1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2021 Lamborghini Urus gets new Pearl Capsule design edition, adds tech in new year

The 2021 Lamborghini Urus is coming into its third year with some updates. The most notable of those is the addition of a Pearl Capsule design edition. It’s meant to bring even more style and exuberance to the table, which couldnÂ’t have been easy to do with a Urus. However, the Pearl Capsule does succeed at standing out with its bright color palette. All of them will be two-tone cars with a bright base color, black roof and black accents all around. You can choose Giallo Inti (yellow), Arancio Borealis (orange) or Verde Mantis (green). Gloss black paint is used on the roof, rear diffuser, spoiler, side sills, wheels and other trim. Those 23-inch wheels also receive a single circular outline in the main paintÂ’s hue. YouÂ’ll also notice that the brake calipers are the same color as the car, too.  ThereÂ’s more to be seen on the interior. All Pearl Capsule cars will feature a two-tone interior design with the color of the paint featuring heavily throughout it. The seats, center console, door trim, dash trim and even the cupholders receive splashes of color. You can select perforated Alcantara seats (pictured) and Lamborghini also throws in some additional carbon fiber and black anodized aluminum buttons/details. Lamborghini says itÂ’s extending the available color palette for 2021, as well. ThereÂ’s a new metallic grey and range of matte colors available through LamborghiniÂ’s Ad Personam customization program: blue, white, black and grey. If you were wondering, Lamborghini says the most popular color choices so far have been yellow and a range of greys.  Other updates for 2021 are minor. Lamborghini has come up with a new key design; the parking assistance package features a more comprehensive parking assistant (it can now park itself in parallel and perpendicular spots), and thereÂ’s a new Sensonum 17-speaker audio system available as an option. Pricing for the 2021 Urus starts at $218,009, which is $18,000 more than the base price of the 2020 Urus we just tested. Happy buying. Related video:

Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.

Original Lamborghini Countach designer wants no association with 2021 remake

The designer of the groundbreaking 1974 Lamborghini Countach, Marcello Gandini, has issued a remarkable statement to the press regarding the recently released Countach LPI 800-4. In it, he repeatedly affirms that he had nothing to do with the revived Countach that Lamborghini revealed at Monterey Car Week on the occasion of the model's 50th anniversary. Gandini alleges that Lamborghini may have misled the public into thinking he had something to do with the Sian reskin, and he wants to make it clear that he had nothing to do with it. "The external public, seeing and reading what has been communicated by Automobili Lamborghini and consequently by the media during recent weeks, may be led into believing that Marcello Gandini was a part of, or was involved with, or the project may have had his blessing. It is therefore appropriate to clarify the facts and reiterate that he did not participate in, nor was he aware of the project in any way."   Rarely has a designer of Gandini's stature and repute so publicly refuted a company they've worked for. Though Gandini penned cars from the humble Renault 5 to the masterful E12 BMW 5 Series to the incredible Lancia Stratos, it is Lamborghini — where he was responsible for the legendary Miura, Espada, Marzal and Countach, among others — that Gandini is historically most closely associated with.  Some of the confusion Gandini references stems from a video published by Lamborghini earlier this year. In it, Gandini talks about his design philosophy (which, ironically, includes breaking new ground with every design) and current Lamborghini head of design Mitja Borkert presents Gandini with a scale model of the then-upcoming Countach LPI 800-4. The latter believes that his presence in the video equates to tacit approval of the new design. "Neither earlier, nor during the interview was it stated that the car was scheduled for limited series production. With the elegance and kindness that have always distinguished Marcello Gandini, when Mitja Borkert presented the scale model during the interview, the former did smile and acknowledge as would be customary to do so."   Gandini believed that the model was the end of it, but after Lamborghini pulled the wraps off of the LPI 800-4, he says he received "countless requests for clarification" from press and colleagues in the auto design field. He decided to issue the statement to make clear he had nothing to do with the remake.