Lamborghini was tipped to show another limited-edition supercar to an elite group of owners at the recent Monterey Car Week festivities. Reports confirm that this clandestine unveiling did occur, and that the mystery car will be shown to the public at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show in March.
The company would not confirm any details about the car, but it could be a hybrid aimed at taking on the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918 Spyder, Road & Track says. If that’s true, Lamborghini is very late to the party indeed.
While all three of those hyper hybrids still loom large in the automotive consciousness, they’re all out of production. Ferrari and McLaren have even moved on to building hardcore, track-only versions of their models. That doesn’t mean Lambo can’t one-up them all with whatever it has cooking, though.
The choice of a hybrid powertrain for a production model does seem a bit surprising, though. Lamborghini showed the spectacular Asterion LP910-4 at the 2014 Paris Motor Show, but it has never been enthusiastic about hybrids.
The company has been adamant that the Asterion will remain a concept, insisting that it will only put a hybrid powertrain into production as a last resort to meet fuel-economy regulations. Until now, it seems.
Lamborghini builds some pretty outrageous cars, but it can’t avoid being compared to the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche. Those companies’ hybrids have gotten plenty of attention, and it’s possible Lambo simply wants to cash in on the trend as well.
Like the recent Veneno, the theoretical hybrid would only barely count as a production car. Per Lambo’s M.O., it will probably be built in extremely limited numbers, and offered only to a cabal of select buyers, who probably keep their cars hermetically sealed in pristine garages most of the time.
On a slightly less-exclusive note, Lamborghini will also reportedly unveil two new versions of its Huracán in Geneva: a convertible Huracán Spyder, and a rear-wheel drive model that could serve as a replacement to the old Gallardo Balboni and other sporty special editions.