#Lamborghini

In the eternal quest to adhere to “sustainability”, Lamborghini will apparently be fitting the Aventador with a start-stop system and cylinder deactivation. Am I the only one that finds the recent trend of eco-friendly supercars ridiculous?

This being metro Detroit, you’d think that weekly car meets would be thick on the ground. But, perhaps because I spend too much time attached to a computer, I’m not aware of one in the northwest suburbs. So I was quite happy to trip across the inaugural event of the “Copper Canyon Classics” on Saturday morning at the Copper Canyon restaurant in Southfield, MI.

Lamborghini has become very bullish about the Indian market. The Italian automaker launched its second showroom in the country last week and also set up a national sales agency.

Our man Bertel Schmitt is en route, all set to cover the Beijing Auto Show for the next two days. By our count, there are over 70 debuts, with many of them being Chinese market products; concept cars, older vehicles re-issued and manufactured in Chinese JV factories and obscure concept cars. A complete list, with a brief description can be read at just-auto.com for anyone really interested in the Brilliance Jinbei Large Sea Lion Camper or the HaiMa Yao.

Let me tell you this story about a killer I used to know.

I met him when I was fourteen years old. He worked with my father. I didn’t know anything about him. He was perhaps five foot eight at most. Quiet. Shy. He played folk guitar at a local cafe. At a company picnic, he expressed concern that the pond at the corporate retreat had too many fish. “There isn’t enough food for all of them to grow correctly,” he said, and he seemed sad about it.

A few years later, I was talking to my father about the book “Rogue Warrior” by former Navy SEAL Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko. Enthusing about it, actually. “If you really want to know what the SEALs did,” the old man said by way of interrupting my babbling, “you can talk to…” and he gave me the name of the shy, fish-sympathetic guitar player.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, he did multiple tours. Saw all sorts of action. He was the real deal.” My father was a veteran himself, and he didn’t hand out praise glibly, but… That couldn’t be. SEALs weren’t thin, quiet men who played the acoustic guitar and ended up doing paperwork in a brokerage business for the rest of their lives. Or were they?

Curves aren’t typically the signature look of a Lamborghini, which prevents me from making any cheesy jokes about the company’s SUV “revealing its curves” like any other sex-starved blogger would.

Everyone expecting there would be some kind of droptop Aventador – after all, what’s the point of a supercar if the people who bullied you in high school can’t see how rich and successful you are? But we weren’t expecting this.

Volkswagen’s Lamborghini division, along with Bentley, could be following Porsche and bring out a pricey SUV. At the 2012 Beijing Auto Show in April, Lamborghini should show an SUV study to Chinese customers, Bloomberg writes. A production version is expected by 2016.

What do you do if you want your very own yellow Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, but you can’t afford it? No problem, said a man in China, I just build my own.

A month ago, our friends at Carnewschina spotted an odd creation in Kumming, a Chinese city that is famous for other products than cars. The owner of a hair salon (we don’t know what kind of a hair salon, some hair salons in China are famous for other services than hair cutting) was infatuated with the new Lamborghini Aventador. What he didn’t like was the $968,426 sticker price (MSRP, landed in China, taxes included, and yes, you did read right.) So the hairdresser called on the local roadside sheet metal fabricator, showed him a picture and said: “Can you make that?”

When you get bad service from a dealer, you either suck it in. Or you start a NameOfDealerHereSucks.com. At worst, you picket the dealer.

What do people in China do? They call in a bunch of guys with sledgehammers. To smash a $750,000 Lamborghini.

Germany’s auto motor und sport magazine caught Lamborghini’s Murcielago-successor Aventador in the wild, only covered by some artsy pasties on the paintjob. It should be available for viewing without the camouflage at the Geneva Auto Salon.

When Lamborghini told the press that it would not be building a production version of the Estoque “four-door coupe” the reason the Sant’Agata firm gave was that

“the timing and market conditions are just not right for an additional model line.”

Which made us wonder why Lambo didn’t take the opportunity to say something like

“Lamborghini refuses to build bland, uninspired vehicles in a faddish niche just because several competitors are”

But now that the Estoque is reportedly back on for production, that would have been a bit of a self-sabotaging move. Or at least it would be if the Estoque didn’t already sabotage Lamborghini’s brand equity by being a bland, me-too entry into an already played-out niche. Which is a pity: Lambo saw the four-seat supercar niche coming decades ago, and built one of its most distinctive designs ever to fill it. And say what you want about this Estoque, it’s certainly no Espada. But hey, it could have been worse…

Several weeks back, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann was hinting to Forbes that weight loss would be crucial to the Lambo future (he also revealed that the brand’s best-selling colors “are white, black and the grey tones”). As the hype builds towards the release of the new Murcielago-replacing Jota, Winkelmann has released a “manifesto” that he says will guide Lamborghini into a sustainable future.

Alternatively, it could also be seen as an after-the-fact justification for Lamborghini’s decision to ditch the V12. After all, the Jota teaser image released with the Winkelmann-ifesto hints very strongly at a ten-cylinder drivetrain… which means the era of V12-powered Lamborghini flagships is probably about to end. Can one little manifesto really explain that kind of brand-defying break with tradition? Hit the jump to judge for yourself.