"Joe F" (joe-f)
10/31/2015 at 14:14 • Filed to: Lamborghini, Miura, Cala, Lotus, v10, Italdesign, zr-1
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"Joe F" (joe-f)
10/31/2015 at 14:14 • Filed to: Lamborghini, Miura, Cala, Lotus, v10, Italdesign, zr-1 | 5
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I was shooting the $%!^ with someone the other day. We started at the 90’s era C4 Corvette ZR-1 and discussed the usual stuff: Today’s values, the Lotus designed/Mercury Marine built engine, and my love of cars with rear tires the width of hazardous waste barrels. It was therefore easy for us to drift into a discussion about the first gen Viper, its big rear wheels, and the v10 that came with assistance from Lamborghini (assistance with sand casting - it was not a Lambo design). The next logical step in our discussion was for me to bring up the Lamborghini Cala.
“Of course Joseph, the Cala. Who would NOT think of the Cala at that moment.
By the way...what the fuck’s a Cala?”
The Cala was the “baby Lambo” that was under development in the 90’s. Lamborghini was working on their own v10. A 4 liter v10 with 400hp, rear wheel drive, and I think the panels were carbon - at least for the prototype.
This car was under development when VW acquired Lamborghini and was shelved; with the Gallardo being final realization of this basic idea.
As a fan; I’m perfectly fine with the idea that this was cancelled as I think the Gallardo was a success as a fan of the company.
I am, however NOT ok with the fact that the 2006 Miura Concept didn’t go anywhere.
That’s a good looking car in my humble opinion. I love the sharp angles of modern Lamborghini designs but this - damn.
GhostZ
> Joe F
10/31/2015 at 14:23 |
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The Miura concept never went anywhere because it was still abysmal aerodynamically (all miuras were extremely unsafe above highway speeds) and probably totally illegal in any country with pedestrian impact laws. A shame.
LongbowMkII
> Joe F
10/31/2015 at 14:26 |
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I love the way the Cala looks. It’s distilled 90’s supercar.
Gabor Vajda (@Gabor_V)
> Joe F
10/31/2015 at 14:34 |
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This was one of my fav cars in NFS 2.
davedave1111
> GhostZ
10/31/2015 at 14:35 |
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Plus, it’s hideous. It’s like someone said to the designer ‘bet you can’t make a Miura look ugly’, and he took the bet.
Goggles Pizzano
> davedave1111
10/31/2015 at 14:43 |
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Joe F
> GhostZ
10/31/2015 at 15:12 |
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ahh makes sense - thanks for the info.
Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> Joe F
10/31/2015 at 15:23 |
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The Cala was conceived when Lamborghini was owned by Chrysler.
When Chrysler sold Lamborghini to Megatech, nothing got done to get it beyond the prototype stage.
Then when VAG bought Lambo, they had their own ideas of what a smaller Lambo should be.
It’s too bad Chrysler didn’t hang on to Lambo. But as I understand it, they sold it off to free up funds/resources for other projects like the Neon, Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze, updating the LH cars, updating the minivans and doing a huge redesign on the Dodge Ram.
All those projects were going on in the 1994-1997 time frame.
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GhostZ
> Joe F
10/31/2015 at 15:27 |
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A lot of the wedgey cars got put out to pasture when better wind tunnel and modeling tech showed that they produced a lot of lift and didn’t really reduce drag that much.