Last March, the stunning Lamborghini Veneno ultracar made its debut at the Geneva Auto Show to help celebrate the automaker’s 50th anniversary year. Only four were built, and the three that were sold commanded an equally stunning $3.9 million per copy. Over the weekend, the wraps came off of its even more outrageous open-air sibling, the new Lamborghini Veneno Roadster. While sharing virtually all of its engineering and styling elements with the Coupe, the Veneno Roadster dispenses with a fixed roof in favor of a “strong rollover bar for optimum safety.” Lambo plans to construct no more than nine of these street-legal “open racing prototypes” for customers during calendar year 2014. In this case, the price of parking one in your garage or carport will start at an even headier $4.5 million — plus any applicable taxes — although Lamborghini will happily individualize each to meet any particular customer requirements.
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Like the Veneno Coupe, the new Roadster is based on a modified version of the Lamborghini Aventador platform. It too, is an exercise in lightweight design that features a monocoque tub and body panels all made from carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) that help hold curb weight to 3,278 pounds. The motif carries to the car’s interior as well, where CFRP bits complement a pair of racing buckets made from Lamborghini’s patented carbon fiber Forged Composite material and wrapped in CarbonSkin fabric, which also covers the rest of the cabin.
Finished in an exclusive Rosso Veneno, the born-to-be-bad exterior of this new Lamborghini has been aero-optimized at every level. The entire nose serves as a giant downforce-enhancing element that complements its dramatic fender contours. Where top-side air gets channeled back across the car’s adjustable rear wing, full underbody fairings slip it smoothly past the Roadster’s highly efficient rear diffuser. Even the 20-inch front and 21-inch rear alloy wheels wrapped in sticky Pirelli P Zero performance rubber serve double duty thanks to their turbine-style design that sends cooling air across the Veneno Roadster’s huge carbon-ceramic brakes.
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The mid-engine Veneno Roadster also shares the Coupe’s purpose-modified 6.5-liter V12 that kicks out 740 horsepower and is matched with Lamborghini’s 7-speed ISR automated manual transaxle and a permanent all-wheel-drive system that also features Veneno-specific enhancements. Lamborghini says the Veneno Roadster will streak from 0-62 mph in just 2.9 seconds on its way to a top end of 221 mph. To help it put that motive might to full best use, the Roadster is underpinned by the Coupe’s competition-spec chassis that boasts a racing-derived pull-rod suspension and horizontally-oriented spring/damper units.
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