Lamborghini Urraco Reviews

When Porsche launched the Cayenne as the world's first performance luxury SUV, people asked 'why?'. After the Cayenne's success, they're more likely to look at the other top-tier brands and ask 'when?'. The global appetite for SUVs shows no signs of being satisfied, and one by one the luxury brands are rolling out their softroaders. Bentley’s has already been greenlighted by owner VW Group, and its stablemate Lamborghini looks set to get production approval for the Urus concept unveiled at last year's Beijing motor show. "We're working on it and it will come, which will be good for the brand," Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelman was cited as saying in a report in industry journal Automotive News. Lamborghini has previously suggested that, if put into production, the SUV could arrive in 2016, but Winkelman, speaking during a showroom opening in Tokyo last week, declined to give timing or further details. "We're going low profile now. I can't tell you much on details now, but when we get close to the launch, we will have more." The Urus is not the first offroader from Lamborghini. Prior to the Italian brand being bought by Volkswagen Group, it had produced the aggressively-styled LM002 between 1986 and 1993, but production faltered and stopped after the vehicle failed to attract the military attention it was targeting. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott  

The Lamborghini Gallardo is about 10 years old and is well due for retirement and a replacement. Cue the Lamborghini Cabrera. That's the working name of the car that will replace the Gallardo, and the latest images -- snapped while the Cabrera was testing at the Nurburgring circuit in Feb -- show it's echoing the long lean lines of the Aventador.The new entry-level supercar is tipped to be powered by an updated version of the 5.2-litre V10 engine found in the current model, but with extra output extracted to hit 447kW -- a hike of about 40kW over the current base model Gallardo and 28kW over the top-spec version. Following Lamborghini's naming convention, that could also the a LP 600-4 added to the eventual moniker.You can depend on it having standard all-wheel drive, although it's likely a rear-wheel drive version will continue to be offered. A new seven-speed dual clutch transmission is set to replace the aging e-gear automated manual, but there's little chance of a pure manual shifter.Aluminium and carbon fibre will largely comprise the construction to help save weight, with a drop expected from the Gallardo's tare mass of 1600kg (1470kg for the rear-wheel drive).The Cabrera is tipped to arrive late in 2014, and Volkswagen Group-owned brand will be sharing the Lamborghini platform with stablemate Audi for its second-generation R8, which should arrive about a year after the Lambo.This reporter is on Twitter: @karlapincott

