Lamborghini Egoista concept car a 'four-wheeled UFO'

Lamborghini Egoista, inspired by the design of an Apache helicopter, was introduced to the world over the weekend. While the Lamborghini Egoista is a pure design concept, Lamborghini has said in the past that it never builds a concept without the intention of production. 

|
Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters/File
A Lamborghini sports car logo is pictured during an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the carmaker in downtown Milan. The new Lamborghini Egoista concept car presents some interesting technology we may see in the future.

Over the weekend, the first photos and details for a brand new Lamborghini concept cropped up. We now have all the official details for the concept, which goes by the name “Egoista” and was developed as a tribute to Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary by a team led by Volkswagen Group designboss Walter De Silva.

The concept’s name, which is Spanish for “selfish,” has been applied because of the single-seat design. But rather than signify a potential for single-seat racing, the design was picked to allow its driver the ability to express their individual personality to the maximum.

“This is a car made for one person only,” De Silva explained at the unveiling of the Egoista at Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary Grande Giro drive, which took place in Italy during the past week.

The Italian designer also used the words “hedonism,” “four-wheeled UFO” and even “Never Never Land” in describing the car. 

While the Egoista is a pure design concept, Lamborghini has said in the past that it never builds a concept without the intention of production. But this one is a gift from Lamborghini to itself, so we doubt it will be sold to the highest bidder.

It does present some interesting technology we may see in the future, however. Namely, lightweight construction, new design language and a 592-horsepower version of the Gallardo’s 5.2-liter V-10 engine. Materials used in the construction include aluminum and carbon fiber.

The upper part of the vehicle also features active flaps integrated in the bodywork that move depending on the driving conditions, providing a balance between drag and downforce. Two rear flaps activate automatically at high speeds to increase stability, while a series of air intakes on the back of the engine hood provides the cooling air flow to the V-10 engine.

New features of the Gallardo successor perhaps?

Inspiration for the concept’s design came from an Apache helicopter, whose ejecting cockpit design was borrowed for the Egoista. The profile, meanwhile, is said to represent a charging bull with its head down and horns pointed forward.

“The cockpit represents a sort of survival cell, allowing the driver to isolate and protect themselves from external elements,” De Silva explained.“We kept an eye on the future when designing the Egoista, with the idea that its cockpit could have been taken from a jet aircraft and integrated into a road vehicle.”

Inside, there is a racing seat with a four-point seatbelt, airbags, and the bare minimum of instruments. The focal point of these is a head-up display, typical of jet fighters. To get out of the vehicle, the driver must remove the steering wheel and rest it on the dashboard, open the canopy, stand up and then sit down on a precise point of the bodywork, then swivel 180 degrees. At this point, he or she can finally set their feet down and stand up.

Hedonism, indeed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Lamborghini Egoista concept car a 'four-wheeled UFO'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0513/Lamborghini-Egoista-concept-car-a-four-wheeled-UFO
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe