Lamborghini Egoista
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14th May, 2013
In Sant’Agata Bolognese (Italy), on Sunday, at an event celebrating
Lamborghini's 50th anniversary: an incredible vehicle made its entry in front of a thousand invitees, Walta De Silva the
Head of Design for the Volkswagen Group's said, in celebrating the House of the Raging Bull's half century, when
introducing this new one-off concept car that his team devised “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.”
Indeed the Egoista, as the vehicle has been named, is a car forged from a passion for innovation and alternative
solutions, the same passion which has always set the Lamborghini brand apart. “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),” De Silva further explained.
The super car's debut was equally spectacular, with a cinematic entry announced by a trailer projected onto the nine
big screens in the room. The stage was transformed into a landing strip, with a driver in a flight suit guiding the
Egoista's arrival with ground crew light paddles, and the roar of the V10 engine shaking the 20-metre-tall tensioned
event structure: this is the spectacle the VIP guests were treated to when Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan
Winkelmann entered the Egoista, before inviting its designer, Walter De Silva, to join him on stage.
Concept and technology
Powered by a 5.2-litre V10 engine supplying it with 600 horsepower, the Lamborghini Egoista is an extreme and unusual
vehicle with unique characteristics, designed by the Volkswagen Group design team – Alessandro Dambrosio responsible for
the exterior and Stefan Sielaff for the interior, in particular. De Silva's team chose to make a single-seater, pushing
all the characteristics in Lamborghini's make-up meaning driving pleasure, performance and style beyond their limits. The
cockpit, designed like a tailor-made suit for the driver, is a removable section which, once combined with the rest of
the vehicle, provides a perfect technical, mechanical and aerodynamic unit. Inspiration, as per Lamborghini tradition,
once again comes from the world of aviation, and in particular the Apache helicopter, where the cockpit can be ejected in
an emergency. “The cockpit, made completely of carbon fibre and aluminium, 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.”
The design
The exterior is characterised by two fundamental aspects: its architecture, and the materials used. The design is
determined by a highly 'muscular' structure, in which empty and solid areas fit together with strength and vigor. The
bodywork is dominated, on its sides, by the pretend profile of a bull preparing to charge, its horns lowered. The bull is
driving towards the front wheels, conferring a futuristic dynamism and lines which are already, in themselves, highly
aggressive. Naturally, this is a homage, a bold stylistic citation which can only be a reworking of the Lamborghini brand
icon, the well-known raging bull. The challenge of efficiently inserting the Lamborghini symbol as an integral part of
the bodywork was met courageously and artistically. The plan view reveals a trimaran profile, where the central hull
forms a unique section with the cockpit, underlined by the carbon-fibre cover on the front bonnet. The upper part of the
vehicle does not have aerodynamic appendages, but rather flaps integrated in the bodywork profile which act 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 cooling air flow to the powerful V10 power plant. While
the front of the vehicle has a profile intended to increase downforce, the rear is fully open with the mechanics in view,
reducing weight but also with the result of providing a more aggressive look. The Lamborghini Egoista's lights are more
like an aircraft's than a road vehicle's. It does not have traditional headlights, rather LED clearance lights which
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' unique even in the dark. Finally, 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, two eagle's eyes able to scan the darkness
for great distances. As it is made from lightweight materials such as aluminum and carbon-fiber, the vehicle has no-walk
zones, duly marked like on airliners. 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 anti-radar material, flat and rough, embellished with carbon-fibre plates to improve their aerodynamics.
Interior
The cabin's interior is extremely rational, its functionality taken to the extreme. There is a racing seat with a
four-point seatbelt, each strip a different colour, the airbags, and the bare minimum of instruments. The focal point of
these is a head-up display, typical of jet fighters. 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 cabin to the outside of the
vehicle. At this point they can set their feet down and stand up. Even in getting out of the vehicle, the Lamborghini
Egoista requires a pilot more than a driver.
The philosophy
The Egoista contains, in Walter De Silva's opinion, all the product criteria which are part of Lamborghini's make-up.
“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 for myself, and I want it as I imagine it to be. It is a fanatical vehicle, Egoista fits it well.” If
Lamborghinis are cars for the few, this one goes further. It is a car for itself, a one-off gift from Lamborghini to
Lamborghini.
E&OE.
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