Grand Theft Auto truly was the first blockbuster game of the modern gaming era. GTA III, launched to almost universal acclaim in 2001 on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox reinvented how we play games and reset our thinking about what we might find in games.There had been big world games before GTA - and plenty since - but none had been so well-executed or offered the variety DMA (now Rockstar North) and its hugely talented team could cram into a disc.GTA sets itself apart from the rest of the herd by being a fantastic piece of storytelling before anything else. Many games that want to be anything like GTA forget that the story can't just be a series of set pieces with the story shoe-horned in around them. Their disregard for story is reflected in the lacklustre voice-acting and direction.GTA games are always funny and always well-acted and written. The story holds you, rather than being an inconvenience.Grand Theft Auto V yet again challenges the status quo. Its world is truly massive, surely the biggest of any game, but with a rich environment full of people and buildings and cars. You could conceivably fill weeks roaming around and finding plenty of little things to do without ever touching the main game.The main game is as controversial as ever. Australia's newly-minted R rating was almost made for games from the Rockstar stable. The team has never been far from controversy and has often pointed to Australian censors' inability to understand the genre.The fictional city of Los Santos joins Vice City and Liberty City as a fully-formed urban environment, completely devoid of any sense of morality.You can cheerfully mow down pedestrians with your car or motorbike, randomly assault passers-by and, as part of the story, rob jewellery shops, slaughter rival gangs and spend a lot of time up to absolutely no good at all.The game itself is much the same as before, but with a refined set of gameplay mechanics. Its slick execution is the result of a rumoured budget of $245 million and five year development. The wealth of experience that came from working on GTA IV with both the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles means that Rockstar has pushed them to their limits in their twilight years.The cars are, as ever, a wonderful mixture of real cars but with fake names and just enough tweaking to keep the lawyers away. Each of them has their own very distinct handling model, from floaty, long-travel suspension on the Range Rover Sport-like Gallivanter Baller through to the flat-everywhere Voltic by Coil, a rip-off of the Tesla Roadster.From Trevor's falling-apart redneck truck, through to Gallardo and R8-esque machines you can steal from the street, there's sixty years of carefully filtered automotive history lying around Los Santos' many streets.Go to the airport and you can drive a tug or fly a plane. You can jump in the water and hijack an array of boats, grab your scuba gear and go diving or, if you're feeling green (or short of time) catch the tram or train around.In and out of game missions, you can race through the streets of the city, from densely packed narrow streets through to the mobile-home populated, wide open desert of Sandy Shores. Street furniture, such as lights and park benches will either fall over when you hit them or, if they're a little more stout, stop you in your tracks.The variety of experience is worth the purchase, let alone the fun of playing the missions. That variety is further enhanced with a 16-player online mode where you can co-operatively rob a bank or race through the streets.The three main characters in the single-player mode - Franklin, Michael and Trevor - are hardened criminals in their own right. Each has a rich back story and an even richer line in dark humour. Trevor is particularly amusing as he is rolled-gold nuts and gets all the best lines.The three characters are deeply flawed and have poor impluse control - Michael catches his wife en flagrante with the tennis coach, so pulls down what he thinks is the man's house. It turns out to be owned by a gangster who then appears at Michael's house with a baseball bat and a demand for $2.5 million to fix the house.These character flaws are integral to the story and allow for spectacular missions. The ever-present police add to the challenge as they're far more persistent in this iteration - and less stupid.GTA V is a stunning achievement because it does everything so well. It is absolutely not a game for children - the bare breasts in the strip clubs and the already-infamous torture scene see to that (not to mention the extremely colourful language, horrific storylines and unrelenting violence).For car lovers it's a game of Eye Spy as you try to match the various in-game cars with their real world counterparts and gravitate to the one closest to your own tastes. The game is a hilarious free-for-all with a dark sense of humour and sense of the ridiculous. It engages the brain not just for problem-solving but with its epic, blockbuster feel.Hollywood should rightly be terrified of the increasing revenues of video games, because games like GTA V show how much better than a movie a video game can be. 

The owner of a Lamborghini Aventador has been fined and his car confiscated after it was discovered it was actually a Hyundai. Easy to mistake the two, of course. Police in the Chinese city of Chongqing claimed the Aventador replica after the owner tried to sell it in a shopping centre. Police weren't fussed about the rip-off but by the fact the plastic car was illegally modified and didn't have licence plates. China's vehicle laws are becoming increasingly harsher. Car buyers need a “blue book” from the China Vehicle Inspection authority that lists the specifications of the car and a photo. Any changes to the data or picture are illegal. The baby-blue coupe was based on a second-generation Hyundai Tiburon with a $350 (in China) body kit. Chinese newspapers say the owner was fined about $130 and lose 12 points on the 20-point driver licence. The car will be returned to him but he bodykit will be removed. The writer is on Twitter: @cg_dowling  

