1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Downdraft on 2040-cars

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Lamborghini NA V12 swan song a track-only 830-hp Aventador SVR?

According to a poster on a McLaren Life forum and picked up by The Supercar Blog, Lamborghini is preparing a small-batch, track-only model to begin deliveries around 2021. At the end of last month, user Champagne612 wrote that he (or she) was "Going to spec next week and test drive the SVR V12 track version of AV." In the words of Champagne612, this Aventador SVR is the last hurrah for Lamborghini's naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12, a flourish before hybridization becomes necessary on the brand's iconic powerplant. Supposedly, only 40 SVRs will be made, each one producing 830 atmospheric horsepower. That would give the SVR 60 more horses than the road-legal SVJ. Lamborghini's only made two other SVR models. In 1968, there was the one-of-one Miura Jota SVR, a customer-request Lamborghini brewed with a mix of outsourced parts. More relevant to this latest car, in 1996 Lamborghini built 31 examples of the Diablo SV-R — based on the Diablo SV — to form a one-make race series. It's not clear if the coming SVR will be just a customer track-day car, a la the new Porsche 911 GT2 RS-based 935, or if Lamborghini has larger plans, a la the Ferrari FXX-K program. The Sant' Agata brand has leaned even more into the customer racing vibe of late, with a Urus one-make series planned, and the customer-request, road-legal Aventador-based SC18 Alston unveiled last year (pictured). Based on that, there's chatter that an Aventador SVR could be a feint at the so-called hypercar class opening next year in the World Endurance Championship. The connection seems more than tenuous, but it's not impossible. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali said at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that the carmaker was perusing the hypercar regulations taking effect in 2020 until about 2025, and told Autocar that the SC18 Alston "shows that we have internal capabilities for such a [Le Mans] project." Those rules require a minimum weight of 1,100 kilograms, maximum combined output of 750 hp — an optional hybrid system can contribute no more than 270 hp — and a minimum of 20 production versions built over two years. Save for the fact that committed entries from Aston Martin and Toyota are much more slippery than any Lamborghini, the rules on paper put an Aventador-based model firmly in the mix, and unresolved regulations limiting downforce and mandating a minimum drag figure could inch an Italian competitor closer to the mark.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

A few of the coolest police cars on the planet

Police cars are faster, more athletic and even better looking than they have been in generations.
Nobody likes getting a ticket. It's expensive, embarrassing and annoying. And when the officer ambles back to an ancient Ford Crown Victoria, more than a few of enthusiasts have had the tantalizing thought: I could have outrun him.