Ares Design Panther ProgettoUno Shows Pop-Up Lights at Villa d'Este

Here we see it enjoying the grass and attention at the Villa d'Este event, next to that uber-expensive Bugatti we just talked about. It's in good company, but we're not sure it deserves all that attention. It's just that other automakers kind of... forgot to launch anything interesting this year. Where's that production M8 we were expecting?

The press is pretty thin too, but at least we have footage of the Panther arriving at the event, being unloaded, driving, revving and even some town driving. Ares Design doesn't seem all that sure about what the Panther should look like either. We just picked up some official photos from them and discovered several things, like the wheels, the retro mesh over the taillights and the color of the rear deck.

But what the hell is this thing anyway? Well, if the rear shoulders don't seem familiar, perhaps the fact that it's powered by a 5.2-liter V10 will refresh your memory. That's right, this is a Lamborghini Huracan underneath it all. Ares claims that it packs 650 horsepower and will do 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds, hitting 200mph in its stride, and we're not doubting the car Lamborghini engineered is fast.

The Italian coachbuilding shop started by former Lotus boss Dany Bahar says it will sell between 60 and 70 of these things over the next five years. While we believe there are a few oil moguls who want something nobody else has, the sales target seems a bit ambitious.

That being said, we fully support the pop-up carbon fiber headlights and carbon bumper overrides. It's very 80's, but the paint could be better in places.