What do you park in your carport when you can afford anything you want? A solid gold Lamborghini Aventador that will cost $8 million, perhaps. And that's just for what will be the most expensive model car ever made.Get your credit card ready, because the car is being planned, and will be carved from a single 498kg block of solid pure gold, with a finished weight estimated at 25kg. The interior will be finished in platinum and gemstones.It's the creation of engineer and artist Robert Gulpen, who has built several luxury car models from gold, silver and platinum over the past decade. However, while this is set to be his most ambitious project, it's serious enough to have earned partnership from Lamborghini.Gulpen first mooted the model in 2011, but now it seems plans are well under way, with the finished work intended to head for an auction that will see about $700,000 donated to charities chosen by Lamborghini.Gülpen's process will use computer-modelling of the real Aventador to feed data to a five-axis milling machine that will carve an aluminum mold, from which he will produce a carbon fibre 'maquette' of the model. The winning bidder at the auction will then be able to designate and personalise details for the finished piece.Gülpen hopes to create three new Guinness Book of Records entries for himself and the buyer: the most expensive model, the most secure container and show case, and the most expensive Lamborghini logo.But he also wants it to stand as a salute to the 'legend of the automobile', he says. "The most expensive and precious model car in the world. It is to be an icon, expressing the fascinating historical development of the automotive industry and the appreciation of people for cars all over."This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Mansory is not known for producing anything close to being subtle. Its vehicle designs are typically way over-the-top affairs that lead to polarising opinions. That's what makes the Carbonado such a surprise.It's a Lamborghini Aventador that's been given a Mansory makeover... and it's rather well done. If you want to be outrageous, the Aventador is a great place to start, and adding carbon fibre by the truckload can push the outrageousness to another level without (really) screaming in peoples' faces.Sure, it's still brash. But it's the right kind of look for a vehicle as insane as the Aventador. The Carbonado boasts carbon fibre pretty much everywhere. It adds a new front lower fascia as well with an interesting daytime running light element in the intakes, which lends an almost naval-aviation vibe to the entire car.It's not just the body that's been given a reworking, however, as Mansory also applied its wrenches to the engine. The Aventador 6.5-litre V12 engine has been given a boost thanks to a pair of turbochargers, which increase the power to levels as insane as the appearance of the bodywork implies.The "standard" Aventador produces 515kW, while the Mansory Carbonado pumps out 933kW. That pushes this vehicle from 0-100km/h in an eye-popping 2.6 seconds. At the same time, the top speed has been raised to 378km/h. This actually might be a fighter jet wearing a Lamborghini suit. In fact, that's the look that Mansory is going for. The tuner even relocated the starting button from the centre stack to the roof to highlight the feeling.www.motorauthority.com 

The body will be pulled much tighter around a new V10 engine with more power and torque, while the cabin will get a much-needed update and the latest technology from Audi - which owns the Italian brand. We expect to see the real Cabrera previewed at the Geneva motor show early next year.

Polish company Manufacture RETRO might have the answer for your Lamborghini lust in their Unique Racing Desks collection. Yes, that's a bright orange, Lamborghini Murcielago desk you see--and while it won't handle quite as well as the real thing, nor make your computer any faster, it'll do a pretty good job of brightening up your office with its vivid orange hue. It isn't the first time we've seen car-themed furniture, but it's one of the more affordable options. Some people will spend $240,000 on a beautifully-engineered but ultimately static Bugatti desk, or $25,000 on an office chair made from a Ferrari seat. But to the casual observer, they do just look like a fancy metal desk and nicely-trimmed office chair. No risk of this with the Lamborghini desk, which is as in-your-face as the real thing. The best part is the price. Its US$7,800 tag is expensive for a piece of office equipment, admittedly, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than the aforementioned exotic furniture. And in the grander scheme of unrealistic purchases, it's much cheaper buying an actual Murcielago and a Lamborghini desk than it is a Bugatti Veyron and a Bugatti desk. In fact, who needs the real Lamborghini? Hook up your games console and a TV to the desk and pretend you're driving the real thing. Though we will warn you: Owning a Lamborghini desk and not having the car to go with it is just as bad as those people you see dressed head-to-toe in Ferrari gear stepping out of their Corolla... www.motorauthority.com  

