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Why Are Modern Lamborghini Hypercars Ugly as Sin?

Before I begin, I should probably mention that I'm arguably one of the biggest Lamborghini fans in existence, and it is very likely that I owe my obsession with all things car-related to the Sant'Agata Bolognese brand. I'm not even kidding.
2016 Lamborghini Centenario 10 photos
Photo: Lamborghini
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When I was a 2- or 3-year-old urchin in a vacation with my parents, a red Countach parked with its scissor doors pointing toward the sky decided to ignite my love for cars and intricate mechanical things in general. It was the car that pretty much established my life's course when it comes to both hobbies and work.

Growing up I started to appreciate other cars as well, but Marcello Gandini's works of art on wheels from the 1960s until the late 1990s are deeply implanted in my retinas and will forever remain as milestones of supercar design.

If you think about it, Gandini was a visionary back then, and some of his designs are still being ripped off in the third millennium. Most modern mid-engine supercars are wedge-shaped in one way or another, with only small(ish) design details differentiating them from one another. The supercar wedge shape was without a doubt introduced and made famous by Gandini, on a smaller scale with the Lamborghini Countach and taken to the extremes with cars like the Alfa Romeo Carabo Concept from 1968 and later the road-going Countach that took my breath away, as a kid in the 1980s.

Over the years, it seems that Lamborghini pretty much decided to consider the wedge look as definitive for its supercars, as Porsche did with the original Beetle. It's part of the company's legacy now, but that also makes it a bit problematic for its designers, who are probably a bit constrained to add only various details to a shape that doesn't really change that much.

This is likely also the main reason behind Lamborghini's downright offensive-looking limited edition hypercars in recent years. I know I'm part of a tiny minority here, but both the Reventon and the Veneno looked over-styled, if not ugly to me. Not to mention that they also went for unbelievable amounts of money just because they were built in extremely limited numbers, and not necessarily thanks to their performance figures, like the Veyron or just about any Koenigsegg.

If some of you thought that the Reventon or the Veneno were Lamborghini's most obnoxious-looking road cars in history, the 2016 Geneva Motor Show has shown that Lambo can outdo itself with the new Centenario.

I don't find it as repugnant as those leaked CGI photos made it appear, but I still believe that a designer like Gandini would have gone for an entirely different approach.

Instead, whoever penned the Centenario decided to add a huge number of sharp lines on a comically stretched Aventador until it started to look like the ugly baby conceived by a Protoss Carrier from StarCraft II with a Gillette razor.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate Lamborghini's latest hypercar, but for entirely different reasons than its design, which I find distasteful and childish, not groundbreaking like that of the Countach.

I mean, I know it has advanced aerodynamics and all those gills and sharp edges aren't just for show, while that naturally aspirated V12 probably sounds like trumpets from hell at almost 9,000 rpm.

Despite the inclusion of an all-wheel-drive system, rear-wheel steering and a body that's significantly larger than that of the Aventador, on which it is based, the Centenario weighs only 1,520 kg (3,351 pounds).

Without the help of a hybrid system or forced induction, its V12 manages to deliver a mouth-watering 770 hp, thus gifting the car with a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration time of just 2.8 seconds. Not bad for a car that's almost as large as two LMP1 prototypes. It's almost as long as a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, by the way.

Still, despite its fantastic performance figures, low production numbers (only 20 coupes and 20 roadsters are to be built) and the fact that it was made to celebrate Ferruccio Lamborghini's 100th birthday, I cannot bring myself to peace with how it looks. Therefore, Lamborghini should probably thank me for not being rich and buy one just to take it to Mr. Marcello Gandini, take it apart and let the real master of Italian car design do something much prettier with it.

I'll probably get a lot of flame just for the diatribe above, but I still think that the Centerario hit almost every branch while falling out of the ugly tree.Take a look at the adjacent photo gallery and tell me that thing is pretty.
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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