- Designer Fabrizio Giugiaro has reworked the Lamborghini Gallardo into a modern restomod.
- The Hommage 26 has up to 552 horsepower, composite bodywork to save weight, and modern suspension and active aerodynamics.
- It’ll cost $1 million, and you need to supply your own donor Gallardo.
Before it threw in the towel and decided to get in the luxury crossover game with the Urus, the Gallardo was Lamborghini’s bestselling model. Careful input from parent company, Audi, meant a rip-roaring V-10 and all-wheel-drive grip, and Italian design house Italdesign clothed this in angular styling that merged supercar and stealth fighter into a great-looking machine. It wasn’t the top-dog Lamborghini at the time, but it packed a punch.
The initial work at Italdesign was done by none other than Fabrizio Giugiaro, son of the legendary Giorgetto. The Gallardo would later be polished by Luc Donckerwolke, but it seems like Fabrizio had a few finishing touches of his own to add. Thanks to Cavën Atelier, a Spanish engineering firm, Giugiaro Jr. has had a crack at reworking his 2003 original with modern tech and plenty of tweaks.
The Hommage 26 starts with a donor Gallardo, similar to the Encor Series 1 Lotus Esprit restomod, which is then thoroughly reworked with carbon-fiber bodywork throughout. The front end resembles the original, but now incorporates modern lighting and pop-down headlights.
Like an old silhouette Trans-Am Audi, only the top sliver of the car is unchanged, with the same roofline and glass. Everything else is subtly reshaped, including a new rear fascia with massive rectangular exhaust pipes and integrated rear active aerodynamic panels like those you might find in a Pagani Huayra.
Under this new skin, the car’s 5.0-liter V-10 now spins to 8500 rpm, producing either 533 hp in GT trim or as much as 552 in full-fat Performance spec. There’s active suspension, upgraded brakes, and the Hommage 26 rolls on 20-inch wheels.
Cost? The equivalent of a Dr. Evil-approved $1 million, plus you have to B.Y.O. Gallardo. That is an astounding amount of money for a restomod version of a non-V-12 Lamborghini, and it seems almost like a litmus test of just how much the restomod market boom will bear. Only 25 examples are planned to be built.
Perhaps more interestingly, Cavën Atelier positions the Hommage 26 not as a one-off, but as a potential series of cars that will see designers return to their work for upcoming reboots. The options here are endless: Ken Okuyama redoes the Ferrari Enzo? A Camilo Pardo reworked first-generation Ford GT? Even if the price tags will be out of reach, the designs will be interesting to see.
In the meantime, your standard Gallardo remains pretty accessible for how exotic it looks and drives. Put aside a little money for an Akrapovič exhaust, and enjoy it just as Giugiaro originally imagined.
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Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
Source: www.caranddriver.com
