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Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, the Lamborghini rally car we didn't know we wanted

Usually, the answer to a question no one asked is a bad thing. But every now and then, it leads to something wonderful, like the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato concept car you see above. It's Lamborghini's take on a rally version of the 2020 Lamborghini Huracan EVO, and it's something we weren't asking for but now desperately want. The Sterrato (translation: "dirt") is mostly a stock Huracan EVO underneath, but that's not bad with a naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 making 640 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque. It also retains its all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and torque vectoring, but they've all been retuned for dirt and loose surfaces. To get around on rougher surfaces, Lamborghini raised the car by 1.85 inches, which the company says improves the approach angle by 1% and the departure angle by 6.5%. The Sterrato's exterior receives huge fender flares that allow for a one-inch wider track front and rear. It wears 20-inch wheels with chunky off-road tires. Aluminum skid plates have been added to the front and rear, and the rear plate doubles as a diffuser. The rocker panels also get aluminum plates for extra protection. Mud guards are fitted, too, as are little deflectors ahead of the intakes to keep rocks from flying in and doing damage. Finally, like any good rally car, it gets huge auxiliary lights with a pair of hexagonal units on the front, and a wide bar on the roof. Inside the Sterrato are a pair of carbon fiber bucket seats plus four-point racing harnesses. But the real showpiece is a full titanium roll cage. Lamborghini didn't say anything about putting the Sterrato into production. But this concept isn't particularly out there, especially compared with some of Lamborghini's concepts, so we suspect if the car gets a good enough reaction, Lamborghini might consider production. And if it doesn't, we're sure there are some aftermarket companies that would be happy to help wealthy car enthusiasts re-create the car.

Lambo Urus to stay true to concept, but almost didn't happen

Lamborghini has been making noise about adding a third model line for years, and it's finally going to happen now that the Urus concept has been approved for production. It'll likely be a while yet before all the details are sorted out and revealed to the public, but while visiting the factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Autoblog was able to glean some intriguing details about the Italian automaker's forthcoming crossover and its path it is taking from concept to production. "It's good to have heritage, but the LM002 is not the reference or the blueprint." - Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann We first saw the Urus concept back in 2012, and Lamborghini has been lobbying its parent company Volkswagen ever since for the go-ahead to put it into production. Now three years later, it finally has the green light. A company representative told Autoblog the production version looks "very" close to the concept. (No ground-up redesign here, then, like sister-brand Bentley did with its inaugural crossover project.) Speaking with a small group of journalists in Sant'Agata, the company's chief executive Stephan Winkelmann confirmed that "the SUV could be the [company's] first car with a turbo, and it could be the first car with a plug-in, if we have the opportunity to have more than one engine." The Urus (or however it's ultimately labeled for production) will also be decidedly geared towards on-road performance – unlike the Rambo Lambo on display in the museum next door. "It's good to have heritage," said Winkelmann, "but the LM002 is not the reference or the blueprint" for the new model. As to the question of why it has taken three years to get approval, and why it will take another three to put it into production, Winkelmann was frank: "Basically if you look at our numbers, we are a company which is growing at a fast pace, but we are very small," said the affable executive. "We had to find a way to almost double our efforts, because it's not the exchange of a model line, with the Gallardo and Huracan, it's adding a model line. And not out of 20 to come to 21 models, but from two to three is a major effort, and you have to have a rock-solid business case." "Putting 500 more people inside a company which is now at 1,200, you can imagine what it means. Doubling almost the size of the area here where we are sitting today. Investing hundreds and hundreds of millions.

World's most expensive model car will be wrapped in thin gold sheet [w/video]

A couple of years ago, we featured a car that had a body made out of carbon fiber and an interior and wheels fashioned from gold and platinum and lined with diamonds. The price for that supercar, based on the Lamborghini Aventador, was a staggering $4.7 million. The hook: it was a 1/8-scale model! The man behind that model, Robert Gülpen, is at it again, and will offer for sale at an auction house another baby Aventador, but this one is wrapped in gold and will command a price of at least $7.5 million - making it the most-expensive model car in the world. Compare the model's price with that of the real thing - $397,500 - which means you could have 18 real Aventador coupes (!) for the price of the gold-wrapped model.
The car's details are even more impressive than the last model Gülpen produced, starting with the gold wrap. After baking the carbon-fiber model at a high temperature and under pressure, the body is wrapped in a gold sheet that's 1/1,000-mm thin. The resultant effect allows one to admire the gold hue, but the wrap is so thin that the carbon-fiber weave is plainly visible. The interior is lined with high-carat gemstones and the wheels are cast in gold and platinum, just like the last model. The doors open and close, the wheels turn and, while the engine looks like a smaller version of the V12 found in the full-size car, it does not function.
The materials used in the build are valued at $2.6 million, so what the buyer is paying for is the work behind putting the model together. The car will be mounted inside a bulletproof showcase with a Lamborghini logo made of gold, platinum and gemstones, among other goodies that are included for one well-heeled buyer.