LAMBORGHINI PREGUNTA V12 Roadster prototype at AUTODROME PARIS

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LAMBORGHINI PREGUNTA PROTOTYPE

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Certified as "an important part of Lamborghini History" by Polo Storico Lamborghini

Only one ever built

Paris 1998 - Geneva 1999

V12 aspirated 530 hp, 333 km/h

 

 

 

 

AUTODROME has a long tradition of passion for classic Lamborghini, shared with many enthusiasts and collectors around the world. In 2006, we acquired the famous prototype LAMBORGHINI PREGUNTA.

The V12-powered Pregunta is a fascinating automobile, exsuding power and speed. Like a dream-car come true in a dull landscape, it is the last "truly Italian" Lamborghini prototype, the swan song of a legend.Ferruccio sadly left the scene in 1993. But was it possible to perpetuate his legacy in a totally original, extreme concept-car ? Pregunta - a spanish word in the tradition of Lamborghini - means "question" ; this car was the answer.

 

Here is the story of a unique automobile designed and built in Italy, born from a genetic crossover between high-end technology and the voluptuous Lamborghini extravaganza.

 


 

1. A secret agreement between Lamborghini and a famous Designer of Bertone fame...

 

In 1998, Lamborghini is just emerging from three successive change of hands.

The Diablo, successor to the Countach, has been a success since 1990. But in 1994, Chrysler, then owner of the firm, sold Lamborghini to the Megatech Group. The following year, the firm is sold once again, to Tommy Suharto, son of the Indonesian President, just before the purchase of 100% of the shares of Lamborghini by Audi-VW, effective in July 1998.

But a few months before this complete change of identity and culture, in June 1998, a last-minute agreement is signed in Sant'Agata between the Lamborghini factory and Carrosserie Heuliez-Torino,  specialising in prototypes and special cars. By this contract, Lamborghini donates a factory Diablo development car as a basis for the creation of a new, one-off model. Nobody knows the shape and the name of the future concept-car and Lamborghini's intentions are not openly revealed...

Heuliez-Torino was headed by Marc Deschamps formerly partner of Lamborghini as Director of Syle at Bertone, and successor of Gandini (designer of the Miura and of the Countach). Deschamps had worked with Lamborghini for several years before founding his own Style Studio in Torino. At Bertone, Deschamps had created the Lamborghini Athon concept-car, and he would later design the bold shapes of the Bugatti-derived Edonis super-car.

The key to understand this venture is that several clauses of the contract suggest a possible future for the super-prototype to come...

On the one hand, Lamborghini demands that the design of the car should be "new, original and impossible to confuse with any other" (wasn't this the case for the Miura and for the Countach...?). Also, Heuliez-Torino commits to build only one example of the concept-car and to prevent themselves from selling to any third party the rights of the future Pregunta. Lamborghini reserves the right for them to display the car at any time ...

 

Torino, 1998 : birth of the Pregunta prototype. Jet fighter or Formula 1 ? The most provocative and brilliant design since the Countach LP500 by Bertone...

 

Another important clause states that the Pregunta should be approved by Lamborghini before any presentation to the public and to the Press. The agreement also states that the car made by Heuliez-Torino should not create for Lamborghini clients "an expectation about further production of the concept-car, with possible negative consequences on the sale of cars built by Lamborghini"...

As we know, the take-over of Lamborghini by Audi, at the end of 1998 translated in a sudden discontinuation of another project : the "Canto", then in development. Audi AG demanded the destruction of all prototypes.

However, it was fortunately too late to stop the Pregunta project, leading to the creation of a unique and radical Speedster, presented at the 1998 Paris and 1999 Geneva Motor Shows. Marc Deschamps as the successor of Marcello Gandini at Bertone, had signed another masterpiece.

 

2. Pregunta: a V12 Lamborghini speedster fed with spaceship and aircraft steroids

 

The Pregunta Speedster is a concept car combining advanced technology with animal beauty, but is also a fully functional prototype with state-of-the-art specs: 530 HP (the Ferrari F50 has only 520), enabling a top speed of 333 km/h, and less than 20 s. for the standing kilometre. With its aggressive aircraft inspiration, this prototype was set to become a "Hyper-Lamborghini ", topping the Diablo as a most exclusive high-end sports car.

The structure is a lighter and more straight-forward rear wheel drive - versus the last Diablo's all-wheel drive - and radiators have moved to the front. Also, the car is designed to be easily convertible into a berlinetta with the addition of two "half-roofs" in see-through polycarbonate. The Pregunta uses Aerospace and Formula 1 technologies: Dassault stealth external paintwork (from the Dassault Rafale jet fighter), dynamic air intakes, fully electronic F-1 type Marelli instruments, 4 points Schrott safety harness, internal optical fiber lighting (DGA), rear-view camera replacing the mirrors, CDI Cristine GPS system, combat jet-derived cockpit ergonomy…

The style of the PREGUNTA is exceptionally rich, innovative, a deliberate breakthrough from the often conservative and even conformist design of the period.

