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Lamborghini: We did not cheat on Nurburgring record

"Why would we [cheat]? We have all the data, all the GPS data. It's verified. It's already verified." – Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali Lamborghini is doubling-down on the legitimacy of the Huracan Performante's production-car record at the Nurburgring. The Italian supercar maker should have been on a high when it launched its Huracan Performante at the Geneva Motor Show, but it was instead forced to defend the 6:52.01 lap time on the Nurburgring's Nordschleife circuit in the wake of criticism. Skeptics suggested the footage had been sped up from a rate of 24 frames per second to 25, arguing the 'authentic' lap time would have been closer to 7:08. James Glickenhaus, the owner of ultra-low volume supercar maker Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, even called for the circuit to hold a special day to verify production car lap times. View 12 Photos "Why would we [cheat]?" Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali asked incredulously. "We have all the data, all the GPS data. It's verified. It's already verified. "The simulation we did before we did the lap was already better than the previous time [set by Porsche's hybrid supercar, the 918 Spyder]. "What we saw was the great potential of active aerodynamics. The Nurburgring is a lot of partial throttle and long corners. The SV [Aventador] was for sure faster on the straight, but the lap [by the Performante] was all recorded." A Lamborghini spokesman suggested the entire controversy was rooted in "one blogger's business model [of] paying for clicks." Audi Sport development head, Stephan Reil, also weighed in during last week's Audi RS3 launch, insisting Lamborghini would have had no reason to cheat at anything and that its active aerodynamics would have more than made up for any power shortfalls. Audi is a sister brand of Lamborghini under the ownership of Volkswagen Group. "We also know that architecture well [the Huracan shares its architecture with Reil's R8]. We know what it's capable of," Reil said. "The Performante 'Ring time is absolutely credible. Active aero makes a huge difference. "We did a TT production racer for the 'Ring with about 380 horsepower and gave it maximum wing. It was so slow down the straight that everybody passed it, but the overall lap time was very, very fast. Much faster than without the aero downforce.

Audi: record profit as 'biggest product initiative' in its history gets underway

Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann   Even as the Audi Group (VOW.DE), VW’s luxury division, is in the midst of a huge EV transformation it still needs to perform where it counts — the bottom line. And so it is doing just that.  On Thursday the Audi Group - which is dominated volume-wise by Audi, but also includes Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ducati - posted record revenue and operating profit in 2022. That shouldnÂ’t be a surprise given what the industry has been seeing at the highest end of the market - record performances despite macroeconomic jitters across the globe. But that it's happening as the group is noteworthy.  “We are on the verge of the biggest product initiative in our history,” Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann said at a news conference earlier on Thursday. “By 2025, we will have launched around 20 new models, more than 10 of which will be all-electric. We have set the course to go 100% electric. By 2027, we seek to offer an all-electric vehicle in each core segment.”   This is all part of Audi GroupÂ’s Vorsprung 2030 plan, which seeks to have all of the groupÂ’s new models be electric by 2026 — and to end traditional gas-powered engine production by 2033. To that end, the group saw EV deliveries jump 44% (in 2022) compared to 2021 to over 118,000 vehicles, with the share of EVs rising to 7.2% from 4.8% in the prior year. Audi is also launching its first EV using the PPE (premium platform electric), which was developed together with Porsche. That EV, the Audi Q6 e-tron, will be unveiled later this year. (Past Audi EVs shared corporate parent VWÂ’s electric platform.) “With the Audi Q6 e-tron, e-mobility is coming from Ingolstadt (Audi HQ) for the first time,” Duesmann said in a statement. “To this end, weÂ’re also building a dedicated battery assembly facility on site. This will enable us to retain important know-how here in Germany and train our employees in future fields.” AudiÂ’s German rivals of course are also leaning in hard on their EV transformations. That makes it all the more important that Audi get its EV strategy right—and launched in a timely manner.

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato (Snowy) Road Test: Hitting the slopes in Vermont

"Yellow f***ing Lamborghini!" I've been spotted. I'm trying to change my boots as inconspicuously as I possibly can in the parking lot next to the ski lift, but when you're perched on the door sill of a Huracan Sterrato, a shiny yellow beacon in a field of filthy gray SUVs, there's no hiding. A young man on skis is losing his mind a short distance away, issuing the profanity-laced call to his friends to come to take a look at the bright wedge in the icy lot, and I know it's going to be a few extra minutes before I make it to the lift. You can't fault their excitement. Southern Vermont is unlikely Lamborghini territory at the best of times. In mid-January? Forget about it. You might see a brave Carrera 4, but that's about as exotic as it gets this time of year in the Green Mountains. In January, the hope is always that those mountains will be white. The roads, though, were in quite a state: muddy and icy and sloppy, and the perfect testing ground for this oddball supercar. Lamborghini showed its intent with the 2019 Sterrato concept, but it wasn't until mid-2022 that the company confirmed they'd actually build the thing. On paper, that thing doesn't seem so special. A paltry 44 mm of lift does not a rally car make, nor 30 and 34 mm of additional track at the front and rear, respectively, nor the bolted-on fender flares and questionably functional skid plates. But, as Brett Berk learned when he drove it through the desert, minor updates on paper can create fantastic cars. I planned for a test of a different sort, to pilot this delightful beacon across the winding and filthy roads of Upstate New York and Southern Vermont toward one of my favorite mountains. The car you see here, which Lamborghini provided for a long weekend, came complete with numerous options, the most significant (and worthwhile) being the $9,800 for the Giallo Inti paint. Total price? That would be $348,649 including the $3,695 destination charge and $2,100 gas guzzler tax – a lot of money for a winter beater. One of those options, though, threatened to stymie the trip before I even got out of my driveway. The accessory roof basket and the spare wheel Lamborghini attached to it using the included “wheel retainer belt” gives the Sterrato a certain stance and character. However, it created some challenges. I had initially planned on using my SeaSucker mount to simply stick my board on the roof and head for the hills. There was no room.