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Lamborghini unveils 50th anniversary Aventador Roadster and Gallardo

Though hardly moving into Porsche levels of 50th Anniversary celebrations, Lamborghini is taking its own golden jubilee pretty seriously. The Italian company treated the world to a 50 Anniversario version of the Aventador LP720-4 earlier this year in Shanghai. At this year's swanky show at The Quail during Pebble Beach weekend, Lamborghini is showing off the convertible version of the car, the very sultry Aventador LP 720-4 Roadster 50 Anniversario.
What's more, the company has brought along the anniversary-treated Gallardo LP560-2 50 Anniversario as well, which we officially saw for the first time in China. Hey, a stage full of Lambos is no bad thing in our book.
As the coupe version before it, the 50th Anniversary Aventador has been massaged to make a full-bodied 720 horsepower from its stunning 6.5-liter V12, as well as done up with special edition paint and badging. A subtlety redesigned front splitter will call out the limited run Aventador Roadster to those in the know, too. Enough reading; check out both the Aventador Roadster and the celebratory Gallardo, live from the show stand at The Quail, in our attached galleries of images.

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.

Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster priced from $441,600 for US

European pricing for the 2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster was released when the model was officially introduced early this week, but we had to wait a few extra days to see how much customers over here should expect to pay for the topless supercar. Now, Lamborghini has announced that US-bound versions of its new roadster will run $441,600, which doesn't include the $3,700 gas-guzzler tax, meaning the Aventador Roadster will wear a base MSRP of at least $445,300.
As a refresher, this new roadster is a topless version of the 700-horsepower, all-wheel-drive Aventador, and it features a two-piece removable top made of carbon fiber (each weighing in at around 13 pounds) that can be stored in the front trunk. Performance figures include a 0-60 time of under three seconds and a top speed of 217 miles per hour. Lamborghini is currently taking orders for the Aventador Roadster with the car set to go on sale next summer.