The Saint A'gata bull pictured above is not the LP550-2 SL, rather a Gallardo Superleggera fitted with the newer LP560-4 front bumper. Seeing this made us wonder if we'll get a light weight track star based on the current car. We could see Lamborghini offering this as a regular production model to replace the LP550-2 Balboni when all 250 of the limited edition cars are sold out, but what would change between the two models? Would its appearance be as striking as the recently revealed Murcielago LP670-4 SV with its massive wing or would it be a more subdued track rat?

Time will tell whether this will in fact happen, but the significant investment involved in producing a RWD system for a run of 250 cars doesn't seem like the greatest financial decision. We can only hope. Image Credit: Oskar Bakke viaTeamSpeed

Yes, I know this will make many of you here hate me, but I must say it — I have never been a fan of the station wagon. Yes, I do see the point — you can fit loads of kids, dogs or elephant guns in the back but then I’ve never thought of the car as a thing to transport kids, dogs or elephant guns. You need a sedan to be grownup cool or a coupé to be rock and roll cool, and that’s about it.

Except that station wagons are now called estates or avants or sportbacks and in recent years, I have come across a few which have rather struck my fancy. The Alfa Romeo 156 GTA Sportwagon, for instance. The Dodge Magnum. In SRT8 trim, of course.

I know people who love estates like motor oil loves to get under fingernails. In fact, two of my friends are planning on converting a Volkswagen Phaeton into one. Google Translate will help you right along with their project briefing—in Hungarian—a quick auto-translated snippet of which reads:

And when they physically exist, the preparation will be tangible things considered, we are bound to a common central images of creative images, crept kombikészítéshez.

Imagine my shock now when, certainly not a man of creative images, crept kombikészítéshez, we arrived at the Villa d’Este last week and the first thing I saw after a BMW 750i dropped us off was a Maserati Quattroporte. A Quattroporte estate, that is.

Flabbergasted I stood, mostly as a result of the intense craving I felt at its lovely butch lines. Although I still consider the Lamborghini Espada the perfect family car, the youngest of them will be approaching thirty-five by the time I acquire one—and kids to carry in it. And thirty-five-year-old handbuilt Italian cars are not as much vehicles for transportation but more vehicles that make for very stylish and very static object by the side of the road as you stand puzzled over their V12’s spewing oil. I am, of course, not making this up:

So this is it then. The Maserati Quattroporte Bellagio Fastback Touring, to finally call it by its ornate full name, with a beckoning slope to its roof. Built by Carrozzeria Touring—the people who invented superleggera in the 30s—, it was first shown at last year’s edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza, an event to which it has now returned unannounced, parked by a gift shop that sells swooningly expensive silk scarves.

A car that has a Ferrari engine up front, acres of leather in the middle, and kids, dogs or elephant rifles in the back. All in a package that’s got the Quattroporte’s irresistable swagger—with a locomotive of a rear end.

Be alert not to carry kids, dogs and elephant guns at the same time though. That would be unwise.

If you are now itching to spend that money which was supposed to finance your kid’s higher education, may I refer you to a PDF at Carrozzeria Touring’s website, which reads in part as follows:

Those interested in buying a Bellagio Fastback Touring must address to Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera or to Rossocorsa, the Milan Maserati dealer. After the delivery of a Maserati Quattroporte saloon (any version) the work starts and is realized together with the client, who’ll be involved in any choice: a unique and fascinating experience, almost impossible to imagine, in the era of mass production also for extreme cars.

There you have it. And one more thing: just as we were about to leave the Villa d’Este, I stumbled into the Bellagio once again, tucked into a corner in an underground parking lot. I tried to take a nice picture of it but this thing in red kept creeping into the frame.

My sincerest apologies.

Photos by the author expect the picture of the broken down Lamborghini Espada, which is by Balázs Fenyő.

Enterprising CGSociety member, Tim Cooper, created these ultra-fine (and likely ultra-lightweight) white and carbon fiber Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera high heels using a pair of his wife's heels and hundreds of Gallardo images from around the 'net. He modeled and rendered them in Modo and added the smoke and text in Photoshop for this mock advertisement. We urge you to not show your lady friends this image because at this point, the Lambo heels live strictly in Tim's 3D world which would surely disappoint her enough to make you go out and buy her a new pair of shoes for your mistake.

Check out the link below for the pic.

