Fabrizio Giugiaro unveiled the Hommage 26, a rebodied Lamborghini Gallardo, at the Concours at Wynn Las Vegas on October 31. It's a real car, and CAVËN Atelier plans to build 25 of them, starting at €900,000 before the donor car. Headlines that say only "Giugiaro" mean the son. GFG Style's project page lists Fabrizio Giugiaro as the designer. Fabrizio Giugiaro and the elder Giugiaro, Giorgetto Giugiaro, founded the studio in 2015, and it works out of Moncalieri, near Turin. CAVËN commissioned the car as the first chapter of its "Designer Series," which brings the original designer of a car back to rework it decades later.
It's GFG Style's second debut in about a week. The studio showed the Peralta D, a one-off coupe with a hand-beaten copper body, in Mexico one week before the Las Vegas reveal. Only five visible parts carry over from the donor car: the roof, side windows, windshield, side mirrors, and mirror bases, Motor1 reported. The rest of the body is new carbon fiber. It gets pop-down headlights, active aero flaps, a fully redesigned rear, and a new rear window that opens above the divide between the cabin and the engine bay, GFG Style said.
The front stays closest to the old design. GFG Style said the nose keeps the identity of the 1998 original, and it finally connects the headlights and air intakes with a hidden lighting system that wasn't possible at the time. "Returning to a project I designed midway through my career has been a fascinating and wonderful challenge," Fabrizio Giugiaro said, according to Top Gear.
Top Gear said the rear lights and diffuser are new too, and a new engine cover runs from the roof to the rear deck. Inside, Carscoops spotted Alcantara on the dashboard and a hexagon pattern with red stitching on the door cards. The naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V10 stays. Italtecnica reworked it to rev to 8,500 rpm, making 540 PS in GT form or 560 PS in Performance form, with a manual transmission, GFG Style said. Top Gear converts that to 533 and 552 bhp. It also gets two-mode suspension, upgraded brakes, and 20-inch wheels.
Each car starts as a first-generation Gallardo that the buyer supplies or CAVËN finds, Autoblog reported. The €900,000 price excludes taxes and the donor, according to Motor1. Motor1 said the next Designer Series car is expected in 2027.
Which Giugiaro drew the first Gallardo?
That depends on who you ask. Italdesign showed the Calà at the 1995 Geneva Motor Show. It was a 2+2 research prototype that could open up like a targa, with a carbon-fiber body and a 3,961-cc, 372-hp V10 in the middle. It never went on sale.
Lamborghini's own history page says the Gallardo's shape started with the Calà, which it credits to the elder Giugiaro. It says Luc Donckerwolke's Centro Stile then developed the project and defined the final shape.
The Hommage team tells it differently. GFG Style and CAVËN describe the Hommage 26 as Fabrizio Giugiaro's rework of a 1998 design. Carrozzieri Italiani reported that after Audi bought Lamborghini, Italdesign pitched a proposal for a project called L140, and Fabrizio Giugiaro led it. Donckerwolke's team then changed the front, rear, and sides. Both accounts say Donckerwolke's studio finished the shape. They split on which Giugiaro, and which concept, came first.
The production Gallardo debuted at Geneva in 2003. It was the first Lamborghini with a 10-cylinder engine, which is why the Gallardo is a V10 car, and more than 14,000 were built before production ended at the end of 2013.
Is the new nose an upgrade on the 2003 car? Vote on the Gallardo at WhipJury.
Sources:
The October 31 Las Vegas debut, Designer Series, 25-car run, carbon-fiber body, pop-down headlights, active flaps, redesigned rear, opening rear window, the 1998 front end and hidden lighting idea, Italtecnica V10 work, 8,500 rpm, 540 and 560 PS, manual gearbox, suspension, brakes, 20-inch wheels, and the Peralta D a week earlier: GFG Style release
Fabrizio Giugiaro as the listed designer and the 1998 original: GFG Style project page
GFG Style founded in 2015 by Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro, based in Moncalieri, and the Peralta D copper coupe: GFG Style
Hommage 26 developed with Fabrizio Giugiaro and GFG Style, planned as 25 cars: CAVËN Atelier
The five carry-over parts, the €900,000 price before taxes and excluding the donor, and the next Designer Series car in 2027: Motor1
The Fabrizio Giugiaro quote, the bhp conversions, new rear lights, diffuser, and engine cover: Top Gear
First-generation donor cars supplied by the buyer or sourced by CAVËN: Autoblog
The L140 proposal led by Fabrizio Giugiaro, the Audi purchase, Donckerwolke's changes, and the 2003 Geneva debut: Carrozzieri Italiani
The Alcantara dashboard and hexagon door cards: Carscoops
The Calà at Geneva in 1995, its 2+2 layout, targa-style open top, carbon body, and 3,961-cc, 372-hp V10: Italdesign
The Calà as the start of the Gallardo shape, credit to Giorgetto Giugiaro, Donckerwolke's Centro Stile, the first 10-cylinder Lamborghini, and more than 14,000 built through 2013: Lamborghini
Photos: Featured and rear images from the GFG Style Hommage 26 press gallery; Calà photo by Odysseus 86, CC BY-SA 3.0; 2005 Gallardo photo by Spanish Coches, CC BY 2.0
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Cam Walsh has been obsessing over cars since before he could drive one. Based out of Atlanta, Cam covers automotive design, car culture, and the eternal debate over which whips actually look the part.