The noise hurts. The exhaust note pounds the eardrums and the shockwaves turn my chest into a kettle drum in the hands of some musically-challenged maniac.All I have to do to make that noise -- that vibrating air -- disappear is to turn the console switch from "sport" to "strada" (street). That changes the engine settings, diverting the exhaust gases away from the optional performance-tuned extractors.But I can't. It's addictive not just to me but to the occupants of the cars alongside me at the traffic lights, to the cyclist I just passed a kilometre or two back down the road and to the now slightly-shaken shoppers wandering the narrow city streets. At least I presume they are equally in awe of the music as they are of the sharp-edged, hexagonal-trimmed wedge that is Lamborghini's Aventador Roadster.It is a car that shocks the senses with more than just its sound, with its razor-edged lines that defy the organic lines of contemporary transport and in its disproportionate dimensions that exaggerate its 2.3m width against a tiny 1.1m height.PRICEAnd if all that doesn't get you in, then the entry-level price of $795,000 - incidentally including about $300,000 of government taxes (so who says wealth is obscene) - is a reality check and the $929,000 on-road cost of the test car is just an impossible Monopoly number.Few cars - at least those capable of being licenced in Australia - will make your driveway look as good as this. Remarkably, it will make the driver look fantastic as well and do wonders for the person in the passenger seat.If you're introverted, drive a Pulsar. If you're here to be noticed, it's a Lamborghini and certainly one like the Aventador Roadster - there is also the Gallardo Convertible - that without its roof will make you a sunburnt star.If you've got it, flaunt it! Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916-1993), who started the company, reputedly said once about the high price of his cars: "The engine costs $150,000 - the rest you get for free."DESIGNThe hexagons that make up a large part of the Roadster's shell design - and incidentally are absent in the Aventador coupe - are a tip of the hat by Lamborghini to the element of carbon. Carbon fibre, you see, forms the bulk of the car's bodywork. The rest is jagged euphoria.The test car gets 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels (a $10,350 option) and glass-panelled engine cover ($14,985), a carbon-fibre fillet in the centre of the engine's vee ($4995), and metallic paint ($4875). Signs of parent company Audi are visible in some switchgear - not a bad thing, really.TECHNOLOGYToo much for this space but the engine can cut off six cylinders when coasting and the Aventador has stop-start with a capacitor - same as Mazda6! The AWD system sends power out of the front of the engine, into the gearbox between the seats, then uses one prop shaft to the rear wheels (alongside the right of the engine) and sends the other forward through a Haldex diff to the front wheels. The complexity ranks alongside Nissan GT-R's power transfer.SAFETYIt doesn’t have an Australian crash rating. If you've got $929,000 then buy one of these and give it to ANCAP and they'll crash it for you. Let me know how it fares.DRIVINGSomeone once described the acceleration of this as horizontal bungee jumping. I can't argue. Nothing comes closer to the slingshot immediacy of the Aventador with a claimed 2.9 second blink from rest to 100km/h.The first lesson is: Be very prepared when you play with the accelerator pedal. From start there's a click of the right-side paddle shifter into first gear, then a squeeze on the accelerator pedal. Then more of a squeeze and so on until I believe that the gear hasn't engaged. It has, it's just a few more hundred revs around the dominating, multi-coloured single tachometer dial before the electronic clutch bites.Then 515kW lurches forward. Leave it in "strada" mode for general street use and the exhaust note is tame and the automatic mode of the robotised seven-speed manual is almost domesticated - certainly a far cry from the early "e-gear" box in the first Gallardo that was like trying to appease a grumpy Collingwood supporter after a lost game.Depending on accelerator pressure, the box will either hold the gears back and fling them upward around 3000rpm, or roll up the cogs quickly. The steering is firm, almost heavy, and while visibility to the front is clear, the rear view is little more than a letterbox slit and to the sides - well, forget it.The car isn't hard to drive. It's the fear of failure that grips me. I drive haunted by thoughts of one tiny corner miscalculation resulting in doom in a financial vacuum yet, at the same time, the sheer exhilaration of pedalling a remarkably simple, shatteringly quick piece of hand built Italiana.Change the console-mount button the "sport" and that exhaust note erupts. There is an urgency that doesn't mix well with the lazy mid-week traffic on the coastal route. The "corsa" button keeps the exhaust bark and wail the same but turns off the electronic nanny - a move made by the brave or foolish. It also firms the steering and the gearchanges alter from abrupt to violent.Traffic lights disappear and the road sweeps and flows and traffic reduces, so the car can be moved with less restriction. Here, on the open bitumen, is where the Aventador starts to shine. Sure, it is upset by uneven bitumen that makes the suspension jiggle and the chassis jump and coachwork exhibit the occasional small squeak.But its hunger is insatiable. It eats the road and the faster - academically to speeds even intolerable in northern Italy - it goes, the more it hugs the bitumen and becomes locomotive solid. Roof up, the car is taut and quiet from wind - not road or engine noise, however - but with the two targa-type panels removed and the bevel-edge window glass down, it twirls the wind through the carpet and the leather and my remaining hair.These two targa panels, made of a composite so they're remarkably light at 6kg each, are suitably numbered so amateurs like myself can find how they slot into position beneath the shovel-shaped bonnet. Be warned: Once in place, there is no room for luggage. None. The seats - optional here in a Roadster-exclusive Elegante pack ($4440) with Lamborghini branding (add $2070) - look tiny but are supportive while being easy to access.The scissor doors are made of carbon fibre and perfectly balanced so they open and close as a two-finger exercise, far removed from the heavy hand needed for the Murcielago.VERDICTThe best Lamborghini to date.Lamborghini Aventador RoadsterPrice: from $795,000 ($929,000 on-road as tested)Warranty: 3 years/unlimited km, 3yr roadside assistCapped servicing: NoService interval: 12mths/12,000kmResale: 54%Safety: 8 airbags, ABS, ESC, EBD, TCCrash rating: Not testedEngine: 6.5-litre, V12 petrol; 515kW/690NmTransmission: 7-spd automated manual; AWDThirst: 17.2L/100km; 98RON; 398g/km CO2Dimensions: 4.8m (L), 2.0m (W), 1.1m (H)Weight: 1690kgSpare: None

