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1998 Lamborghini Diablo SV Roadster, a unicorn bull, heads to auction

  Lamborghini made only two Diablo SV Roadsters, and RM Sotheby's is putting this one up for sealed auction running December 13-15. It's not only a rarity, it's a throwback to a time just 23 years ago that people who were there have to make an effort to remember. A time when Lamborghinis barely sold; Chrysler put the Lamborghini Diablo on the market in 1990, Audi took it off the market in 2001, Lambocars puts the entire Diablo run over those 11 years at around 2,500 cars including prototypes and factory specials. Today's Lamborghini moved more than double that number in the first half of this year. The products back then also weren't all that good; yes you could enjoy them, but you were going to sweat and work for it, and a yellow example was driven only by a tycoon or the loosest of cannons. This SV Roadster in Giallo over Nero "Torpedo" Alcantara with yellow piping has undoubtedly seen more pearls clutched than Oyster Bay.  In 1995, just after Chrysler sold the Italian outfit, Lamborghini launched the Diablo VT Roadster, a convertible version of the all-wheel-drive Diablo VT, and the Super Veloce (SV) Coupe, a pared-back rear-driver with more power from the 5.7-liter V12 than in the standard Diablo VT. The new Malaysian and Indonesian owners wanted to lure more American buyers, so they funded development of an SV Roadster to be a lighter, lither RWD version of the AWD VT Roadster. Three years later, a Pearl Orange SV Roadster show car went on display at the Geneva Motor Show in 1998. U.S. dealers wanted the car. However, the Malaysian and Indonesian owners sold Lamborghini to Audi the same year, and Audi canceled all rear-wheel-drive projects. A Milanese Lamborghini dealer asked Lamborghini's CEO to make one more example; the CEO agreed. Having created market demand then stiff-armed it, Lamborghini dealers and distributors in various regions removed the AWD system from some VT Roadsters to create something like an SV Roadster. However, the SV Roadster show car and the example for the Milanese dealer are the only two factory-official SV Roadsters in existence.  This one's been in the hands of four European collectors and shows 42,842 kilometers (26,621 miles) on the odo. Its V12 makes 530 horsepower and 446 pound-feet of torque. Lots of spendy options on this one, including exposed carbon fiber for the roof and intake blades, the optional rear wing also in exposed carbon fiber, the front suspension lift system, and the sports exhaust.

Lamborghini reveals Aventador Nazionale in Beijing

Special editions have proven themselves a great way for high-end automakers to get a little bit more for their wares, but they appear to be gradually being taken over by personalization programs that allow customers to order their exotic new wheels just as they want them. After all, what's the point in ordering a special color scheme someone else has chosen when you can choose it yourself, with special wheels and interior upholstery to match?
Lamborghini has just such a program. It's called Ad Personam, and like the customization catalogs offered by other automakers, it allows its clients to specify any range of stylistic parameters to suit their own taste. To showcase the program, Lamborghini brought a customized Aventador to the Beijing Motor Show. Called the Nazionale edition, it's got a white paintjob with tricolore racing stripes up the hood, anthracite wheels, and a blue leather interior.
It's similar to the Gallardo Tricolore that rolled out of Sant'Agata three years ago - the kind of treatment we'd otherwise call a special edition, but despite carrying a different name, it just goes to show the possibilities Lamborghini offers it customers. For the right price, of course.

Lamborghini NA V12 swan song a track-only 830-hp Aventador SVR?

According to a poster on a McLaren Life forum and picked up by The Supercar Blog, Lamborghini is preparing a small-batch, track-only model to begin deliveries around 2021. At the end of last month, user Champagne612 wrote that he (or she) was "Going to spec next week and test drive the SVR V12 track version of AV." In the words of Champagne612, this Aventador SVR is the last hurrah for Lamborghini's naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12, a flourish before hybridization becomes necessary on the brand's iconic powerplant. Supposedly, only 40 SVRs will be made, each one producing 830 atmospheric horsepower. That would give the SVR 60 more horses than the road-legal SVJ. Lamborghini's only made two other SVR models. In 1968, there was the one-of-one Miura Jota SVR, a customer-request Lamborghini brewed with a mix of outsourced parts. More relevant to this latest car, in 1996 Lamborghini built 31 examples of the Diablo SV-R — based on the Diablo SV — to form a one-make race series. It's not clear if the coming SVR will be just a customer track-day car, a la the new Porsche 911 GT2 RS-based 935, or if Lamborghini has larger plans, a la the Ferrari FXX-K program. The Sant' Agata brand has leaned even more into the customer racing vibe of late, with a Urus one-make series planned, and the customer-request, road-legal Aventador-based SC18 Alston unveiled last year (pictured). Based on that, there's chatter that an Aventador SVR could be a feint at the so-called hypercar class opening next year in the World Endurance Championship. The connection seems more than tenuous, but it's not impossible. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali said at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that the carmaker was perusing the hypercar regulations taking effect in 2020 until about 2025, and told Autocar that the SC18 Alston "shows that we have internal capabilities for such a [Le Mans] project." Those rules require a minimum weight of 1,100 kilograms, maximum combined output of 750 hp — an optional hybrid system can contribute no more than 270 hp — and a minimum of 20 production versions built over two years. Save for the fact that committed entries from Aston Martin and Toyota are much more slippery than any Lamborghini, the rules on paper put an Aventador-based model firmly in the mix, and unresolved regulations limiting downforce and mandating a minimum drag figure could inch an Italian competitor closer to the mark.