Gautam Sharma•15 May 2013
NEWS
Lamborghini Egoista
Bolognese Raging Bull celebrates its 50th birthday by rolling out arguably its most radical concept to dateLamborghini chalked up its 50th anniversary celebrations by rolling out this outlandish design study, penned by a team led by VW Group styling supremo Walter De Silva.
Fittingly dubbed the Egoista (as it’s a ‘selfish’ car designed for one person only), the Gallardo-derived one-off was conceived as the Volkswagen Group’s homage to the Raging Bull’s half-century.
“I am very attached to this Italian brand, being an Italian myself. I wanted to pay homage to and think up a vehicle to underline the fact that Lamborghinis have always been made with passion, and with the heart more than the head,” said an emotional De Silva.
According to De Silva, the bespoke Lambo is “designed purely for hyper-sophisticated people who want only the most extreme and special things in the world. It represents hedonism taken to the extreme, it is a car without compromises, in a word: egoista (selfish)”.
In keeping with the concept’s fighter jet inspiration, the stage for the car’s hyped reveal was transformed into a landing strip, with a top model in a flight suit guiding the Egoista’s arrival with light paddles, and the roar of the V10 engine shaking the 20-metre-tall tensioned event structure.
The Batmobile-esque car – for which there are no production plans, low-volume or otherwise – was driven on stage by Lamborghini president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann.
Using the underpinnings and 5.2-litre V10 drivetrain (albeit tweaked to produce 441kW) sourced from the Gallardo, the Egoista’s cockpit is designed like a tailor-made suit for the driver. It was inspired by the Apache helicopter, where the whole cockpit can be ejected in an emergency.
“The cockpit, made completely of carbonfibre and aluminum, 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, to provide a different travel option.”
As for the exterior, the Egoista’s profile is meant to mimic a stylised bull preparing to charge, its horns lowered.
The upper part of the vehicle does not have aerodynamic appendages, but rather flaps integrated in the bodywork profile that deploy automatically depending on the driving conditions.
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 necessary cooling airflow to the big V10 powerplant.
The Egoista also eschews conventional headlights in favour of LED clearance lights that determine its position not just on a single plane such as the road, but rather in three dimensions, as is required in airspace.
Two white front lights, two red rear lights, a red flashing light in the upper part of the tail, two orange bull’s eyes as side markers, and a further two lights on the roof, red on the left and green on the right, make this “four-wheeled UFO” easily identifiable even in the dark.
In addition, hidden behind the front air intakes at the base of the join between the central body and the two side sections are two powerful xenon headlamps that are inspired by two eagle’s eyes.
As it’s crafted from lightweight materials such as aluminium and carbonfibre, the vehicle has no-walk zones that are marked in the same fashion you’d find on the wings of an aircraft.
The parallels with the world of aeronautics do not end here, however, as the body is made from a special antiradar material, and the glass is anti-glare with an orange gradation. The rims are also made from antiradar material, flat and rough, embellished with carbon-fibre plates to improve their aerodynamics.
The cabin features a jet-fighter-inspired head-up display, and to get out of the vehicle, the driver must remove the steering wheel and rest it on the dashboard, open the dome with an electronic command, stand up in their seat, sit down on a precise point of the left-hand bodywork, then swivel their legs 180 degrees from the inside of the cockpit to the outside of the vehicle.
At this point they can set their feet down and stand up...
In Lambo’s words: “Even in getting out of the vehicle, the Lamborghini Egoista requires a pilot more than a driver, a real top gun.”
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Written byGautam Sharma
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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