The Expensive Lightning Bolt: $4.85 Million for a 1-in-63 Lamborghini Special

The subtitle is somewhat confusing. The production figures do not amount to 1,963, but 19 and 63. Let me explain: 63 coupes were followed by 19 roadsters. However, if you put together the production figures in the roadster-coupe order, you get 1963 – the same number that evokes the year Lamborghini was founded.

The name is – apart from a strong yet subtle hint at speed – a metaphor, pretty much like the car itself. The word “sian” means “lightning bolt” in Bulgnais, the native name of the Bolognese dialect. The Bolognese dialect is a part of the Emilia family of dialects spoken in Italy. Emilia itself is a Gallo-Italic language of the Romance languages, and so on.

This is still autoevolution, so linguistics is not our primary concern, focus, domain, or field of expertise. But, just like the aforementioned Bulgnais, the Lamborghini Sian is a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a…

If it feels like Inception (the Leo DiCaprio movie), take a deep breath and read on. The car is a dual tribute: to the carmaking company itself, but also to Ferdinand Karl Piech, president of VW at the time the Germans bought Lamborghini.

The Sian came out as Lamborghini’s first hybrid – if only in a more symbolistic form. 774 piston-carving hp and 34 electric hp (785 PS and 34 PS) combine for a four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering 808 hp (819 PS). Naturally, the performance figures are paramount for the House of the Raging Bull, especially for limited series special editions.

Less than 2.8 seconds for the 0-62 mph (100 kph) blitz and more than 221 mph (355 kph) is the combo to win any gearhead’s heart in a flash of the Sian (pun intended). Seven-speed gearbox, 1.6 tons, eye pupils-shattering, sharp-edge design, limited production, highly customizable; what could you want more?

2.2 million dollars (plus taxes) would be a good choice. Except it would be far too little, far too late. All 82 cars were sold before they were even bits of metal, carbon, glass, and whatnot at the raw material plants. But, as is the case with pretty much all classics, at some point or another, some of those 82 could resurface back to the civilian, open-circuit market.

Before we continue: although Lamborghini advertised the 6.5-liter V12 hybrid Sian as the fastest and most powerful car the company has ever produced, some clarification is needed. Indeed, the unique supercapacitor electric system addition to the already-colossal naturally aspirated output makes this powertrain the range-topping Lamborghini.

In all fairness, we should point out an important addendum. There is a more powerful supercar bearing the charging bull emblem – the Essenza, a car that came out in 2020 (so after the Sian’s launch), firing a broadside of 819 track-reserved hp (830 PS). The same naturally aspirated V12 in the Sian powers the Essenza, the Aventador, and the V12 homage-paying, farewell-bidding one-offs Invencible and Autentica.

However, due to the freedom of circuit-only engineering, the exhaust of the Essenza is not clad with silencers and other power-censoring contraptions. Thus, the Essenza is more powerful overall (and more exclusivist, with only 40 made). The Sian is just the most powerful all-around, road-legal Lamborghini.

Thanks to revolutionary tech, the car ditched the classic battery pack in favor of a supercapacitor, which stores three times more energy than a similar-sized traditional electric cell. Also, it can instantly deliver all that energy and charge in the blink of an eye (because it is a capacitor).

And, although it doesn’t make much difference in terms of top performance, the hybrid drivetrain – Lamborghini’s first taste of the electric-dawning future – is a good indicator of what kind of prod the Italian bull is on.

Then again, a prophecy-making model like the Sian is not for everyone (hence the limited production), nor is it for every pocket (the multi-million dollar label of the new car is self-explanatory). Still, even though all 82 of the 83 Sians produced (the very first one was the prototype) have been sold, not all hope is sent back to solitary Pandora’s box confinement.

For the bank-robbing asking price of four million pounds sterling (roughly 4.85 million American Dollars at the time this story flies off the keyboard), a hardcore Lambo fan could get their hands on the masterpiece. One of only two Sians sold in the U.K. is now for sale, less than three years after it rolled off the assembly line.

It was first registered in March 2021. 273 miles and less than two years later, the Nero Helene left-hand-drive Sian hits the open market, as speckless as when it received the seal of approval from the factory. Watch a brief overview of the automobile – and even listen to its riotous V12 row – in the below video; it’s the next best thing to seeing it in person (but you need a special appointment with the selling dealer to do so).