The limited edition Lamborghini Veneno was first thrust upon a drooling audience at the Geneva Motor Show this year. Built to celebrate Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary, ‘limited edition’ doesn’t really do justice to just how few examples of the Lamborghini Veneno there are.
Lamborghini produced just 3 (that’s three) production cars in different liveries. A choice of green, white or red – each colour of the Italian flag being represented.
Put your wallets away though, as all three have been sold (two in America). It’s been said that that all three were in fact pre-sold to selected customers and immediately put on show rather than ‘used’. But never fear as Lamborghini have just announced the release of the roadster version and a veritable plethora of production cars in comparison (nine) and rumour even has it that these will actually be available to the general public. That is of course, if anyone who can afford such a car can be deemed part of the ‘general public’.
The Veneno is based on the Aventador, the 2-seater which Lamborghini unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2011. This was designed to replace the outgoing Lamborghini flagship model, the Murcielago.
The names might be harder to remember than the cars themselves, but the origins of the naming of Lamborghini vehicles is not something easily forgotten, with their dubious origins based in bull fighting, Murcielago was the name of a bull that is said to have suffered and survived over 24 sword strokes in the bullring. Is it glamourising bullfighting? That’s another debate for another day.
The Veneno Roadster takes all it’s cues from the coupe version and packs a powerful punch as you might expect with a V12 6.5 litre engine pushing out 740bhp. The 7-speed transmission puts the power out to all 4 wheels with a not too surprising 0-62mph of 2.9 seconds and a top speed of around 220mph.
The Veneno is a striking looking car – like a cross between a yet-to-be-seen spacecraft and some sort of Roman/Greek gladiator helmet. Somehow it has managed to remain aerodynamic whilst bringing back some of the sharp lines more associated with the cars of yesteryear before the use of the wind tunnel and the advent of computer aided design.
The car sports 21 inch rims at the rear and 20 inch rims at the front, each rim surrounded by a carbon-fibre ring which sucks in much needed cooling air for the carbon-ceramic brakes.
In short, the Veneno Roadster is basically the coupe minus the small piece of carbon fibre that made up the roof, you almost have to look twice to notice the roof is missing.
Veneno means ‘venom’ in Spanish and is named after another fighting bull, a rare winner you could say, in that he killed matador Jose Sanchez Rodriguez in 1914. Although we understand that no bulls died during the making of this model.
The 9 Lamborghini sports cars will be produced through the course of 2014 at a cost of around £3.3 million each.
Images – lamborghini.com, telegraph.co.uk, pistonheads.com
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