Lamborghini Egoista

Lamborghini is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. Walter De Silva, Head of Design for the Volkswagen Group, an Italian himself wanted to pay homage to this Italian brand that is close to many enthusiast’s hearts. The car was presented in Sant’Agata Bolognese to an audience a thousand strong. “This is a car made for one person only, to allow them to have fun and express their personality to the maximum. It 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),” explained De Silva.

The Egoista uses the Gallardo’s 5.2 L V10 and makes around 600 horsepower. The design is inspired by the Apache helicopter ( obvious, isn’t it?) and the cockpit is a removable unit that also ejects in case of an emergency! The profile is characteristically Lamborghini and represents a raging bull. Viewed from the top, Lamborghini says the Egoista has a ‘trimaran’ profile. A Trimaran is a multi hulled boat, with a main hull and smaller hulls on either side. The carbon fiber cover on the hood of the Egoista defines the main hull and the smaller hulls on either side hold the LED lights. We would rather not say ‘head lights’ since Lamborghini insists these do not function in a single plane, but in all three dimensions, not unlike an aircraft.

Other lights include the 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 unique even in the dark. There are two xenon headlamps hidden at the joins between the central body and the two side ‘hulls’. The Egoista takes the aircraft inspiration to an all new level with ‘no-walk zones’ marked like you’ve seen on airliners. Think that was over the top? Well, the body of the Egoista 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-fiber plates to improve their aerodynamics.

The Egoista does not have a spoiler but rather two flaps that can rise up when required. Body work is mostly carbon fibre and aluminium keeping the weight down.

Walter De Silva’s explains about the design philosophy behind the Egoista, “It’s as if Ferruccio Lamborghini were saying: I’m going to put the engine in the back, I don’t want a passenger. I want it formyself, and I want it as I imagine it to be. It is a fanatical vehicle, Egoista fits it well.”

The bare cockpit is all about fuctionality. There is a racing seat with a four-point seatbelt, each strip a different color, the airbags, and the minimal instruments. The head up display is the focal point. The removable glass dome can be opened electronically. The extreme athleticism required to ‘pilot’ a Egoista is laid bare in the way one gets in and out of the car. The driver has to pop the dome, remove the steering wheel, place it on the dome, not unlike a Formula 1 driver and sit on the left side of the body work, and swivel around and put his/her feet on the ground. As Lamborghini points out, “the Lamborghini Egoista requires a pilot more than a driver, a real top gun.”