Spyder, Rosso Targa/avorio Lilium, Extremely Rare Paint, Immaculate Inside & Out on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lamborghini braces us for the end of Gallardo production

A changing of the guard is afoot in the Lamborghini stables. The Italian supercar brand sticks with a particular model for a respectably long period of time, thus any model changeover is cause for attention. First came the gloriously badass Aventador succeeding the Murcielago, which signals that the Gallardo replacement is on the way next. Not one to let any occasion go without its due pomp and circumstance, Lambo released a video entitled "The Final Gallardo."
The clip features various footage from the life of the Gallardo, worked in with a manifesto of sorts regarding Lamborghini's purpose, and how that fits into the Italian way of life. Little is stated about the Gallardo itself, let alone the eventual replacement. Additionally, it is unclear if the video is to celebrate a special "Final Edition," or merely the last Gallardo to roll out of Sant'Agata Bolognese. Until we do see the Gallardo successor, feel free to watch Lamborghini reveling in the sound of its own awesomeness in the video below.

Lamborghini Aventador successor to use supercapacitors instead of batteries?

While we continue trying to zero in on the next-generation Lamborghini flagship and its specs, Lamborghini CTO Maurizio Reggiani spoke to Road & Track to offer glimpses and set a few things straight. Discussing the coming LB48H supercar, Reggiani said the use of supercapacitors in that limited-run supercar will be a "first jump" into a robust hybrid application for supercapacitors, and that Lamborghini "will prove that in a super sports car, it's possible to have this technology." We've known the LB48H would use supercapacitors, but we didn't — and frankly still don't — know how. Based on Reggiani's comment, and likely the fact that Lamborghini uses a special supercar to hint at what's coming in tech and design, RT takes Reggiani's comments to mean that the Aventador successor will "store its electric power electrostatically instead of electrochemically, as you would with a lithium-ion battery." A caveat to this comes in another of Reggiani's remarks. He said the brand hasn't given any indication when an Aventador successor will reach the market, and before that happens, the brand is deciding whether to do another special edition flagship. "There's the possibility to have a kind of final Aventador family member," he said, because the brand probably won't get another chance to make a non-hybrid V12 after the scissor doors come down on the Aventador. Sales of the 6.5-liter V12 monster are still on the rise, remember. The current Aventador already uses a supercapacitor for the starter battery, to run the stop-start system. And the Italian carmaker has been working with MIT for years on such technology previewed in the Terzo Millennio concept, and rolled out for prime time in the LB48H. It's hard to see supercapacitors alone serving the next flagship, though, because company CEO Stefano Domenicali has said that "we need to respect legislation. In certain places, you will need electrification to go into the city." Supercapacitors can boost the kind of fast-acting peak performance buyers expect of a V12 Lamborghini. But their specific energy is roughly one-tenth that of a lithium-ion battery, or less; to provide the kind of range needed for all-electric trips into a city, the flagship would need a trailer hitch to haul a Urus carrying the supercapacitor array. Lamborghini has already said the best-case scenario for the Aventador successor is a 330- to 440-pound weight gain because of the hybrid system.

6 things you should know about the Lamborghini Urus

Lamborghini has finally revealed its second SUV in history. The road-oriented vehicle has a 641-horsepower twin-turbo V8 and highly creased body panels. There are plenty of interesting factoids packed into its four-door shape. We highlight the most interesting of them, here. It's named after a breed of cattle. Though many Lamborghinis have been named after specific fighting bulls, this one is named after an entire breed. The extinct breed is called urus, or sometimes aurochs, that is closely related to Spanish fighting bulls of today. It's the first Lamborghini with active roll control. When a car gets tall and heavy, it wants to lean a lot more when cornering. To counter that, Lamborghini fitted the Urus with an active roll control system to help keep the body flat going through turns. It's also one of a number of technologies meant to improve handling, such as adaptive damping, rear-wheel steering ( borrowed from the Aventador S) and torque vectoring on the rear differential. It has huge wheels and brakes. Standard wheels on the Urus are 21 inches, but for those with a desire for bigger dubs, there are optional 23-inch models. These wheels are stopped by standard carbon ceramic rotors. The fronts are 17.3 inches in diameter, and the rears are 14.5 inches. It has the best weight-to-power ratio of any SUV. Besides having the highest claimed top speed for an SUV, and acceleration on par with the 707-horsepower Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, Lamborghini claims the Urus has the best weight-to-power ratio of any SUV on the market. That ratio, with the SUV's roughly 4,850 pound curb weight and 641 horsepower, is 7.57 pounds per horsepower. It is worth noting that the aforementioned Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is still close with a ratio of 7.59 pounds per horsepower. It can be mostly rear-wheel drive, but not fully. The big Lambo is all-wheel-drive all the time, with its Torsen center differential providing a default torque split of 40 percent to the front, and 60 percent to the rear. This can change all the way up to 87.5 percent to the rear depending on conditions, or it can shift 70 percent of the torque to the front. Its chassis is all steel and aluminum. Unlike the Lamborghini's sports cars that use extensive carbon fiber in the chassis, either for the passenger cell in the case of the Aventador, or for reinforcement as in the Huracan, the Urus has a steel and aluminum chassis. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.