1995 Lamborghini Cala Concept

The Lamborghini Cala was introduced to the public at the 1995 Geneva Motorshow. The design was handled by Italdesign and the result was a fully drivable and complete prototype. Lamborghini is known for their high-powered, big engined, exotic sports cars. Lesser known are their economical, smaller, higher-volume, eight-cylinder super cars of the 1970's and 1980s such as the Uracco and Jalpa. These vehicles had been designed to compete with lower-priced exotic cars such as the entry-level Ferrari's and Porsches. The Jalpa was discontinued in 1994 so Italdesign's Giorgietto Giugiaro was tasked with designing its replacement.

The Lamborghini Cala was powered by a mid-engined, 90-degree, ten-cylinder engine in 'vee' configuration capable of producing 400 horsepower. A six-speed manual gearbox was chosen to drive the rear wheels. The 2800 pound vehicle was capable of a 180 mph top speed and could race from zero to sixty in around five seconds.

In 1998 Lamborghini was purchased by Audi who immediately halted the development of the Cala project. The replacement for Lamborghini's V-12 supercar became top priority. A smaller supercar did emerge in 2003, the Lamborghini Gallardo, however it did not contain the styling cues of the Cala.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2005