2012 Lamborghini Aventador Lp 700-4 Automatic 2-door Coupe on 2040-cars

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World's most expensive model car will be wrapped in thin gold sheet [w/video]

A couple of years ago, we featured a car that had a body made out of carbon fiber and an interior and wheels fashioned from gold and platinum and lined with diamonds. The price for that supercar, based on the Lamborghini Aventador, was a staggering $4.7 million. The hook: it was a 1/8-scale model! The man behind that model, Robert Gülpen, is at it again, and will offer for sale at an auction house another baby Aventador, but this one is wrapped in gold and will command a price of at least $7.5 million - making it the most-expensive model car in the world. Compare the model's price with that of the real thing - $397,500 - which means you could have 18 real Aventador coupes (!) for the price of the gold-wrapped model.
The car's details are even more impressive than the last model Gülpen produced, starting with the gold wrap. After baking the carbon-fiber model at a high temperature and under pressure, the body is wrapped in a gold sheet that's 1/1,000-mm thin. The resultant effect allows one to admire the gold hue, but the wrap is so thin that the carbon-fiber weave is plainly visible. The interior is lined with high-carat gemstones and the wheels are cast in gold and platinum, just like the last model. The doors open and close, the wheels turn and, while the engine looks like a smaller version of the V12 found in the full-size car, it does not function.
The materials used in the build are valued at $2.6 million, so what the buyer is paying for is the work behind putting the model together. The car will be mounted inside a bulletproof showcase with a Lamborghini logo made of gold, platinum and gemstones, among other goodies that are included for one well-heeled buyer.

World's Best Dad invites Lamborghini owners to son's birthday party

The resulting unalloyed joy, as you'll see in the footage below, is priceless.
One of my defining moments as a budding car enthusiast came the first time I got to see a Lamborghini up close. I was out in Los Angeles visiting a relative with my mother and sister, and I took the change of scenery as an opportunity to look for more exotic cars than my middle-class Midwestern upbringing would usually encounter. We were on a walk, when off in the distance I saw - and heard - something extraordinary: An early '80s Lamborghini Countach, black with those bronze five-hole wheels, pulling into a parking spot. My mom still takes great joy in periodically retelling the events of that day, and as the story goes, I joyfully took off without warning, chasing the car down the street shouting "Lamborghini!" "Lamborghini!!" in my best eight-year-old Italian accent.

Lamborghini previews new Huracan Super Trofeo

The arrival of the new Huracán is big news for Lamborghini, replacing the company's long-serving Gallardo. Not only had the previous V10 supercar been on the market since 2003 (admittedly with significant updates along the way), it also served as the backbone for the Super Trofeo series. Now it's time, however, for the Huracán to take over on the racetrack, too.
Previewed in the teaser image above wearing military camo, the new Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo has undergone its first shakedown at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome. Giorgio Sanna - who took over as Lamborghini's chief R&D test driver after the retirement of the legendary Valentino Balboni - led the test session, accompanied by factory pilots Adrian Zaugg and Fabio Babini and members of the company's driver development program.
The Huracán Super Trofeo will be phased in across all three of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo series around the world, including Europe, Asia and North America. Drivers not ready to upgrade to the new machinery, however, will still be able to race their Gallardos in a separate class - similar to how arch-rival Ferrari has phased in new models in its similar Challenge series.