Lamborghini Reventon: Italian Super Car Ready For Take Off

Motoring Channel Staff - 11/September/2007

Frankfurt, Germany — Based on the Murciélago LP640, the new Lamborghini Reventon is a sight for sore eyes. It's the secret weapon that the Sant'Agata-based super car maker has rumoured to be working on and now it's a reality.

A very expensive, very rare reality. Only 20 of these magnificent sports cars will be built by Lambo, all of which are spoken for. It's the kind of car that takes performance and exotic luxury to a new level while dealing Ferrari a curt slap in the face.

Lamborghini describes the new sports car as a road vehicle with an extreme specification and, at the same time, a limited edition masterpiece - a coherent style, angular with sharp lines, inspired by the very latest aeronautics. 

Most Lamborghini cars are named after fighting bulls and the same goes for the Reventon.

There is a real 'jet-fighter' theme going on with the new Lamborghini Reventon design. From any angle the car is unmistakably a Lamborghini, but with an even more angular design this exotic car that really does have an aerodynamic jet fighter look and feel.

Lamborghini released a statement to coincide with the launch of the stunning new sports car at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, in which it says aeronautics were the inspiration for the wild new design."With the Reventon the Centro Stile designers have coherently developed this philosophy, inspired by another sphere where speed and dynamism reign absolute: modern aeronautics, responsible for the fastest and most agile airplanes in the world."

From the front the Lamborghini Reventon features a space-aged 'nose cone', which is flanked by two huge air inlets that help cool the large carbon disc brakes. Almost every line and angle from it's donor car, the Murciélago, has been exaggerated and it looks superb. The angular nature of the design has left us stunned. It's as menacing as it is beautiful.

Everything from the engine cooling ducts just in front of the rear wheels to the new look rear diffuser and LED brake lights have been sharpened and exaggerated and the end result is quite possibly the most aggressive Italian sports car ever conceived.

Power for the Lamborghini Reventon comes from a 6.5-litre V12 engine that resides behind the driver. It develops an ungodly 471kW of power (640hp) @ 8000rpm. Peak torque of 660Nm propels the all-wheel drive Lamborghini Reventon from zero to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds, while a top speed of more than 340km/h is entirely possible. 

Such high speeds are possible because of the "completely new" body work. Just like the base model, the exterior of the second edition is made of CFC, or composite carbon fibre. According to Lamborghini it is as "stable as it is light". Furthermore,the airflow and the section of the variable geometry air intakes of the engine and adjustable rear spoiler have been modified to allow for more stability at higher speeds.

Since legendary Lamborghini Countach hit the road in the mid 1970s, range-topping Lamborghini's have been equipped with scissor type doors that open upwards and the V12 Lamborghini Reventon is no different.

Another ultra-cool design feature of this highly desirable mid-engined Italian sports car is the glass laminate engine cover with open ventilation ducts. This allows passersby to view the huge 12-cylinder engine that gives the car its prodigious power levels. Lamborghini's designers were given a mandate to create this decades most exceptional exotic car, and their "...love for detail is beautifully illustrated by the fuel tanklid," says Lamborghini, "a small mechanical work of art, achieved by milling a solid aluminum block."

With only 20 Reventon built for customers, this Lamborghini is expected to be one of the most expensive road cars ever built and may even challenge the formidable Bugatti Veyron on price. No exact numbers have been quoted, but it is expected to fetch around €1.5 million.

It will be available in only one colour, Grey Barra, and has a profusion of LED lights both in the headlight and brake light designs. The wheels, too, are impressive. Designed to complement the deep grey exterior finish, carbon fins are screwed onto the opaque black aluminum spokes says the Italian company. This creates a attention grabbing visual effect but a turbine effect also ensures optimum cooling for the powerful ceramic brake discs.

The cabin of this extreme sports car is one of the most sophisticated fit outs this side of a jet fighter. Designed and created using Alcantara, carbon, aluminium, and leather that comply with the top quality standards, the interior is inspired by the next generation cockpits: just like in modern airplanes, the instruments comprise three TFT liquid crystal displays (LCD) with innovative display modes. 

Lamborghini claims that at the touch of a button, the driver can choose from three vehicle information display modes. The instruments are housed in a structure milled from a solid aluminum block, protected by a carbon fiber casting, and include a G-force meter. This useful gadget displays the dynamic drive forces (longitudinal acceleration during braking and accelerating, transversal acceleration during cornering). These forces are represented by the movement of a sphere within a circuit depending on the direction and intensity of the acceleration, and systems such as these were once popularised on the R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R.

Another neat trick of this mind-numbingly rare sports car are the adjustable instruments. The speedometer on the Reventon resembles a road in which the current speed is represented in a digital fade mode. The instrument on the left associates the number of revolutions in the form of a luminous column with the display of the selected gear, which should be enough to send it's rivals scrambling to deploy similarly innovative systems.

Of course, by hitting a button the driver can switch to the second, quasi-analogical display, where the classic circular instruments, speedometer and tachometer are configured in the equally innovative way and transformed into luminous pilot lamps with varying colors. The G-Force-Meter naturally remains at the center of in this display mode.

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- Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
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- Lamborghini Gallardo
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- Lamborghini Gallardo: Hamann
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