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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.

Lamborghini Urus Evo spied playing in the snow

The Lamborghini Urus appears to be due for a well-deserved mid-cycle refresh. If we use Lamborghini’s most recent naming conventions, itÂ’s likely that the Urus will gain the name “Urus Evo” with the update. These spy shots give us a relatively clear picture of what we should expect from the updated Urus from a design perspective. The changes are mild at best, as Lamborghini is keeping whatÂ’s worked so well for the past few years. In case you missed it, the Urus is far and away LamborghiniÂ’s best-selling model now, and itÂ’s to thank for the Italian companyÂ’s record-setting 2021 sales figures. WeÂ’ll note that this winter weather Urus tester is wearing a slightly massaged front bumper with added vents. The adding of vents continues on the revised hood design that features a pair of vents unseen previously. Other notable updates come toward the rear of the Urus. We spy a new rear bumper design that takes a different approach on the integration of the rear fender vents. Those vents near the wheel arch are now far bigger and more noticeable than they are in the current Urus. And thatÂ’s about it for what we can see on the exterior of this Urus. We bet that the most important updates will come in the form of an interior updated with newer tech. Plus, thereÂ’s the chance that we get more power out of a Urus Evo. We donÂ’t suspect itÂ’ll be a massive gain in output, but any movement in the positive direction will be welcome. A massively more powerful Urus with a hybrid powertrain that borrows from PorscheÂ’s PHEV tech should follow at a later date. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Lamborghini Urus Inside and Out

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video: