2023 Lamborghini Huracan Evo Coupe on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ferdinand Piech (1937-2019): The man who made VW global

Towering among his peers, a giant of the auto industry died Sunday night in Rosenheim/Upper Bavaria, Germany. Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who conceived the original Volkswagen in the 1930s, was the most polarizing automotive executive of our times. And one who brought automotive technology further than anyone else. Ferdinand Porsche had a son, Ferdinand (called "Ferry"), and a daughter, Louise, who married the Viennese lawyer Anton Piech. They gave birth to Ferdinand Piech, and his proximity to two Alfa Romeo sports cars — Porsche had done some work for the Italians — and the "Berlin-Rome-Berlin" race car, developed by Porsche himself, gave birth to Piech's interest in cars. After his teachers in Salzburg told his mother he was "too stupid" to attend school there, Piech, who was open about his dyslexia, was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. He subsequently moved on to Porsche, where he fixed issues with the 904 race car and did major work on the 911. But his greatest project was the Le Mans-winning 917 race car, developed at breathtaking financial cost. It annihilated the competition, but the family had had enough: Amid growing tension among the four cousins working at Porsche and Piech's uncle Ferry, the family decided to pull every family member, except for Ferry, out of their management positions. Piech started his own consultancy business, where he designed the famous five-cylinder diesel for Mercedes-Benz, but quickly moved on to Audi, first as an engineer and then as CEO, where he set out to transform the dull brand into a technology leader. Piech killed the Wankel engine and hammered out a number of ambitious and sophisticated technologies. Among them: The five-cylinder gasoline engine; Quattro all-wheel drive and Audi's fantastic rally successes; and turbocharging, developed with Fritz Indra, whom Piech recruited from Alpina. The Audi 100/200/5000 became the world's fastest production sedan, thanks to their superior aerodynamics. Piech also launched zinc-coated bodies for longevity — and gave diesel technology a decisive boost with the advent of the fast and ultra-efficient TDI engines. Less known: Piech also decided to put larger gas tanks into cars. Customers loved it. Piech's first-generation Audi V8 was met with derision by competitors; it was too obviously based on the 200/5000.

This fresh Lambo Diablo SV could be yours for $500k

This Diablo isn't just any Diablo: it's a Diablo SV – shorthand for Super Veloce, or really fast. It was the last model that Sant'Agata offered with a V12, a manual, and rear-wheel drive. Despite being 17 years old now, it has just a single mile on the odometer. It features a titanium exterior paint and a black interior, and could hardly appeal to our childhood sense of wonder any more if it had rocket launchers popping out of the fenders. It's offered for sale by the Lamborghini dealership in Montreal – one of North America's great racing capitals, where supercars are thick on the ground in the summer. It can be yours for $499,900. Now if you're thinking that much money could get you into a new Aventador SV, you would be correct. But though the latest version may be empirically better in just about any way you could measure – including a 223-horsepower advantage – it lacks the Diablo's old-school appeal. If you have the money, the choice is yours. Related Video:

Drive shows how Lamborghini LP750-4 SV hits 217 mph

No matter how you look at it, the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV is an absolutely astonishing automobile. Imagining more performance than the standard Aventador is difficult by itself, but company's engineers are able to boost power by almost 50 horsepower to 740 ponies, and copious carbon fiber body parts trim 110 pounds from the scales. We also already know that this limited model offers the spectacular ability to race around the Nurburgring in just less than seven minutes. Now in a sponsored video about Lambo, the brand's research and development boss Maurizio Reggiani is poetically telling Drive what goes into crafting such a special machine. According to Reggiani, the whole point of the SV is to make any driver feel like a hero behind the wheel. The model's abilities should let a person reach their own limits well before the coupe ever nears its own. That massive performance envelope then pushes the coupe's owners to keep getting better. While Reggiani beautifully expresses the passion behind engineering the Aventador SV, the real thrill in this clip is seeing and hearing the coupe snake around the Catalunya circuit. The 6.5-liter V12 makes a symphony of exquisite sounds around the Spanish track. Best of all, the closer the revs get to the 8,500-rpm redline the more that the engine lets out that rapturous wail. This is a video where you should turn the volume up and enjoy.