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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 expands Huracan range with rear-wheel-drive convertible

The Lamborghini Huracan LP580-2 Spyder completes the game of fill-in-the-blanks in the Italian's automaker's V10-powered lineup. With the brand already having proved its customary formula of "Remove the roof, retain the awesome," we expect this to be another uncommonly pleasing convertible from Sant' Agata Bolognese. The three-layer roof and mechanism migrate from the all-wheel-drive spyder. Taking 17 seconds to lower, the bodywork springs various tricks to maintain the appropriate cabin atmosphere. Two fins emerge from the B-pillar to preserve the car's profile, with narrow ducts in those fins managing wind flow through the engine compartment. Keeping the rear window up also calms the cockpit, lowering it invites the breeze and the wail of the engine. Additional zephyr management measures come in the form of removable mesh windguards that can be fitted next to the headrests. View 26 Photos Minor adjustments to the front and rear are the only visible differences between the RWD coupe and Spyder. The 5.2-liter V10 rocks the same 572 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque and top speed holds steady at 198 mph, but the 0-60 mile-per-hour time creeps up by two tenths of a second to 3.6 seconds. Dry weight clocks in at 3,320 pounds, a 258-pound jump over the coupe, but 330 pounds less than the all-wheel-drive Huracan Spyder we sampled - and loved - earlier this year. Lamborghini says the Huracan rear-wheel-drive spyder price will slot in between the MSRP of the two- and four-wheel drive coupes when the car goes on sale in January 2017. Before then, you can view it for the much more reasonable price of "free" when it's unveiled at the LA Auto Show. Related Video: Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog LA Auto Show Lamborghini Convertible Luxury Performance Supercars Videos Original Video

Top Gear names BMW i8 Car of the Year, Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes also win big

The lads at Top Gear have released their listing of the finest cars of the past year, handing the ultimate honor to BMW's revolutionary i8 plug-in-hybrid supercar. "The i8 is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers - and then some," the British mag wrote. The i8, though, was far from the only hybridized car to take victories. James May and Richard Hammond both highlighted hybrids as their personal cars of the year, with May saluting the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Hamster, unsurprisingly, heaping praise on the Porsche 918 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, opted to shock many by selecting not only an American car as his best of 2014, but giving the honor to of all things, a Corvette. Clarkson wasn't the only person to honor the USA's iconic sports car, with the new, 650-horsepower Z06 variant being named TG's Muscle Car of the Year. Other big winners include Mercedes-Benz, which TG honored for S-Class Coupe (Luxury Car of the Year), the new AMG GT (Sports Car of the Year) and the not-for-US C-Class Estate (Family Car of the Year). The 458 Italia Speciale A snagged a second win for Ferrari. The best of the rest include the Citroen C4 Cactus, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Golf R, Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT. Take a look below for the celebratory press blast from BMW. The BMW i8 wins Top Gear Car of the Year The BMW i8 has been named as Top Gear magazine's global Car of the Year 2014. The plug-in hybrid performance vehicle beat off some stiff competition from a host of other premium and luxury manufacturers to win the overall award. The editorial team of Top Gear commended the BMW i8 for its breadth of abilities. Its 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor gives searing acceleration and driver enjoyment but all wrapped in a package that takes BMW's EfficientDynamics philosophy to the extreme courtesy of CO2 emissions less than 49g/km and a 135mpg combined cycle figure. Charlie Turner, Editor in Chief at Top Gear magazine, said: "The BMW is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers – and then some. It's the kind of car we should celebrate, a beautiful vision of the future, delivered now.