(images taken down at the request of the owner)
[cgsociety via carlounge]

Our second question is "can the world handle another custom built Ferrari after the noteworthy Ferrari 612 P4/5 of James Glickenhaus?" Sure. Hopefully this one conforms to a more traditional style, just because we think the original 166 is a design masterpiece. Talk amongst yourselves.
[Autoblog.nl (translated)]

We'll have to wait until this fall to get a good look at the Ferrari that lightness begat, but according to the Italian Autobloggers the price will be anything but unweighty. Word is the stripper F430, producing 500+ horsepower to pull 220.5 pounds less weight, will cost as much as a 599GTB, or around $268,000 at the current euros-to-english exchange rate. Still, that'll put it in range of its closest German rival, the Porsche GT2, though more than $40,000 more than the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. This can't possibly end well for the world's leadfooted bond traders. – Mike Spinelli

Ferrari F430 CS: costerà come una 599 ? [Autoblog.it]

Related:
Spy Photos: Still More on the Ferrari F430 Challenge Stradale [internal]

On today's "Look Who's on the N rburgring," our guest is the Lamborghini Murcielago Superleggera. Let's hear it. Right, so Lambo's working up a lightened version of its flagship Murcielago and tagging it with the company's "super light" designation. Again, they've replaced door panels, engine cover, wing, mirrors and central tunnel cover with carbon fiber components, reducing weight by between 220 lbs and 330 lbs — that's trimmed from the LP640's hefty 3670 lbs. Power will likely be in the 700 hp range and top speed around 217 mph. Look for a proper unveiling later this year in Frankfurt, if the thing doesn't just spin right off the earth before then. – Mike Spinelli

SPY PHOTOS: Lamborghini Murcielago Superleggera [World Car Fans]

Related:
Super Flight: Driving the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [internal]

When he's not writing Car Hack's Notebook columns for the Jalop, our mate from Birmingham, UK, Nick Hall must suffer his day job. Such drudgery it is to fly to Scottsdale, Arizona to drive the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera in the desert at ludicrous speeds, trying to outwit a police force that lives to put his speed-gathering ass in the joint. What torture it must be to face the blank page after such a trip.

The final figure would have Arizona State Troopers reaching for the extradition papers, as figures of, theoretically speaking of course, 172mph, is akin to setting off a dirty bomb in a schoolyard round these parts. Of course it might just be bluff and bravado, depending on whether your belt carries a holster and cuffs.

WCF Test Drive: Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [World Car Fans]

Related:

Taking an early swing by the Lambo booth yesterday, we caught the Grabber Orange (or thereabout) Superleggera unmolested by the show crowd. It looked quite a bit more amped up than the flat-gray model that starred in Geneva. We took the opportunity (notwithstanding one ill-placed union ladder) to take some triple-x car pr0n. We tried to pick it up, but even with the carbon fiber and lack of a radio, the super-light lambo is still pretty weighty. – Mike Spinelli

Related:
Geneva Showcase: Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [internal]

There are few words in the English language as impossibly awesome as "superleggera." And since, Jalopnik's essential mission is to celebrate the awesome, we would like to point out that the superleggera version of anything this side of Glenn Seaborg's personal collection of transuranic elements, Fort Knox' stash of gold and Tony Iommi's guitar tone is pretty much the best rendition of anything the term is applied to. Go ahead and try it. Add "Superleggera" to your own car. If your neighbors do not envy the Colt Vista Superleggera, there is merely the simple matter of taking a machete to their mailbox to inform them of the error of their ways. Sadly, we now realize that Taco Bell with come out with a Seven-Layer Superleggera Burrito with all of the flavor and none of the carbs without realizing that "superleggera" is American, rather than Mexican. Such is the pain of being a Jalopnik. – Davey G. Johnson

Related:
Geneva Showcase: Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [Internal]

Lamborghini's Gallardo Superleggera is 220 pounds lighter — and 10 horsepowers hotter than the Gallardo SE. That decreases its time in the zero-to-62 mph run from four seconds to 3.8 seconds. Not a particularly mindbending difference in the scheme of supercar performance, but Lambo totally gets the concept of incremental bragging rights among well-heeled buyers. By whatever five-figure premium the Superleggera demands, mainly from carbon-fiber costs, Lamborghini will probably raise its gross margins by at least a point or two. That'll make the Audi bosses crack one hell of a reserved half-smile. – Mike Spinelli

