Lamborghini to make Sesto Elemento

Lamborghini has given its clearest indication yet that its Paris show-stealing Sesto Elemento concept car will make it into low-volume production — but with a higher-than-anticipated price tag of around 2 million euro.

Although Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann refuses officially to place the car’s chances of making production at more than 50/50, company insiders say the Sesto Elemento is actually in the advanced stages of its development.

What Winkelmann did confirm is that the Sesto Elemento will have a 0-100kph time of no more than 2.5sec, less time than it takes for the 1183bhp Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to get to 100kph.

In part this will come courtesy of its Gallardo-derived 5.2-litre V10 engine, but in the main it will be down to the car’s exceptionally light weight. Despite widespread belief that no production model could match the 995kg weight of the concept, Winkelmann is adamant that the Sesto Elemento “will weigh less than a tonne”.

To keep to this self-imposed and ultra-ambitious weight limit, and as previously reported in Autocar, the Sesto Elemento will have to stay within the confines of the race track. Its extreme nature, stripped-out cabin and highly experimental forged carbonfibre construction mean that homologation issues preclude the possibility of a road-going version.

The only thing likely to be more breathtaking than the way the Sesto Elemento gets around a race track is the amount of money Lamborghini will ask its customers to part with in exchange for one.

Winkelmann reiterated earlier statements that no more than 20 will be built — but revealed that instead of a price tag of around a 1m euro each Elemento will be sold for around 2m euro.

That may seem expensive for a track-day car, until you consider that Lamborghini sold all 35 Reventons, which were essentially rebodied Murciélagos, within a week of the car being announced at a price of 1m euro plus local taxes.

Few would bet against Lamborghini being able to find 20 people on the planet prepared to pay twice as much for the most technologically advanced, fastest, maddest-looking model in its 48-year history.