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Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

Take a closer look at Lamborghini's outrageous Veneno [w/video]

We couldn't pass up the chance to take a closer look at the outrageous Lamborghini Veneno. The ultra-limited-production 50th anniversary model looks downright lethal sitting under the lights of the Geneva Motor Show. Regardless of the 750-horsepower V12 lurking at the machine's core, the preponderance of vents, wings, splitters and fins means the hypercar can't help but look like it'll cut you for the fun of it. While most high-performance exotics are as much about what you can't see as what you can, the Veneno gets the ludicrous-loving 12-year-old kid inside of us cackling with joy.
We just can't decide whether this $3.4-million-dollar one-of-three hypercar is the hero or villain of our adolescent daydreams. Maybe both. Click through the detailed gallery for your best look yet at the latest bit of insanity from Lamborghini, and check out its official introduction video below.

Lamborghini Gallardo Squadra Corse will cost $260K* and only come in yellow

If you live in America and want one of the 15 Lamborghini Gallardo Squadra Corses slated for our shores, you'll be happy to know you can have it any color you want, so long as it's yellow. Seems a bit odd, we'll agree, but Lambo's Giallo Midas is kind of a trademark for the brand.
Pricing for the special edition Gallardo, which is limited to just 50 units worldwide, starts at $259,100, *not including the $2,100 gas guzzler tax or the unspecified destination costs. Besides the 15 cars slated for the US market, Canada will get three vehicles of its own. Regardless of where you buy your Squadra Corse, though, they'll be individually numbered and will begin deliveries in September.
Finally, Lamborghini has released a few more images of the new car (not in yellow, oddly), which we've added to our gallery, above.