The 5 Greatest Special Edition Lamborghinis Ever Built

Lamborghini Centenario

Usually, these one-off Lambos are about celebrating something, be it an anniversary, a birthday, or even the retirement of an employee (more on that one in a bit). With the Centenario, Lamborghini picked a very special birthday to celebrate – that of its founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini. Though Ferruccio died at the age of 76 in 1993, a limited run of Centenario coupes and roadsters were built to celebrate what would have been his centenary, hence the name.

All were based heavily on a production model, in this case, the Aventador. This is something of a trend with Lambo, and part of the reason its special editions come so frequently. Regardless, the Centenario made use of the Aventador's awesome V12, here producing 759 horsepower (770 ps).

That figure, by the way, made it the most powerful production Lamborghini built at the time. Of course, that power was also accented by a custom carbon fiber body and interior. The result was a car (shockingly) only slightly lighter than the Aventador, coming in at just 3,351 pounds. Still, top speed was a massive 217 mph (350 kph), and the 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) sprint was managed in only 2.8 seconds. Only 20 coupes and roadsters were made for a total run of 40 cars priced at $1.9 million a pop.

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

In keeping with the carbon-bodied trend, let's discuss a personal favorite. The Sesto Elemento was named for the sixth element of the periodic table- carbon. The name literally translates to "sixth element." The goal was to make just about everything out of the stuff short of the car’s Gallardo-derived powertrain. As you'll soon see, the Gallardo was something of a high watermark for special edition Lambos.

Putting that aside, the result of all that sesto elemento scienza e ingegneria (that's science and engineering for the americani) was a car weighing just 2,200 pounds. Moreover, the V10 produced 562 horsepower (570 ps) and 398 lb-ft (540 Nm) of torque. Twenty were made at $2.2 million. These figures are impressive, but that is not why the Sesto Elemento stands out.

It was the first car ever made to use forged composite or forged carbon. The flaky carbon stuff was developed jointly between Lambo and Callaway (golf, not Corvettes). The stuff contains a higher fiber volume content and higher variation in standard orientation. What all this means is that the material is much stronger than woven carbon fiber at a third of the density of titanium with similar strength. Due to these qualities, we often see it used in the auto industry, and it's all thanks to Lamborghini.

Lamborghini Reventon

Unlike the aforementioned special editions, the Reventon previewed what was next for Lamborghini. It was an important moment for the brand. After all, the car that would follow the Reventon was the Aventador, and the styling choices used here still inform Lamborghini's design language to this day. If you ask me, this is the most important Lamborghini made since the Miura.

Each Reventon was either produced as a coupe or a roadster, though the car initially debuted as the latter. The styling, heavily inspired by the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, was nothing short of revolutionary at the time. Powered by an updated V12, the Reventon produced 641 horsepower (650 ps) and carried a sticker price of $1.3 million, making it the cheapest Lambo on the list thus far.

Though it was largely a Murcielago underneath, it's impossible to overstate the importance of the Reventon to the brand.

Lamborghini Concept S

There's some rule-bending afoot here. Technically, the Concept S isn' really a special edition. As the name states, it's a concept. Still, one was sold, and concepts generally aren't, so we're splitting hairs a bit. Besides, it feels criminal to leave out a car that's more Hot Wheels than production supercar.

The car was originally shown as a design study at Geneva in 2005, but after praises were sung, Lambo got to work on a road-going version. One hundred were planned, but for reasons largely unknown, the project was killed. Only one was made. A sort of spine separates the driver and passenger cells, and the rest of the Gallardo-derived body was reworked with larger front and rear spoilers and redesigned facias. Power levels were very similar to the Gallardo of the time – around 500 ps (493 hp).

But performance wasn’t so much the point as the car's radical design changes. Inside, the interior is largely unchanged, and the car regrettably uses the Gallardo's E-Gear automated manual instead of the available six-speed shared with the Audi R8. On top of that, the spine doesn't fully bifurcate the interior, instead simply covering the top half of the car, which likely severely limits visibility.

Lamborghini Gallardo Valentino Balboni Edition

This is perhaps the most pedestrian special edition on the list, despite the icon it pays tribute to. When famed Lambo test driver Valentino Balboni announced his retirement, the man got his own car to commemorate the occasion. The model also spawned the first run of rear-drive Gallardos after its initial success.

Obviously, that means the Gallardo Balboni was rear-driven, as the maestro himself preferred. However, the car’s current 541-hp (550-ps) output had to fall by 10 horses to do so. Each car also got special interior accents and a distinctive white and gold stripe. The only problem? Balboni didn't get one.