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Lamborghini Huracan Performante's active aero is the secret to its speed

The most revolutionary real technology at this year's Geneva Motor Show didn't look like it on the show stand. If you squint at the Lamborghini Huracan Performante, it merely looks like a Huracan with a big wing. Up close, you can see the fractal texture of the forged-composite aerodynamic add-ons, but that still doesn't tell you why this car is so special. Lamborghini calls it Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva (ALA), or active aerodynamics. This is one of the biggest keys to the Performante's claimed production-car record lap time at the Nurburgring Nordschleife of 6 minutes, 52.01 seconds. The Huracan Performante's number is not without controversy, but I personally care very little about the obsessive phallic-measuring contests that are 'Ring lap times. What's fascinating about the Performante is that, if the lap time is even close to legitimate, it shows that ALA is a major step forward in automotive performance. More than just lap times, the Huracan Performante is an example of why Lamborghini remains special in a world of democratized performance. We sat down to discuss this with Lamborghini's Research and Development Director, Maurizio Reggiani. And one last note on the lap time: Reggiani says with the same temperature and exclusive access to a dry track, "that in this average of speed we can repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat." In previous conversations, Reggiani said that the key difference in performance would come not from horsepower, but weight reduction. For Lamborghini, that means plenty of carbon fiber. But the newest Huracan is not a Superleggera, the old title for the hardcore variant. "Superleggera is too much an objective, a description. Performante is really the DNA of the car. In Italian, Performante means really the best performance," he said. Reggiani continues, "Nothing happened by chance. It's really a building-block approach where you say this can give this contribution, this can give that. Where can you improve something and what is needed to improve something?" That brought them to the active aerodynamics solution, which channels air to stall the front or rear aero elements of the car to change the downforce and drag. Reggiani says, "This can be achieved only with a system that is really light, [has] fast responsiveness. Based on this ...

Get a load of these crazy European Nimrods

I've been attending the Geneva Motor Show for the better part of a decade, and it's become my favorite stop on the entire show circuit, in large part because of all the exotic automakers, coachbuilders and green startups. I also love the Palexpo's consistently mind-bending displays of tuners, who typically work exclusively on six-figure automobiles. Some offer subtle improvements and personalization programs, but most seem hellbent on being more outlandish and bizarre than the next, a room full of millionaire class clowns. More often than not, I spy something and think to myself "What kind of Nimrod would do that to a perfectly good ____ ?" This year, that rhetorical question is in fact a self-answering one.
The jokes, they write themselves.
But seriously, if you're wondering who would take a perfectly lovely Ferrari 458 Italia or a Lamborghini Aventador and affix a wild body kit of dubious aerodynamic and aesthetic merit at great extra cost (both to the car's MSRP and to its assuredly grenaded resale value), the answer could very well be Nimrod Elite Tuning, a newer high-end restyling house out of Slovakia. That last locational tidbit might also explain the company's unusual name, which is likely a nod to a mighty Biblical hunter (descendant of Ham and a king of Shinar, Nimrod is mentioned in Genesis and Chronicles) and not meant to be taken as a synonym for "idiot" or "moron."

Police find lion cub in Lamborghini on Champ-Elysses

Paris police found a lion cub inside a green Lamborghini last night. The Lamborghini and the cubs' reported owner were sitting near the Champs-Elysses when bystanders alerted the police of what they thought was a lion cub in a car. These people were right, because the police officers found the 33-year-old man in the Lamborghini taking selfies with the lion cub. According to reports, authorities took the driver into custody and gave the lion to the 30 Million Friends Foundation (animal rescue foundation). The Lamborghini didn't even belong to the lion owner — it was a rental, possibly explaining the lack of concern for the Lamborghini's leather-extensive interior (with the claws, and all). We still don't know which Lambo the lion was charioted (trafficked?) around in, but the Aventador would be our best guess. Nobody that owns a lion is going to drive around in the cheaper Lamborghini, especially if it's a rental. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. To thicken the plot, police say the man named his lion Putin, but it has since been renamed Dadou. Although, one has to expect things like this from people who keep exotic animals as play things. France seems to have an ongoing problem with lions being kept as pets. This past month, a man was sentenced to six months in prison for attempting to sell a lion cub. The government is also currently investigating the presence of three other lion cubs in Paris suburbs. Needless to say, we here at Autoblog urge everyone to refrain from toting lion cubs around in cars, exotic supercars or otherwise. We also dissuade the transport of jaguars, pumas, tigers, ocelots and those tiny jungle cats in South America shown on Planet Earth that really just look like house cats. Actually, just letting a house cat roam around your car seems like a terrible idea. Related video: