The "jet fighter for the street" concept has been around since the late 1970s, the ill-fated, never really worked Vector being the most obvious attempt. Three decades later it has finally arrived, thanks to Lamborghini.
The otherworldly Reventon is named after a particularly feisty fighting bull. With just 20 production cars to be made (11 coming to the U.S.), it'll be Lamborghini's most exclusive road car ever. Other "mosts" include price ($1.4-plus million at current exchange rates), and speed (210-plus mph).
The main inspiration for this most arresting of automotive shapes was the F22 Raptor. Well, duh! Manfred Fitzgerald, Lamborghini's director of brand and design and the man who's carefully guided the company's resurgence over the past decade, was at a European NATO base with his design team.
"We had a good contact with the base manager (and) sat in Tornados and different aircraft to get some inspiration," Fitzgerald says. "We took these impressions of their world and came back here [to Lamborghini's Centro Stile design center]. Then we went, 'What is the most impressive aircraft to date?' For us it was the F-22, the Raptor. It is an incredible piece of art as well. This sort of kicked it off. Everyone on the team had a go at it and we then selected one (proposal) from the competition."
Viewing the car outdoors makes the stealth-driven inspiration all the more obvious. Looking straight out of Area 51, sunlight dances off the sharp edged angles, creases and character lines that dominate the design and its details. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you could triple that count and not fully cover what the Centro Stile team created.
Like its 12-cylinder predecessors, the Reventon's doors open upward. After depressing the flush-fitting door handle on the door's upward-facing edge just below the window, you slide under the low-slung roofline into a deep, tight-fitting, very supportive bucket seat. With the seat all the way back, it's clear that linebackers, power forwards, and centers from either sport were not the design brief's target audience.
The interior is subdued and tastefully appointed with a mix of carbon, aluminum, Alcantara, and leather. The flat-bottom steering wheel is thick and nice to grip. Just behind it are the requisite E-gear up- and downshift paddles, although we're having a difficult time finding the switch for the afterburners...
The instrument binnacle is a housing milled from a single aluminum block that's then protected by a carbon-fiber casing. The instrument cluster looks lifted from some stealth aircraft and is different from that found on any production car. In place of conventional gauges are three TFT liquid crystal displays that can be modified at the touch of a button.
One setting features a "traditional" automotive layout with round analog instruments. The second is more in line with the Reventon's exterior and is innovative in the way it informs the driver of engine functions and speed. The left display has a tachometer of two inward-pointing lines that rise upward in unison as the revs increase. To its right is a large, digital speedometer. The small center gauge has a g-force meter, and supplemental gauges and other readouts are placed in the tachometer and speedometer nacelles.
This flat-screen instrument panel will keep any pilot or gadget geek smiling for weeks, and the overall effect is so impressive, so intuitively legible, that it's easy to see the concept starting a new trend in dash design where owners can scroll through variants to find their preferred configuration.
Like the standard Murcielago LP640, the Reventon has a 6496cc all-aluminum DOHC V-12 with four valves per cylinder that feature variable valve timing. Lamborghini quotes 650 horsepower at 8000 rpm for the Reventon, or 10 over the LP640.
Underpinnings are also from the Murcielago. The chassis is a rigid tubular steel frame with carbon-fiber components. The four-wheel independent suspension has double wishbones, electronically adjustable hydraulic shocks, anti-roll bars, and anti-dive and anti-squat characteristics. Brakes are large, ventilated discs with the requisite ABS.
There is no starter button, so give the key a twist and the engine erupts after a brief starter-motor whirr. The tach's two needles come to life, dancing up and down with each blip of the throttle. Tug the upshift paddle to engage first (the Reventon will only come with E-gear), and thanks to the accelerator's long travel, the pedal requires a good prod to get this handmade Lambo underway.
Visibility is expansive out front, more limited to the sides and rear. Heads turn wherever you go, everyone barely casting a passing glance at the bright green LP640 chase car, before returning their unwavering gaze to the star of the day.
The Reventon handles slow-speed duties with nary a hiccup, thanks to the tractable V-12's 487 lb-ft of torque. The short front overhang can be a concern, especially on a steep driveway, so Lambo uses the LP640's system that automatically raises the front end at the push of a button.
The Reventon make grand entries like no other car, but you'll want to get away from pedestrians and prying eyes as quickly as possible. Its charismatic powerplant completely changes character at 4500 rpm, and the thrust is titanic when you cross that marker with your foot buried on the floor. The engine's sonorous growl and the exhaust's deep bellow overwhelm the cabin as you're pinned in your seat. The tach's two needles instantaneously jump upward past 8000 rpm, and the digital speedometer readout changes so rapidly that not one kph seems to be missed.
A quick flick on the upshift paddle and that colossal shove continues unabated. The steering is light and responsive, with quick, even turn in. The ride is composed and comfortable, even over a patch of rough surface.
Pushing the car through a series of tight turns, the Reventon's suspension doesn't feel quite as planted as the LP640 we drove earlier on the same roads. The rear gives a little twitch coming out of a sharp right-hander, but we aren't going fast enough to require large amounts of correction. This brief twitch can likely be chalked up to being the first person other than company's test drivers to try the development prototype before it's fully sorted.
Excellent Lamborghini Cars' Articles:
+ The Baddest Bull: Lamborghini Miura Vs Countach Vs Murcielago LP640 - Jalopnik
+ 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show: 2008 Lamborghini Reventon - 1,000,000 Euro to own
+ Lamborghini Confirms "Very Expensive" Limited-Edition Sports Car For 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show
+ Faster than getting a coffee at Starbucks: GT2 laps the 'Ring in 7:32
+ 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Photo Gallery
+ 2008 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster Photo Gallery
+ 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
+ Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
[source:MotorTrend]
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