Just as the Lamborghini Sián introduced gasoline-electric hybrid technology to Sant'Agata in a typically outrageous way, and the Sián Roadster continues the trend—but in an even more limited run of less than twenty. That means extra exclusivity for its lucky owners, each of which will get to enjoy the open air and the Sián's high-tech hybrid powertrain.
And by open-air, we do mean open. The kind of buyer interested in a Sián Roadster won't mind that there's literally no roof at all. Nothing to raise, lower, flip, stow, or slide away—just the sky above. The ultimate vanity: A car with no pretense of practicality and no escape from the elements. The leisure class, enjoying the Sián Roadster somewhere perennially sunny, can drive something else if clouds loom.
Designed for a typical high-roller, the Sián Roadster is no typical hybrid. For one, the gas-burning part of the powertrain is a screaming 6.5-liter V-12 that revs to 8,500 rpm, so fuel economy isn't in the forecast. What the electric part of the powertrain provides is an enhancement to the V-12's brash charm. By the numbers, the 48-volt electric motor (mated to the gearbox) provides 34 hp fed by an ultra quick-charging supercapacitor. It's not the first automotive application of capacitor technology (remember the Mazda i-ELOOP, which had a very different purpose?), but it is the sort of exotic and fascinating system you'd expect a company such as Lamborghini to enter the electrification era with. No pedestrian lithium-ion battery would do.
The numbers are also suitably exotic. Combine the electric motor's kick and the gas engine's grunt, and there's a maximum system output of 819 hp. That's enough oomph to rocket the open-topped Lambo to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds (thanks the grip provided by the car's Haldex all-wheel-drive system, to0. Lamborghini claims the car's top speed is "more than" 217 mph.
More important to the driving experience is the electric motor's ability to tame some of Lamborghini's notoriously brutal shifts by using torque fill to provide a relatively seamless feeling of thrust. Other benefits include increased low-gear acceleration, and a limited amount of electric-only maneuvering (for example, pulling into a parking spot).
Just like its fixed-top predecessor, you're too late—already—to buy a Lamborghini Sián Roadster. All 19 have sold out before the rest of us heard about it at all—considerably less than the 63 hardtops the company previously sold. Each buyer completely customized their specific car via the Ad Personam department of Lamborghini, too, as is becoming the norm for the highest echelon of hypercar these days.
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