Lamborghini Veneno – limited to 3 only

The veil to the Lamborghini Veneo hypercar has finally been lifted. Designed to look like a racing prototype, the fully road legal Veneno is a tribute to the 50^th anniversary of the brand. Only three will be built by Lamborghini, one in each colour of the Italian flag.

The one on the stand at Geneva is chassis “number 0”, built for testing and development. It is painted in grey metallic and will be the only Veneno to display all three of colours of the Italian flag.

As reported earlier, the Veneno is propelled by a 6.5-litre V12 engine, matched with an ISR manual gearbox borrowed from the Aventador, but uprated to suit the Veneno’s application. The engine dishes out 552kW (740hp) of power, enabling it to hit a top speed of 355km/h.

The car is made almost entirely of carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced plastic, including the carbon fibre-based fabric called CarbonSkin, which made its debut on the Aventador J prototype last year.

Although the carbon monocoque and aluminium subframes originated from the Aventador, extensive use of carbon fibre components results in the Veneno weighing 125kg less than the Aventador.

However, according to Lamborghini, the Veneno was designed with aerodynamics at the top of its priority. The Veneno isn’t about reducing drag exclusively, but bedding the car down with usable downforce for high-speed grip. As such, the entire front end of the car is designed to function as a wing, with large channels guiding air through the bonnet and around the front wheels.

Like Formula 1 cars, the Veneno’s front fenders are detached from the body for airflow. At the sides, airflow is also optimized to aid engine cooling and air intake for the big V12 engine. Six wedge-shaped openings over the engine are designed to extract as much heat as possible from the engine.

Airflow under the car’s body is optimized via a smooth underbody and large diffusers to accelerate airflow under the car for ground-effect downforce. This is futher aided by a large splitter over the tail.

The staggered 20- and 21-inch wheels are attached to the axles via a single centre lug, and a carbon fibre ring around the rim functions like a turbine to cool the brakes.

Unfortunately for all but three people on the planet, all three Veneno to be built over the course of this year are already sold!