Lamborghini Estoque

The Rapier.

By Gunnar Heinrich

ESTOQUE.

Say it outloud. Now read it again silently.

If you give it some thought – which you and I have just spent much too much time doing – you’ll realize that it’s one strange name. Lamborghini might as well have called it the “Esoteric.” It would’ve made better sense for the angular, Dark Knight -esque four-door saloon concept now showing in Paris

But, no, the corporate bulls over at Sant’Agata thought the Spanish word for “rapier” was best. The P.R. folk made sure to put “sword” in parenthesis following “rapier” just to prevent ign’ant 20-something bloggers from gettin’ all snarky.

Few details but lots of pics in the release are meant to tease us with Lamborghini’s bedroom intentions of joining the four-door coupe orgy which is getting more Roman in its carnal grandeur by the day.

Lamborghini wants to play with the likes of Mercedes-Benz’s mature CLS55 AMG, a resurrected BMW 8-Series, the sublime Aston Martin Rapide, Maserati’s elegant Quattroporte, and Porsche’s unfortunate Panamera – an ugly Cayennesque toad of a brand extension too far.

But market considerations aside, it’s not the four doors that proves to be the interesting Lambo first. It’s the front mounted, mid-engine that by virtue of its sheer balance may just alter performance saloon market from here on out.

More on that later…

For now, let the strange Estoque stew with the stock of your day’s thoughts.

[Linked: Autoblog]