Lamborghini

The Geneva Motor Show is always a smorgasbord of the world's best exotics and supercars and this year is no different. So, it make total sense that the 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 would make its official debut at this venue. The new Superleggera continues the precedent set by the first "superlight" variant of the Gallardo that came out in 2007 and sheds 154 pounds. Through the use of plenty of carbon fiber, polycarbonate and an aluminum body shell, this Lambo manages to weighs in at a svelte 2,954 pounds.

Not only was there a reduction in heft, but a bump in engine output as well. The original Superleggera had a 5.0-liter V10 with 530 hp on tap. The 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera benefits from 570 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque from its direct injected 5.2-liter engine. The sprint from 0 to 62 mph takes just 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 202 mph.

The Lamborghini Reventon is the Unobtainium of the auto world. With only 20 examples produced at $1.5 million a pop, you just won't see one of these things in the parking lot of your local Vons. It was inevitable that someone would come up with a conversion kit, the question has always been with the execution.

We've seen other Lamborghini customization packages, such as the Premier4509 SuperVeloce kit and been pretty amazed, so we know it can be done. The 2010 Lamborghini Murcielago Rev-Air Roadster is a pretty solid pass at duplicating the exact look of the amazing Reventon.

Who builds the fastest exotic car? Ferrari? Bugatti? Zonda? How about, North Carolina. It's the home of Underground Racing. A small company of only 9 employees, started by brothers KC and Kevin Howeth. They grew up in a family of stock car racers and dragsters, but thankfully they realized it's more fun to drive a turbo exotic than to turn left. They opened a shop a few years ago and were soon building the fastest Vipers in the country.

But the Howeth's hit their stride when someone brought them a Lamborghini Gallardo and asked them do what they could. Their bays have been filled with Italian bulls ever since, with turbochargers and intercooler piping lining the shelves, waiting for new homes. In particular, they built one very special, very very fast Gallardo. In fact, the Underground Racing Lamborghini Gallardo is the fastest Lambo in the world. Watch the video after the jump.

The horsepower wars are becoming a little like nuclear proliferation - once you have your stockpile, adding to it just takes a lot of time and money with no real end in sight. Lamborghini has come to the conclusion that between government regulations and the environmental impact of large capacity engines, they have more than enough horsepower in their current arsenal to stay competitive. 

Therefore, future performance gains will have to come from weight reduction. But as we all know, using lightweight materials is an expensive proposition. Lamborghini has been going with mostly high strength steel for its frames and body panels and its cars still run well over $200k. Moving forward aluminum and carbon fiber will be more and more commonplace. I wonder if this push may may drive prices up significantly over the short term as we see from vehicles such as the McLaren MP4-12C and Lexus LFA who use exotic composites.

UK designer Benedict Radcliff first got on our radar back in 2007 when he posted up a wireframe outline of a Subaru WRX outside of the Paul Smith gallery in London. Amazingly enough, this invisible vehicle was ticketed multiple times. In 2008, Radcliff created a wired up Koenig Lamborghini Countach to outdo his previous endeavor and once again posted the exotic outline on the streets of London, which created quite a stir.

The original Lamborghini Countach was manufactured between 1974 and 1989 and became a supercar icon. A special modified version was produced by Koenig Specials and added an aerodynamics kit and a horsepower boost by way of single turbo-charger.

Last week, pictures emerged of the new Lamborghini Madura concept, a proposal for the upcoming hybrid model the company plans to release in 2016. Slavche Tanevsky, the creator of this concept, worked closely with designers at Lamborghini and Audi on this endevour. Now, he is introducing an even more aggressive concept that looks to elevate the current Reventon's design to the next level. Known as the Lamborghini Ankonian concept, this mid-engine supercar has a far out look that would make the Batmobile jealous.

The Lamborghini Ankonian design study consists of a slimmer body style with a mid-engine mount and sharp angles. Special OLEDs are embedded between surfaces to serve as headlights. The name for the Ankonian comes from a bull famous for its black hair. Even though Slavche Tanevsky is an independent designer, this is no simple pipe dream.  As with the Madura concept, he received factory support from the pros over at Lamborghini and Audi who added their finesse on the project to create a finished design that is both polished and stunning.

The world's coolest cop car, a specially modified Lamborghini Gallardo used by the Italian State Police, recently was involved in a serious crash that totaled the exotic patrol vehicle. This raging bull was actually donated by Lamborghini which decked it out with a special package including police decals & lights, a video recording system, gun racks, radio equipment and even a front compartment outfitted to transport body parts to local emergency rooms. It's actually so cool that I probably wouldn't even mind getting pulled over.

Strangely enough this crash occurred when the Lamborghini Gallardo police cruiser was returning from a safe driving presentation and exhibition in Cremona, Italy where the car was on display. However, all of the evasive and defensive driving tactics in the world couldn't save it from an errant Seat Ibiza driver who pulled out of a gas station right in front of the Gallardo, clipping its side. The policeman used the moto "swerve first and ask questions later" which ended up putting the supercar into a row of parked cars. Since the Lamborghini is so low-slung, it actually ended up with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class on top of it.

Underground Racing has just unveiled their new twin-turbo Lamborghini Gallardo 'Race Version' for a client named Jonah. This heavily tuned raging bull produces 1500 WHP at 30 psi running on VP C16 racing fuel. Estimates peg crank horsepower at close to 1875 figuring in a drive-train loss of 25%. All of this power is controlled via a six-speed transmission.

The client was able to post sub-10 second times in the 1/4 mile hitting 160+ mph. That said, those times were posted without much practice by Jonah who hasn't been to the strip in over 10 years. We can't wait to see what kind of times this thing produces with a little more time in the driver's seat.