Egoista is Italian for Selfish: A Close Encounter with a Rare Lamborghini
Automakers might develop a concept car for a number of reasons: to preview a future production model, to gauge reception to a new idea, or to showcase where the brand is going stylistically.
Whatever the motivation, a concept car is made to be shown off to the public – which usually means it debuts at a major auto show and then goes on a world tour. That’s what makes the Lamborghini Egoista so unique.
Lamborghini and its parent company Volkswagen created the Egoista three years ago to celebrate the Raging Bull marque’s 50th anniversary. They never sent it to any auto shows or took it on a tour. All they did was show it at a festive gala at the company’s headquarters in northern Italy, then put it on permanent display at the adjoining museum. And that’s where we caught up with this very unique creation upon a recent pilgrimage to Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Of course, there’s more to the Egoista than where it has or hasn’t been displayed. The name is Italian for “selfish,” which already tells you something about its nature: the conceptual supercar has only one seat, mounted in the center of the vehicle, under a glass canopy. No doors, no opening windows, no passenger seat, no luggage space – no concessions, in short, towards practicality whatsoever.
The House That Ferruccio Built has, for the past decade, derived its styling from fighter jets. The trend started with the Reventon revealed in 2007 and has only become more radical in the years following. But the Egoista takes it to new extremes. The nose dropping ahead of the canopy looks like the tip of fuselage hanging off the edge of a carrier’s flight deck. The front fenders look more like wings than any others we’ve ever seen, the vents more like jet air intakes, and the surface is made up of flat panels intersecting at angles that could have been designed to minimize the vehicle’s radar signature against anti-aircraft batteries.
