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11 exotic cars seized by Indian authorities for tax evasion

On Sunday, road transport officials in India intercepted a convoy of 15 supercars out for a drive in Hyderabad. By the time the traffic stop had ended, 11 of the luxury and sports cars had been seized. Cars involved included those made by Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls Royce, and Maserati. According to The Times of India, the 11 confiscated vehicles were impounded on charges of tax evasion. In India, the so-called "life tax" applies to all motor vehicles, but each state levies their own rates. In Telangana state, where the 6.8 million-large city of Hyderabad is located, taxes are more expensive than other states. The seized cars – estimated by The Times to be worth between $500,000 and $1.3 million a piece – were registered in states where the life tax rates are cheaper, the article reports, while authorities say that the cars had been operating on Hyderabad's roads. Authorities had been following the cars on CCTV for six months prior to Sunday's traffic stop. In addition to the tax issues, some of the cars had outstanding traffic violations as well. "They have been living and playing in Hyderabad. We have enough evidence for it," said Papa Rao, the enforcement team leader who led the seizure. Rao had another message for those who might be bankrolling the drivers. "We are also requesting the parents of the youngsters to ensure that these youngsters do not speed." According to the news outlet, the drivers were between 25 and 35 years old. In recent years, there's been talk in India of creating a single, country-wide road tax. While the move will help reduce confusion for car buyers, one of the goals is also to close the loophole of paying taxes in states with lower rates. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2022 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 revealed

Hybrid Lamborghini Huracan successor caught in spy photos

The Lamborghini Huracan is getting old, having launched for the 2015 model year, and the car it's based on, the Audi R8, is on its way out, too. While things like the Sterrato and STO have kept things fresh, a replacement is definitely on the way. These spy photos give us our first look at that successor, and it's got some radical features, including some amount of hybrid power. The overall silhouette of this car looks similar to the Huracan it's going to replace. It's a short, wedge-y shape with an ultra-short rear overhang. But many of the details are taken to greater extremes. The headlights are especially notable. They're a split design, with slim horizontal lamps that line up with the shut line of the hood, and down in the bumper, there are huge hexagonal lamps that almost look like they're floating in the bumper openings. Toward the back, this car loses the big intake cowls that trail from the roofline, giving it broader shoulders and a more svelte greenhouse. It also loses the big louvres over the engine bay, instead having a more open design akin to some McLarens. The exhaust now exits high out the rear bumper through a flashy hexagonal exhaust tip between the taillights. What those lights look like is unclear as they're covered by stickers of other Lamborghini lamps. The rear diffuser is huge and aggressive, too. The powertrain for the new Lamborghini is rumored to be a twin-turbo V8, rather than the Huracan's naturally aspirated V10. It will clearly have a hybrid component, as this prototype has a few high-voltage warning stickers indicating the presence of a hybrid battery and other components. Output reportedly could be as high as 850 horsepower. That's a lot, but would still leave plenty of room beneath the Revuelto flagship supercar. This prototype looks far along in development, and as we've established, the Huracan and its Audi stablemate aren't long for the world. So we would expect to see this replacement revealed in a year or so. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Lamborghini says handling, not flat-out speed, is the new benchmark

Speed has played a significant role in defining Lamborghini's image since the brand's inception in 1963, but the type of velocity it aims to achieve is changing direction. One of its top executives opined that handling, not 0-60-mph times or maximum speed, is the new benchmark in the supercar segment the company calls home. Francesco Scardaoni, the head of the Italian company's Asia-Pacific operations, explained achieving the quickest possible sprint from 0-60 mph and the highest possible top speed used to be what defined a Lamborghini. Rivals aimed to rule the chart, too, so exotic brands spend decades taking turns trying to outgun each other by shaving a tenth of a second from — or adding a few miles per hour to — their respective times. EVs moved the goalpost in the 2010s, according to Scardaoni, because their powertrain develops maximum torque right away. "If you go back to 10 years ago, probably when we were asked the parameters to measure a car with we would say top speed, acceleration, and then handling. Top speed then became a secondary measure, and acceleration the first one. Now, basically [with electrification] is no more that important. because it's quite easy for those kind of power units to have amazing results in acceleration," he explained in an interview with Car Advice. Exemplified by the Huracan STO introduced in 2020, the shift represents a dramatic about-face for the engineering team led by Maurizio Reggiani. Speed is easy to quantify; if we tell you that a Bugatti Chiron takes 2.4 seconds to reach 60 mph from a full stop, or that it maxes out at 304 mph, you know exactly what it can do. Handling, on the other hand, is difficult to put a number on. Gs on a skidpad is one measure, but that's only a small part of the handling equation. There's no unit of measurement that describes how a Divo feels on a winding Sicilian road. Scardaoni hinted that focusing on handling is a way to keep exotic supercars relevant in the coming years. Electric hypercars are ostensibly on their way, including the Rimac C_Two and the Pininfarina Battista. Closely related, both allegedly take under two seconds to sprint from 0-60 mph thanks in part to a 1,900-horsepower drivetrain, yet they weigh approximately 4,300 pounds; they're heavier than a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Neither are in the same league as, say, the Huracan, but they're good examples of the pros and cons of electrified performance.