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Runway Rumble: Nissan GT-R, Ducati 1098 and Lamborghini Reventon Roadster battle it out

One 2.5-mile runway, three different ways to take off: a Ducati 1098, a tuned Nissan GT-R with 580 horsepower and a launch control upgrade, and a Lamborghini Reventon Roadster. You'd naturally expect the Ducati to assert it's lightweight, high-horsepower authority in these matters, but with more than two miles to run, the ride that gets the jump at the line isn't always the one that gets the win.
That comes in especially handy for the Lamborghini, which suffers from a bad start in the first race and just looks plain ordinary in the second, until it finds redemption. You can see how it all goes down in the video below.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

Zagato Lamborghini 5-95 successfully aims to be an instant collectible [w/video]

1965 was the first time Zagato and Lamborghini hooked up, when the Milanese coachbuilder created the Lamborghini 3500 GTZ for Marquis Gerino Gerini. There have been several more collaborations since then, the one you see above being the latest: the Lamborghini 5-95, created for collector Albert Spiess and designed to be "a modern collectible" in honor of Zagato's 95th anniversary.
Underneath its Speed Racer curves is a Gallardo LP570-4, its visual mass pushed forward thanks to the striving front fascia and a wind deflector at the bottom of the windshield that lengthens the hood, and a shortened trunk that "reveals the brutality of the mechanical components" in back. Between them are Zagato trademarks like wraparound glass and the double-bubble roof, and the size of the obvious air intakes has been reduced by hiding others in the greenhouse and fixing a center intake above the roof.
The Lamborghini 5-95 is on show at this year's Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este at Lake Como in Switzerland. As for being a collectible, since it's headed straight for Spiess' garage afterward, we'd say they've got that part sealed up. For you non-collectors, there's a short video where you can hear the car fire up and a press release below with a lot more info.