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Lamborghini reveals Aventador Nazionale in Beijing

Special editions have proven themselves a great way for high-end automakers to get a little bit more for their wares, but they appear to be gradually being taken over by personalization programs that allow customers to order their exotic new wheels just as they want them. After all, what's the point in ordering a special color scheme someone else has chosen when you can choose it yourself, with special wheels and interior upholstery to match?
Lamborghini has just such a program. It's called Ad Personam, and like the customization catalogs offered by other automakers, it allows its clients to specify any range of stylistic parameters to suit their own taste. To showcase the program, Lamborghini brought a customized Aventador to the Beijing Motor Show. Called the Nazionale edition, it's got a white paintjob with tricolore racing stripes up the hood, anthracite wheels, and a blue leather interior.
It's similar to the Gallardo Tricolore that rolled out of Sant'Agata three years ago - the kind of treatment we'd otherwise call a special edition, but despite carrying a different name, it just goes to show the possibilities Lamborghini offers it customers. For the right price, of course.

Lamborghini rules out sub-Huracan sports car

There is a kind-of-new segment emerging in the sports car market: an area in between vehicles like the Porsche 911 Carrera and supercars like the Ferrari 488 GTB or Lamborghini Huracan. It's a space recently defined by the Audi R8 and Porsche 911 Turbo, with some newcomers rushing in. McLaren joined in with the 570S and Ferrari is tipped to be looking at a new six-cylinder Dino revival. But Lamborghini isn't in any rush participate. At least not for now, and not with a completely new model. Speaking with Car and Driver during the New York Auto Show, Lamborghini chief Stephan Winkelmann said you can "never say never" about anything in this business, but that the prospect a more accessible sports car underneath the Huracan is not currently on the table. Winkelmann pointed towards pricing and volume considerations, but we imagine there's more to it than that. The Volkswagen Group of which Lamborghini is part already tackles that segment with the aforementioned Audi R8 and Porsche 911 Turbo, and while the German giant has never shied away from flooding a market segment with overlap from its various divisions, the R8 and the Huracan are already closely related. The Lambo chief did hint that decontented versions of the Huracan could fit the bill, though. Sant'Agata's ten-cylinder model currently starts at $237,250, but the previous Gallardo started at $191,900 before it was phased out. That was for the less powerful, rear-drive LP 550-2, which could hint at a successor under the Huracan's umbrella. And that's just $7k more than McLaren will be asking for the 570S. Aside from the prospect of a cheaper Lambo, Winkelmann also told C/D that the Asterion hybrid concept was strictly a technological demonstrator with no chances of production, that the Urus crossover project is still on the table, and that the supercar market isn't growing as fast as you might think. Related Video:

2015 Lamborghini Huracan LP 620-2 Super Trofeo [w/video]

Pull a run-of-the-mill Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 off the Sant'Agata Bolognese assembly line, and you'll get a fearsome piece of machinery that can hit 60 miles per hour in as little as 2.5 seconds and reach a terminal velocity in excess of 200 mph. The stats are stunning, but the boys at Lamborghini want more – not just numerically, but more in the greater glory of an all-encompassing, brand-aggrandizing, Ferrari kind of way. Why compare the Raging Bull with the Prancing Horse in particular? Surely, any self-respecting gearhead knows that the two brands exude subtly different swaggers. But the gap goes well beyond the superficial: while Ferrari (not to mention competitors like McLaren and Porsche) has nurtured an enviable racing history from LeMans to Monaco, Lamborghini's history on the track is a bit scarcer. The Volkswagen Group recently thrust Bentley back into competition to reinvigorate the brand's past glories, and the next VW brand to win the racing lottery is Lamborghini. Behold: the Lamborghini Huracan LP 620-2 Super Trofeo. Born To Race While Lamborghini claims a long history of wedge-shaped exotica, the Huracan was the first production car in the brand's half-century history to be engineered from scratch with the racetrack in mind. As such, the street car's screaming, naturally-aspirated V10 and 3,135-pound curb weight are mere starting points for Dallara Automobili, the firm tasked with developing the racecar in conjunction with Lamborghini. For starters, the standard Huracan is alleviated of many of its pedestrian trappings like airbags, sound systems, and swanky power-operated leather seats. By jettisoning the unnecessary, the Super Trofeo manages to slim down nearly 330 pounds, to around 2,800 pounds. Don't let the mere 10 (metric) horsepower jump fool you: the LP 620-2's Motec engine management system not only adds data acquisition capabilities (which work alongside an eight-setting traction control system and a 12-setting Bosch ABS setup), it completely changes the power delivery characteristics of that 5.2-liter V10. More on that later. A good chunk of that weight loss comes from the removal of the entire front end of the drivetrain, which transforms this Huracan from an all-wheel-drive animal to a rear-drive beast.