2017 Lamborghini Huracan Lp610-4 Spyder on 2040-cars

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Mexico to auction Lamborghini, other seized assets to help poor

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's government will auction a Lamborghini, homes and other assets seized from gangsters and at least one former politician, officials said on Tuesday, part of a "Robin Hood" program to use millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains to aid the poor. The first auction, set for Sunday, will seek bids for 77 vehicles with a total starting price of around $1.5 million, Ricardo Rodriguez, head of the newly created Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, said at a news conference. "Before, this worked like a reverse Robin Hood ... taking from the people and giving to the corrupt. Not anymore," Rodriguez said. The proceeds will go to two municipalities in the southern state of Oaxaca, which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said are among the poorest in the country. The vehicles up for auction include Porsches, Corvettes, Mercedes-Benzes, a Mustang convertible and a 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago. A 2017 report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that recent studies estimated Mexico lost between 5% and 9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to corruption annually. Since taking office in December, Lopez Obrador, a leftist, has rolled out a string of welfare programs for the poor and the elderly, cut salaries for top civil servants and said he is saving public money by eliminating corruption. He announced plans for a "Robin Hood" institute in April. The Mexican president, who has shunned the often luxurious trappings of the country's wealthy elites and was known to drive through the capital in a modest white Volkswagen Jetta, added that two cars and an ambulance donated by the King of Jordan will go to the National Guard, a new security force. One of the auctions will seek to sell three homes worth at least $7 million, including one with an indoor pool in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood. The money will go towards a youth drug rehabilitation program. Proceeds from another auction of jewelry seized from organized crime groups will go to communities in the mountains of Guerrero state, where many families struggle to eke out a living by growing opium poppies. Not all the assets come from drug lords. Rodriguez said one of the homes up for auction belonged to a former politician. Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon.

Lamborghini plans to release four new models in 2022

Lamborghini set an all-time delivery record in 2021, and almost all of its production capacity for 2022 is already spoken for. It plans to keep the momentum going by releasing four new models in 2022, according to a recent report, including updated variants of its best-sellers. Speaking to British magazine Car, Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann revealed that 2022 will be the last year that the firm launches only cars powered exclusively by an internal combustion engine; everything that comes after will be either a hybrid or electric. We're not there yet, though, and Lamborghini has a few exciting non-electrified products in its pipeline. We'll see two evolutions of the Huracan, the executive confirmed, and we're guessing that one is the rally-inspired model that our spies have spotted testing in the snowy parts of Europe. It looks like the V10-powered coupe will draw inspiration from the Sterrato concept (pictured) that made its debut in June 2019. At the other end of the Raging Bull spectrum, the hot-selling Urus will receive its first major update since its unveiling in 2017. What's intriguing is that Winkelmann said that "the facelift will be split in two." Could one be the hybrid model that's in the works? Time will tell. Those are the four new models that Lamborghini will unveil in 2022 — unless the company has other surprises up its sleeve. Enthusiasts waiting for the Aventador's successor will need to be patient because it's not due out until 2023, according to the same report. When it lands, it will pack a plug-in hybrid powertrain built around a new naturally-aspirated V12 engine. Separate reports claim that the model will be its own thing; it won't borrow styling cues from the Sian introduced in 2019 or from the sold-out born-again Countach presented in 2021. "And then, in 2024, we will have the Urus and the Huracan follow-ups, [and they'll be] plug-in hybrid cars," Winkelmann said. He stopped short of telling Car which engine will power the Huracan's replacement, but the publication speculates that the model will ditch the sonorous V10 and downsize to a V8. Interestingly, the eight-cylinder will reportedly be developed in-house. It will feature a 10,000-rpm redline and it will be capable of burning synthetic fuel. Unverified reports claim that the hybrid system's total output will lie in the vicinity of 850 horsepower.

Get a load of these crazy European Nimrods

I've been attending the Geneva Motor Show for the better part of a decade, and it's become my favorite stop on the entire show circuit, in large part because of all the exotic automakers, coachbuilders and green startups. I also love the Palexpo's consistently mind-bending displays of tuners, who typically work exclusively on six-figure automobiles. Some offer subtle improvements and personalization programs, but most seem hellbent on being more outlandish and bizarre than the next, a room full of millionaire class clowns. More often than not, I spy something and think to myself "What kind of Nimrod would do that to a perfectly good ____ ?" This year, that rhetorical question is in fact a self-answering one.
The jokes, they write themselves.
But seriously, if you're wondering who would take a perfectly lovely Ferrari 458 Italia or a Lamborghini Aventador and affix a wild body kit of dubious aerodynamic and aesthetic merit at great extra cost (both to the car's MSRP and to its assuredly grenaded resale value), the answer could very well be Nimrod Elite Tuning, a newer high-end restyling house out of Slovakia. That last locational tidbit might also explain the company's unusual name, which is likely a nod to a mighty Biblical hunter (descendant of Ham and a king of Shinar, Nimrod is mentioned in Genesis and Chronicles) and not meant to be taken as a synonym for "idiot" or "moron."