'PLAY IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF RESEARCH,' said Albert Einstein (always good for a quote, that man). This car was born through play.
Back in 2017, when Lamborghini was putting the finishing touches to the Urus SUV, its senior engineers were charging around the Strada Bianca dirt track at the Nardo development ground in southern Italy. While testing the Urus, we were in love with the driving on this course,' grins Lamborghini's likeably enthusiastic chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr. 'We thought: "Wouldn't it be amazing to drive on this course in our super sports cars?"""
Head of design Mitja Borkert takes up the story. 'We were so excited by the idea, I called my guys and said: "We need to start sketching." We made a third-scale design model, Rouven liked it a lot and I said to him: "Why don't we build a demonstrator?" He said: "Yeah! We have an old Huracán durability development car-free." So I set about designing the cladding and so on...'
Everybody in Lamborghini's inner circle who drove the demonstrator was captivated by it; even those initially sceptical about whether or not there might be a market for such a car. When Stephan Winkelmann returned to Lamborghini as CEO in 2020, during an epic design meeting in which both the Revuelto hybrid and modern-day Countach were approved, a production version got the green light. When we showed him the Sterrato,' Borkert recalls, he said: "That's what we need to do. We should always be different."
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Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de Evo UK.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
TYRE 2024 TEST
Want to fit the very best tyres to your performance car? The annual evo Tyre Test identifies the cream of the current crop
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Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...
POWER PLAY
It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri
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Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them
1V3.0
F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force
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One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive
Bentley Continental GT Speed
The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?
