The Raging Bull gets a trim

Officially just a 'concept' unveiled at the 2003 Detroit Motor Show, the Lamborghini Murcielago Barchetta is almost guaranteed to reach production.

Why? Simple - the reaction of onlookers.

It would be fair to say that the new Lambo, while based on the Murcielago, is quite a daring design, so it's no surprise that American show-goers were drooling all over the exhibit...

The Murcielago Barchetta is based on the Murcielago model, albeit without a roof. The term 'Barchetta' refers to the Italian tradition of open sports cars, as evidenced in the Ferrari 550 Barchetta.

The idea behind the open-topped Lambo was for more than just tall folk who couldn't shoe-horn themselves intot the tight-fitting Murcielago, but was a celebration of 40 years in the business.

Speaking of business, let's get down to it. The Barchetta is more than just a Murcielago with the roof lopped off.

For starters, the open-topped Lambo sits 136mm lower than its already low coupe cousin and sits on fancy new wheels. No size was specified by the Lambo types, but they could well be 22-inchers sitting on 20mm profile rubber.

Due to the Murcielago Barchetta's lack of a roof, specific structural regions of the chassis were redesigned to keep torsional rigidity equal to that of the coupe.

While the auto-opening vents on the coupe's rear engine bay were very trick, the Barchetta goes one better by including streamlined headrests that integrate mobile - as in moveable - air intakes, ensuring the thumping 12-cylinder mill is fed with cool, fresh air.

As for styling, the car is essentially a Murcielago, though its lower stance and redesigned engine bay cover add a lot of menace, not to mention coolness.

The side windows have been tinkered with, and now stretch from the windscreen round to the engine bay, and the extra glass gives the Murcielago Barchetta a very sophisticated look.

It's like you know it's an exotic car, but it's of the 'highly-exclusive' exotic car mould - the creme de la creme, if you will.

To be honest, almost all who saw it were truly blown away, most of whom had seen the Murcielago coupe, too.

From the rear, the Barchetta may as well be a coupe, with the central-mount twin exhuasts unchanged, as are the tail light clusters, the latter of which some argue should have been changed.

While the Italian-built supercar's official 0-100km/h sprint time hasn't yet been divulged, you would expect it to be similar to the Murcielago coupe's 3.8 seconds, keeping in mind that that they both output similar power.

Weighing a Ford Falcon-like 1650kg, the Murcielago Barchetta drives all four wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. Said drive is generated by a rather lusty 6.2-litre V12, or 378Ci for the old-schoolers.

The 60-degree, nat-atmo mid-mounted V12 engine is far from archaic either, making use of a four-valves per cylinder (for a grand total of 48) and VVT, or variable timing, on the intake and exhaust valves.

This makes for a more even spread of torque - just what a thumping 6192cc V12 needs...

Peak power of 432kW hits @ 7500rpm, making the Murcielago Barchetta quite the screamer - particularly so considering there's no roof to blot out the music. 650Nm of torque peaks @ 5400rpm and with a top speed of 330km/h, the latest Lambo is also one the fastest.

There were rumours floating around that the Lamborghini Murcielago Barchetta wouldn't in fact be a traditional Barchetta, instead going for a glass roof.

But they were rumours only, and looking at the Murcielago Barchetta now, a glass top would perhaps ruin its stunningly attractive lines.

The only question that remains is how much? Sadly, the answer to that question eludes us, as technically, this car doesn't exist for the consumer.

However, the Murcielago coupe is some $US168,000, so it would be fair to say the new Barchetta could fetch perhaps even $US200,000, ($AU340,000) particularly if Lamborghini decides to produce it limited numbers.

The new Murcielago Barchetta appears to be more than just a design exercise, which plenty of thought having gone into how to make roofless car more rigid, and how about those mobile air intakes built into the headrests?

Suffice to say, the latest Murcielago iteration is a sight for sore eyes - and ears. With the new 1200kg baby Lambo (aka Gallardo) scheduled for a March '03 debut in Geneva, the Italian automaker doesn't look like letting the foot off the throttle anytime soon...