Whatever the motivation, a concept car is made to be shown off to the public – which usually means it debuts at a major auto show and then goes on a world tour. That’s what makes the Lamborghini Egoista so unique.
Lamborghini and its parent company Volkswagen created the Egoista three years ago to celebrate the Raging Bull marque’s 50th anniversary. They never sent it to any auto shows or took it on a tour. All they did was show it at a festive gala at the company’s headquarters in northern Italy, then put it on permanent display at the adjoining museum. And that’s where we caught up with this very unique creation upon a recent pilgrimage to Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Of course, there’s more to the Egoista than where it has or hasn’t been displayed. The name is Italian for “selfish,” which already tells you something about its nature: the conceptual supercar has only one seat, mounted in the center of the vehicle, under a glass canopy. No doors, no opening windows, no passenger seat, no luggage space – no concessions, in short, towards practicality whatsoever.
The House That Ferruccio Built has, for the past decade, derived its styling from fighter jets. The trend started with the Reventon revealed in 2007 and has only become more radical in the years following. But the Egoista takes it to new extremes. The nose dropping ahead of the canopy looks like the tip of fuselage hanging off the edge of a carrier’s flight deck. The front fenders look more like wings than any others we’ve ever seen, the vents more like jet air intakes, and the surface is made up of flat panels intersecting at angles that could have been designed to minimize the vehicle’s radar signature against anti-aircraft batteries.
]]>If there was anything green about this year’s 68th edition of the legendary motor show held in Europe’s financial capital, it was the smell of dollars emanating from the fantasy projects brought here by the world’s biggest carmakers and smallest automotive boutiques alike. After the hoards of journalists fight for photos and motorshow swag, the world’s wealthiest show up, looking for the flashiest ways of manifesting their fortunes and satiating their hunger for thrills when that third Veyron in the garage doesn’t do it anymore.
This time, everyone received a welcome surprise. After years of political correctness and putting bland, electric world-savers on pedestals, interest in CO2 emissions and energy ratings were ousted by horsepower and glamour. Volkswagen Group arrived with arguably the most joyful and carefree lineup of all the exhibitors. With its multiple European brands, VW Group gave the world the long-awaited Bugatti Veyron successor, the 1,500hp Chiron, the refreshed Bentley Mulsanne (now available in Extended version and the Even More Extended, Mulsanne Grand Limousine), and the new limited production Lamborghini Centenario with a cool $1.95 million price tag. Even the Volkswagen brand stage was dominated by the reality-neglecting convertible crossover called T-Cross Breeze. It is still in the concept stage but poses a real threat to the niche-inventing Range Rover Evoque Convertible (premiered 400 yards away).
The mass-market-makers didn’t make as big a splash, but there were a few standouts: The promising new Abarth 124 Spider delivers the Italian passion missing in the base Fiat 124, the sexy Alfa Romeo Giulia in volume-spec proves it has more to offer than just the power and carbon fiber of the exotic Quadrifoglio; the Ikea-friendly Volvo V90 wagon based on the XC90’s massive success and the polished Benz C-class now coming in convertible and C43 AMG guises. It was the supercar pantheon that staged the comeback with some ultimate developments of cars deemed impossible to improve. There was a new Ferrari (with another overcomplicated name, GTC4 Lusso), a couple of new Porsches (one to please enthusiasts, the 911 R, and one to fuel purist-rage, the four-cylinder Boxster), and a new McLaren (a lovely 570 now smoothened to a 570GT). Jaguar tried its hand at making the F-type even more muscular and fearsome, creating the F-type SVR, while the renascent Lotus did the same trick to its Evora, Exige, and Elise. And you just couldn’t deny the historical significance of the premiere of the beefed-up Pagani Huayra BC, the last car that needed more power or a more excessive design.
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20 years ago, Matt Donnelly from Northern Ireland knew exactly the car he wanted to build and own one day: a California-Look Volkswagen Karmann Ghia in silver and with a red leather interior. It had to be left-hand drive too, as a right-hand drive car would, in his opinion, fall short of the Cal-Look he required.
Just what exactly is the Cal-Look? I’ll let my friend Stephen Brooks show you in this short documentary he put together called Older N’ Faster. It’s definitely worth the 12 minutes or so of your time.
For two decades Matt waited for just the right car to come along, before it reached a point where he would have known that he had no choice but to build his own. In late 2013, Matt came across a front damaged ’72 Karmann Ghia which had originally been imported from San Bruno in California. Well, you’re not going to get much more authentic than that for a base to build your Cal-Look car.
The car was the wrong colour, had no engine, no wheels and a black interior. Other than that though, it was the perfect base for Matt to put a 20-year wait behind him and finally build the car of his dreams.
Today, one of the most striking aspects is the custom silver colour that Matt created and applied himself. Where most metallic silvers have a certain amount of, er, metallic and glitter under direct light, Matt’s hue almost turns a flat pale shade. It is an exquisite colour that’s incredibly hard to capture accurately in either words or photographs.
The show-stopping part of the car however lives in the rear.
With no original engine to work with, it was the perfect opportunity for Matt to install his dream setup – that being a 2,161cc stroker motor with a raised case, twin Dell’Orto 40s and an external oil cooler. To quote Matt himself, “We just made everything bigger.” The result is a power figure of around 130hp.
To achieve the desired rake associated with the Cal-Look, the rear was lowered with torsion bars and the front was narrowed and dropped. Connecting the car to the road are a set of Porsche fitment 15-inch Fuchs-style wheels.
]]>The two Volkswagen dune buggies sitting in front of VW enthusiast Dane Morrison’s garage in downtown Toronto make up just a small part of his classic car collection—but they’re his favourite part.
“That one I’ve had over 15 years,” he says, pointing to a faded dark red roadster with matching red Cragar wheels and a chrome roll bar. The other, a Beetle-based “Maxi Taxi,” is a more recent month-old acquisition, one Morrison’s worried he won’t get the chance to drive.
“My insurance company simply won’t cover it any more—no explanation, they just told me they’re no longer covering dune buggies,” he explains.
Because the cars are purpose-built for recreational use, he says regular car insurance is out of the question, meaning when the policy on the roadster expires, he may not be able to register or drive it in the province either.
Morrison is one of several classic car enthusiasts in Ontario who feel insurance companies, provincial regulators and emissions officers are waging an all-out war on hot rods and making every effort they can to impound their raucous souped-up rides.
You’ll find plenty of stories from the front on internet forums, where rodders recount battles waged during traffic stops, seek to arm themselves with information, and ask each other about the legality of certain modifications they’ve made to their vehicles, like:
- “Does anybody know if there is a law in Ontario that forbids a car or truck to run without fenders?“
That last part, about questions regarding the legality of enthusiasts’ hot rods, is where lawyer Jonathan Hendricks comes in.
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