The ultra low shape (1,10 m), with an immense and almost horizontal windscreen, creates a strong impression of dynamics and brute force. The mutant nose seems to come from a racing prototype, spiced-up with the aggressiveness of a catamaran boat. The wide-open front air intake for the radiator is highlighted by an enormous spoiler, whilst spectacular reactor-like lateral air scoops gulp fresh air, in line with the aerospace inspiration of the prototype.

 

 

The rear part of the car is muscular and animal, almost excessively long and wide, and structured around a giant saurian backbone, seeming to hide the reactors of a spaceship. A ground-effect extractor underlines the innnovative volume arrangement of the back : the enormous engine lid and the rear fenders end in areodynamic shapes, only pierced by orifices echoing the futurist headlights, whilst the exhaust pipes exhale hot gases into the air...

 

 

 

 

Carved as a sculpture, and far away from the main stream, the Pregunta set new aesthetical standards by questionning existing limits

This automotive style masterwork set the trend for later Super cars like the 1999 Bugatti Chiron 18/3, the EB 112/118, and the later Veyron.

Even the Pagani Zonda drew a couple of style details from the highly inspiring Pregunta.

 

             A VIDEO OF THE LAMBORGHINI PREGUNTA  :      

 

 

Pictures from the Lamborghinin video Pregunta shot with Dassault Rafale jet-fighter.

 

                 Watch this movie on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AOkr2YOtB0            

 

Although a one-off concept-car, the PREGUNTA fueled wild dreams for those who desperately expected a successor to the voluptuous Miura and to the extreme Countach...This was the last and ultimate special coachwork ever built on a true Italian Lamborghini base before Lamborghini was merged into the Audi-VW Group. This automobile is therefore very important : it historically stands as the final conclusion of thirty-five golden years of the Sant'Agata Legend.

One single example of the Lamborghini Pregunta exists, and it was entirely hand-built in 1998, based on a Lamborghini Factory development Diablo, by the best craftsmen and technicians in Italy. The Lamborghini Pregunta has never been privately owned.

 

You could almost hear the jet reactors...the Pregunta is a guided projectile, a missile launched along a pure pleasure trajectory.

The V12 by Lamborghini seems boosted with kerozene or propergol, ready to race on a track or to reach outer space.

 

 

Volumes and shapes never imagined before, a sculptural design, a definitive masterpiece.  

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Anti-G aircraft seat or module for a bionic super-hero ?

 

A perfect finish, state-of-the-art onboard technology and Lamborghini 530 HP V12 powerplant

 


 

Marc Deschamps : the successor of Gandini et Scaglione as Bertone Head of Style.

 

Marc Deschamps has signed many creations that are more famous than the man himself. The spectacular Renault R5 Turbo was the first success of this then very young but talented stylist. This was only the beginning of a long carreer, that would lead Deschamps to become Bertone's Head of Style in 70s and 80s, as the successor of the legendary Marcello Gandini.

 

Turin, 1980: Lamborghini ATHON by Marc Deschamps / Bertone.

Deschamps addresses with maestria the theme of a Roadster Lamborghini: the Athon presented in 1980 in Torino announced the fabulous Roadster Diablo. Built on a Silhouette chassis (#93000-350P) and powered by a V8-3 litre engine, mounted amidship, its angular, innovative style beautifully integrates air scoops, rear wing and other distinctive features in a homogenous volume arrangement. The shape is compact, sober, and yet strikingly original.

 

Lamborghini Athon roadster: a one-off inspired two-seater, now carefully preserved at the Bertone Museum.

 

Marc Deschamps, after twenty years experience as Head of Style at Bertone, is appointed to lead Studio Heuliez Torino, the Italian branch of the century-old French Carrozzeria. This important style center is established at the heart of the Italian traditional super car region, with an obvious and close relation with Lamborghini.  In 2000, Deschamps launched his own Design Studio in Torino.

 

Modena, night of December 31, 2000 : presentation of the Edonis.

The spectacular and ambitious Edonis, elaborated by B-Engineering, an ex-Bugatti group of Engineers, briefly stole the show from other supercars with its 360 km/h + measured top speed. Deschamps collaborated with Nicola Materazzi to design the hyper sensuous and aggressive body of the Edonis.

 

Edonis : a quad-Turbo 12, over 360 km/h... But the project sadly stalled at the prototypes phase

A little like the Pregunta, the style of the Edonis breaks away from previous trends : a mix of brute force and rounded curves, its compact shapes can be compared to the Veyron. The front is also aerodynamically similar to the Pregunta, dictated by the very high-speed constraints. But the Pregunta, with the distance of time, is clearly the one that achieved the best balance between provocative innovation and classic design, successfully combining animal connotations, high-tech, aircraft style and legendary racing prototypes heritage. 

AUTODROME  presented the LAMBORGHINI PREGUNTA at the Paris RETROMOBILE Classic Motor Show in 2007.

 

 

The Lamborghini Pregunta on the Spa-Francorchamps race track (June 2008)

We were proud to present the Pregunta to enthusiasts and collectors. More pictures of the event here

 

Perfectly drivable, the Roadster Lamborghini Pregunta offers thrilling driving sensations with its 333 km/h top speed.

Now certified by the Lamborghini Factory Polo Storico

PRICE : ON APPLICATION

 

 

Tel. +33 (0)630 096 491 ou  +33(0)686 699 827 Shipment worldwide - English website:

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