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Lamborghini Urus makes North American debut, will arrive in September

After officially revealing the production version of the new Urus last month, Lamborghini pulled the sheets off the super-SUV on Monday night at a private event at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Detroit to give both North American media and customers of the brand their first look at the vehicle in the metal. It's the first time the Italian carmaker has had a presence in the Motor City during the Detroit Auto Show for quite some time, perhaps a sign of the importance placed on this model. The United States is Lamborghini's largest market, and the company expects nearly a third of its Urus production is destined to cross the Atlantic. If all goes to plan, the newly remodeled Sant' Agata Bolognese factory will have doubled its production output by this time next year. We will have a full eight months before we start to see how well Lamborghini can convince buyers to write checks, as the company tells us the first deliveries will start in September. With a starting price of $200,000, the Urus will have only a handful of competitors, namely the Bentley Bentayga and perhaps a very well-optioned Porsche Cayenne Turbo or Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography — though it now looks certain a Ferrari SUV is coming. Still, Lamborghini maintains that the Urus will be in a class of its own with its unrivaled horsepower-weight ratio and top speed of 189 mph. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2019 Lamborghini Urus: Detroit 2018 View 20 Photos Related Gallery Lamborghini LM002: Detroit 2018 View 9 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2018 Drew Phillips / Autoblog.com Design/Style Plants/Manufacturing Detroit Auto Show Lamborghini Crossover SUV Luxury Performance 2018 detroit auto show

Petrolicious cruises with a high-mile Lamborghini 400 GT

When a sports car is as beautiful as a 1967 Lamborghini 400 GT 2+2, it belongs on the road for people to see, and Jack Riddell definitely gives folks plenty of opportunities to check out his red Lambo. He has owned the grand tourer since 1972 and put well over 200,000 miles on the odometer in that time. They earn the spotlight in the latest clip from Petrolicious after previously appearing on Jay Leno's Garage. Riddell's constant use of the coupe is exactly what Ferruccio Lamborghini would have wanted. The company made the 400 GT to eat up huge stretches of road at high speed through Europe. The beautiful sound of the 4.0-liter V12 beckoned the driver to keep going just a little more. Riddell got lucky when he found the 400 GT and refused to let it go. Now the Lambo is like an old pal to him. He jokes about a few of the coupe's foibles, but after hundreds of thousands of miles together, they clearly have a deep connection. Related Video:

Weekly Recap: Geneva's splendor reflects growing demand for ultra-luxury cars

Geneva is one of the most glittering auto shows in the world, but the list of high-powered and bespoke luxury cars was decadent this year even by the rich standards of the Swiss exhibition. It's great for enthusiasts to revel in the flame-throwing Aston Martin Vulcan, the racing-inspired elegance of the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 concept and the insane performance of the Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce, but there's a reason for all of this opulence: the luxury market is big business. And it's growing. IHS Automotive forecasts that so-called ultra-premium sales will nearly triple this decade from 123,000 to 353,000 units around the world. The estimate includes brands like Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce, but doesn't count BMW, Mercedes and Audi, which offer less expensive models in addition to their high-end flagships. Though IHS includes Porsche and its relatively large volume in the study, the ultra-premium segment is still set grow at about the same rate, even without the German automaker's figures. So what is propelling all of this growth in the most expensive segment of the auto industry? Put simply, there's more rich people. IHS Automotive principal analyst Tim Urquhart pointed to economic expansion in China, market recovery in the United States and a surge in the lucrative technology sector as contributing factors. This dovetails with a research report by UK-based Oxfam, an international relief organization, which found the world's richest one-percent owned 48 percent of global wealth in 2014, and it's expected to increase to more than 50 percent by 2016. View 17 Photos Carmakers are moving quickly to capitalize with new products, expanding their portfolios with low-volume speedsters like the 800-hp V12 Vulcan at Geneva, and plans to enter new segments, like Rolls-Royce's strategy to make an SUV. "Ultra-premium carmakers are looking to explore ways of growing their product offerings, and thus their bottom lines, in this most potentially profitable of segments," Urquhart wrote in a report on the Geneva show. In a nutshell, there are more choices for people with more money. It's a good time to have expensive taste. Other News & Notes 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata production launches It won't be long now. The 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata arrives later this year, and it's officially in production. Mazda announced this week that the roadster began rolling off the assembly line at its Ujina factory in Hiroshima, Japan.