-4 Roadster in exactly the same combination … very nice indeed.
A second Aventador LP700-4 Roadster was finished in glossy black over a set of dark titanium Dione wheels, another beautiful combination … but for me the Grigio Titans finished Pirelli Edition Roadster was simply stunning, the matte body combined with glossy black parts and those red details just make this V12 stand out perfectly … and she wasn’t even the only Pirelli Edition in Assen, a bright red Coupé was also present … and this one came with an amazing clear carbon fiber DMC rear wing.
The icing on the cake for me was the number of Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce at Viva Italia 2016, no less than 6 of these limited edition cars came to Assen and with only 600 being built this was an impressive number. They came from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands … one of them competed in the Gumball 3000 just days ago and still had all the dirt and dust on her … on the complete body wrap that was hiding a Rosso Bia finish.
There was a green finished Superveloce with racing stripes and a custom, large yellow SV script on the side, another one came in Verde Ithaca with the small SV on the side while a third one looked like the Geneva show car in Nouva Giallo Orion, the white one in Assen boasted a large black SV on the side and was ordered with red brake calipers and red center locking screws … a very nice combination … while the sixth Superveloce was a custom order blue with black roof.
From these six Aventador Superveloce half of them had the optional comfort seats while the others came with the very special, carbon fiber sport seats … still all of them had the optional Dianthus central locking wheels … the Superveloce could be ordered with regular, five bolt Dione wheels, but I think most of them will have the Dianthus wheels installed in the end.
Which brings us the last Lamborghini model present at Viva Italia, the Huracán … six of these modern V10 could be admired in Assen, five of the LP610-4 models were shown, a Verde Mantis one was hiding in a pit box from the rain but it did take a stint on the track, while a black car was used by Vredestein to showcase their tires, an amazing looking orange Huracán boasted a carbon fiber rear wing … but also the fin underneath the taillights, the lower diffuser and the air intakes behind the side windows were done in carbon fiber on this car … very nice indeed.
Seeing a Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 finished in Giallo Horus in real life is actually very interesting, the matte yellow finish is magnificent on this car, a rather rare shade, but beautiful … another owner decided he didn’t like the black finish of his Huracán anymore and decided to have a really impressive looking brushed aluminum look vinyl installed … he called his car the LP610-4 Steel Edition.
Finally one of the first Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 Spyder in the Netherlands showed up, finished in a classic looking dark grey metallic over a brown interior, this V10 Spyder looked great, too bad the weather didn’t permit opening the roof as I’m sure that would have drawn a lot more attention to her.
So despite the rain, the wind and the cold … the sun did come out from time to time in Assen, so it was another great event with a lot of exotic supercars on display and some interesting action on the track … Viva Italia 2016 drew a lot of visitors and I can’t wait to do it all over again next year.