Lamborghini has a history of shock-and-awe supercars, but eyebrows still raised when it unveiled the Veneno concept at the Geneva Motor Show back in March. Here was a car devoid of any sanity whatsoever, with only three examples ever to be produced. Or so Lamborghini claimed.Following rumours a Veneno roadster would also be released, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann has now confirmed to Car and Driver that a drop-top Veneno will be produced -- each example costing around 3.3 million euros, or $4.9 million at today's exchange rates (in the unlikely event one could arrive here without the usual massive import taxes and duties).By Veneno standards, the roadster will be positively common -- a whole nine units, to the hard-top's three. The Aventador-derived 552-kW powertrain will remain unchanged, and one assumes so too will the styling -- save for the necessity of a removable roof.Performance is likely to be similar to the closed-roof car too, meaning a 354km/h top speed. While roadsters typically weigh more than their tin-top cousins, heavy use of carbon fiber elements should keep the Veneno roadster's weight well below that of the "regular" Aventador.Rumors of a Veneno roadster circulated last month, after several loyal Lamborghini owners were contacted by dealers to gauge interest in such a model. In the rarefied world of hypercar ownership, we'd not be surprised to learn some of those contacted already count the hard-top Veneno among their collection...For everyone else, you'd better hope those owners are suitably extroverted to bring their cars to shows -- as the production Veneno roadster may never be officially shown to the public.We'll just have to wait for the next crazy Lamborghini. Winkelmann recently told us that Lamborghini will "always the will to build dream cars with technology which is equal to innovation and stunning design." Veneno Roadster, Egoiste... there's plenty more to come from Sant'Agata.www.motorauthority.com