The Lamborghini Murcielago re-imagined as pure art

What is it?

It’s one of two things. Or it’s both. It’s either a Murcielago LP640 with an (in-house) bodykit or, as they’d prefer you to think, the Reventon is the Lamborghini Murcielago as pure art.

Either way, it’s fast – and it looks faster than the donor car.

Lamborghini took a straw poll of long-time customers and found they wanted something a little more exclusive than a Murcielago, so Lamborghini gave it to them.

It’s a new bodyshell - inspired by the Eurofighter, made in carbonfibre composite, designed by Lamborghini’s own designers and fitted in-house – bolted and glued on top of the proven Murcielago LP640 mechanicals.

They’ve done a brilliant job, too, and the angles and folds give the rear end, in particular, a coherence that the LP640 only wishes it had.

Another 10 horsepower takes the tally to 650 and, apart from ticking every box (including carbon brakes) on the option list that’s it for mechanical changes.

What's it like?

It’s a show-stopper. A normal Murcielago will stop traffic and turn heads. A Reventon will snap necks and clog city streets for hours.

And that’s the point, because it drives exactly like an LP640, right down to the paddle-shift gearbox that hates and jerks its way through the multi-point turns the wide turning circle demands.

It’s this system that is probably the low-light, particularly on a car with a €1 million (£670,000) price tag on it. Plus tax.

But while it’s no Porsche in its tactile feel, the Reventon is a jet in its own right.

The raucous V12 is one of the most endearingly brutal powerplants in circulation today and there’s enough performance on offer here to throw the Reventon to 62mph in just 3.4 seconds. In the wet, full throttle can spin up all four wheels, even in fifth gear. It might be mechanically identical to the LP640, but the LP640 is probably enough for most people.

The Reventon rides with incredible firmness and the barely-padded sports seats hurt after an hour, but it’s worth it.

The whole point isn’t the way it drives. The whole point is that nobody else is ever likely to turn up in anything to upstage you and you can still have it serviced at your Lambo dealer.

Should I buy one?

No. Well, you can’t anyway because Lamborghini only built 20 of them and they sold out months ago.

Even if you could find one, though, there is no intrinsic justification for paying five times the price of the (already expensive) supercar on which it’s built.

If art’s your thing, though, and LP640s are just too thick on the ground where you live, go right ahead.

Michael Taylor

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ryaner 27 April 2009

Re: Lamborghini Reventon

Topkat wrote:

Now that's a CAR! Shame I can't afford it and if I could, I'd probably buy a new house! It's for people with more money than sense!

I think its for people who already have a few houses, and don't really need another one..that allows them to justify the decision! Roll on Fridays euromillions to join those lucky pluckers in that elusive group of reventons, 8cs and 250 swbs.

Topkat 27 April 2009

Re: Lamborghini Reventon

Now that's a CAR! Shame I can't afford it and if I could, I'd probably buy a new house! It's for people with more money than sense!

Peter Cavellini 27 April 2009

Re: Lamborghini Reventon

It's a piece of art pure and simple,Aston should hang there head in shame, the 77,nothing but old school, blazer wearing,keep it recognizable and make a great noise, it may have succeeded on the noise department, but it's just plain ugly from the front, to wide and i bet the interior hasn't changed much(don't want to confuse the 77 Aston owners with a new interior) plus these things never get driven far or end up in Saudi as a third sons shopping car, cars like this should be sold to people interested in how they drive not look.