2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder E-gear Blue/blue on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Details emerge on production-bound Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

The last we heard about the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Lamborghini had confirmed its production with only 20 examples of the track-only car planned, but now we're finally starting to get some of the details about this knife-edged car. AutoVisie recently had the chance to talk to Maurizio Reggiani, Director of R&D at Lamborghini, who not only confirmed what will power the new car, he also said that the production version will carryover almost untouched from what we saw in concept form at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.
What we now know is that the Sesto Elemento will share the same powertrain as the Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera including the 570-horsepower V10 and the all-wheel-drive system, and it will be built at a new factory dedicated to building prototypes and limited-volume cars like this. Also, the report states a curb weight of 2,200 pounds, a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour (198 miles per hour) and a 0-100 kph (0-62) time of just 2.5 seconds. The only changes made to bring the concept to production were to increase the car's rigidity and its safety. This means the car will still feature all-carbon-fiber construction and unique bucket seats that are actually built into the car's body; driver adjustments coming from the steering wheel and pedals.
The estimated price for the Sesto Elemento is two million euros, or around $2.6 million US, and although the original production date was slated for early 2013, Motor Authority now says that we'll have to wait for another "year or two" to see this car in the wild. Also, it does not appear that this is the mystery car recently teased in a 50th anniversary video released by Lamborghini.

Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.

Use your Lamborghini Aventador to roast weenies

The Lamborghini Aventador is more than an obscenely fast supercar - it's also a ridiculously expensive barbecue. At least, that's what this video would have you believe. SCD-TV shows one of the extra uses for that shiny new Aventador in your driveway, by cooking a sausage while it belches flames out of its back end.
Now, we aren't entirely sure how good the finished sausage will be. After all, we kind of imagine that a ton of fire over such a short period of time would kind of just sear the outside while leaving the inside of the casing undercooked. Maybe the Aventador would be better suited to roasting marshmallows. There's also the question of just what's been spewed onto the hot dog by the exhaust of the Aventador. Besides not being too tasty, we aren't sure it'd really be a safe sausage to eat.
Check out the full video below to see something far beyond the average grill.