Lamborghini’s amazing one-off Concept S is up for grabs

In 2005, Lamborghini presented the one-off ‘Concept S’. It was a, erm, concept car, based on the Gallardo and designed by Luc Donckerwolke. But it was only a show car, and didn’t move.

In 2006, following significant interest in the roofless Gallardo, Lamborghini built a moveable version, and it is the car you see here before you. And, in even more excellent news, this very car is being offered up for auction.

Yep, in a week filled to the brim with excellent auction cars - including a Lambo Sesto Elemento - comes perhaps one of the most excellent: a one-off, V10-engined Lamborghini concept car with no roof.

It’s quite a car, isn’t it? Designed by Donckerwolke as an “extreme and spectacular expression of the Lamborghini brand,” the body was inspired by classic single-seater racing cars of the past.

Both driver and passenger get their own cockpits, with a ‘saute-vent’ windscreen at the front of each, redesigned and lowered for homologation over the previous year’s show car.

Why the subtle redesign? It’s because this particular car – chassis number 001 – was built in order to gauge public demand for a limited production run. It’s therefore fully street legal, and is the only one that moves on its own steam (and a considerable amount of steam too, because it’s got a 5.0-litre V10 underneath). It's also covered just 111 miles (180km is on the clock) during a pampered life.

“Many of those miles were accumulated during initial testing and the rest driving around concours show fields,” RM Sotheby’s explains.

The auction house reckons this one could fetch up to £1.9m, or a cool $3,000,000. That’s a tremendous amount of money for a car that’ll catch you out when it rains, but not so incredible when you consider that a) it looks absolutely excellent, and b) it’s an official Lamborghini one-off.

Of course, Lamborghini would later revisit this roofless roadster theme with the Aventador J, making this little Gallardo part of a very eclectic family.