The Zagato Raptor, sometimes referred to as the Lamborghini Raptor, is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

design created in 1996 by

Zagato Zagato is a Coachbuilder, coachbuilding company founded by Ugo Zagato in 1919. The design center of the company is located in Terrazzano, a village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. History The 1910s: Aeronautics Ugo Zagato was an Italians, Italian ...

in partnership with

Alain Wicki Alain Wicki (born 6 July 1962) is a Switzerland, Swiss Skeleton (sport), skeleton racer who competed from the 1980s to the early first decade of the 21st century. He won a complete set of medals in the men's event at the FIBT World Champio ...

for

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...

. The body features the Zagato "double bubble" design and an innovative door design where the whole middle section of the car swivels up and forward. The

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

is borrowed from a 4WD

Lamborghini Diablo The Lamborghini Diablo (meaning "devil" in Spanish), is a series of high-performance V12, rear mid-engined sports cars in the supercar market segment, built by Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini from 1990 through 2001. It is the first ...

. The design was completed and a sample vehicle displayed at the

Geneva Auto Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...

in 1996. At the time of showing, it was believed that the car was ready for production. Utilizing the

drivetrain A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) or transmission system, is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the driv ...

and

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-Cylinder (engine), cylinder Internal combustion engine#Reciprocating engines, piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V engine, V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more c ...

from the Diablo, but eliminating the

Anti-lock braking system An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a Automotive safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...

(ABS) and

traction control system A traction control system (TCS), is typically (but not necessarily) a secondary function of the electronic stability control (ESC) on production motor vehicles, designed to prevent loss of traction (i.e., wheelspin) of the driven road wheels. TC ...

, as well as the extensive use of

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

for the body work made the vehicle significantly lighter than the Diablo, thus potentially faster. To make up for the lack of ABS and the higher potential speeds, an upgrade from the Diablo's braking system was used. Most media sources speculated that it would have been an excellent car to bridge the gap between the Diablo and its successor, then called the Canto, but Lamborghini did not produce the Raptor. Alain Wicki briefly tried to develop it on his own with Zagato's help, but nothing became of his efforts. He owned the only

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

until 2000, when it was

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

ed at the Geneva Auto Show and bought by a private car collector.

References

External links

LamboCars: Zagato Raptor
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Raptor Raptor(s) or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of avian and non-avian dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunt ...

Lamborghini custom and concept cars Sports cars

See also

References

External links