Related:
Weight Watchers: The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [internal]

The high priests of Sant'Agata have dispatched a messenger with their latest proclamation. We'll paraphrase. "And shall it be so, that the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera will be one sporty MF. It shall be 150 pounds or so lighter and its engine computer will be remapped. Further, improved volumetric efficiency will be achieved through reduced intake load losses and by exhaust backpressures [better exhaust - ed.], such that it will produce 530 hp." See you in Geneva, my liege. – Mike Spinelli

Press Release:

Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

- The sportiest and most 'purist' Gallardo ever
- The new more powerful and lightweight series leader

Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy — With the Gallardo Superleggera, Automobili Lamborghini presents an uncompromisingly high-performance sports car. Thanks to increased power (an additional 10 hp) and a 100 kg reduction in weight (USA 70 kg), the new range-leading Gallardo Superleggera is even more dynamic than the already very sporty Gallardo. The weight/power ratio of the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera is only 2.5 kg/hp, which puts it unquestionably at the top.

The Superleggera also has the fastest acceleration in its class. It needs only 3.8 seconds to go from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph); 0.2 seconds less than the basic model, and boasting speed and grit under other driving conditions.

The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera is an extremely high-performance car: it includes a standard robotized mechanical 'e-gear' gearbox that guarantees shifting without removing hands from the steering wheel. The new Gallardo Superleggera can be ordered through the dealer network starting March 2007: production volumes will be restricted to lower numbers than the standard Gallardo.

More power thanks to technological developments

The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera's engine is the latest version of Lamborghini's well-known 4,961 cm3 V10. Now 530 hp is reached in 8,000 min-1. The increase in power was made possible by the engine's improved volumetric efficiency through reduced intake load losses and by exhaust backpressures, together with optimized electronic control. Naturally, emission levels observe the strict EURO 4 and LEV II standards.

Higher power thanks to lighter construction

Lamborghini engineers decreased the Lamborghini Gallardo's already low weight when empty (1,430 kg) by another 100 kg using advanced materials and technologies. The engine hood is made of visible carbon fiber and transparent polycarbonate, a type of material that guarantees lightness and also shows off the magnificent V10. The rear diffuser and underbody covering, the rearview mirrors, door panels and the central tunnel's covering are also made of carbon fiber. Further reductions in weight were achieved by replacing certain glass surfaces with transparent polycarbonate. For the interior, monocoque carbon fiber sports seats covered in Alcantara were chosen to ensure restraint of the driver and passenger during the intense lateral accelerations that the Gallardo Superleggera is capable of achieving around curves.

Exclusive specification and options range

A comprehensive specification and extensive range of options will be available, with some exclusive to the Superleggera. The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera comes with robotized mechanical e-gear as standard; a sports package including shock absorbers; and special suede-covered steering wheel. The car is available in four colors: Midas Yellow, Borealis Orange, Telesto Gray and Noctis Black. Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires (standard) on new Scorpius forged rims accentuate the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. A few of the options that can be requested include the multimedia system with navigator and CD-changer; a rear video camera to make parking easier (with optional rear wing only); a Carbon accessories kit for the interior; a fixed rear spoiler; a four-point seatbelt (not for USA); tubular rear frame or fitting points for later inclusion (not for USA, Japan or Middle East); and carbon-ceramic brakes.

Related:
Bullish on Lightness: The Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera [internal]

According to the Italian motoring press, Lamborghini's rolling out a lightened version of its Gallardo at the Geneva show. It's the Superleggera (literally, "super light"), and it's getting that way (minus 220 pounds) via a few choice carbon fiber body-panel replacements and a stripped interior. The V10's getting a 10-hp boost to 530 hp, and all-wheel drive, and its commensurate weight liability, will remain. Nonetheless, it'll reportedly be quicker than the standard model, with a reported zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) time of 3.8 seconds, vs 4.2 seconds. The lightened bull will likely be a worthy adversary for Ferrari's new, similarly de-weighted F430 Challange Stradale, though we'd have to see them head to head Monza to make a proper determination. Preferably while sipping a Campari and soda. – Mike Spinelli

Lamborghini Gallardo "Superleggera" Geneva Sneak Preview: 10hp more, 100 kg less [Carscoop]

Related:
Membership has its Privilegio: Lamborghini's New Special Edition Gallardo [internal]