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2026 Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 Track Tour

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There are track days, there are racing schools, and then there’s whatever Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 owners get to call a weekend. For 2026, Lamborghini’s most rarefied playground returns for its sixth season, doubling down on the kind of access and excess that makes even VIP paddock passes feel pedestrian.

Dubbed the “purest track experience” by Lamborghini itself—never a company known for understatement—the Essenza SCV12 program isn’t just about seat time. It’s a traveling circus of speed and status, a four-round tour across Europe’s cathedral circuits, complete with factory backing from Lamborghini Squadra Corse and coaching from the same drivers who spend their weekends chasing tenths in anger.

The 2026 calendar reads like a greatest-hits album. It kicks off at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in May, dovetailing with the Lamborghini Arena spectacle and a round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe. From there, the convoy heads to the rollercoaster that is Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in June—a track that still echoes with Lamborghini’s first 24-hour victory there. Barcelona follows in late September at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, before the grand finale at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in October, wrapped neatly into the brand’s World Finals.

But the real story isn’t where the program goes—it’s what participants get to drive. The Essenza SCV12 isn’t road legal, isn’t homologated for racing, and doesn’t care about either. Its 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 howls out 830 horsepower with zero regard for hybrid assistance or emissions theater. This is peak old-school excess, channeled through a chassis engineered to generate up to 1,200 kilograms of downforce at 250 km/h—numbers that edge into full-blown race-car territory.

The six-speed X-trac gearbox is bolted directly to the rear as a structural element, helping shave weight and sharpen response, while rear-wheel drive ensures that every ounce of that V12 fury is your problem to manage. And you will manage it, ideally, with a factory driver in your ear reminding you that, no, you are not as brave as you think you are into Eau Rouge.

Yet the Essenza SCV12 program is as much about the velvet rope as it is about apexes. Owners don’t just show up—they’re ushered into a tightly curated world of private garages, dedicated engineers, and a level of hospitality that blurs the line between motorsport and five-star retreat. It’s less “track day” and more “membership,” a rolling, high-octane club where the buy-in isn’t just financial—it’s philosophical.

Because ultimately, the Essenza SCV12 isn’t about lap times. It’s about access: to machines, to people, and to an experience that feels increasingly out of step with a world turning toward electrification and autonomy. In that sense, Lamborghini isn’t just selling speed—it’s preserving a particular kind of madness, one naturally aspirated scream at a time.

Source: Lamborghini

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Volvo’s EV Sales Rise Despite Overall Decline

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If you’re looking for a clean narrative of triumph, Volvo Cars’ first quarter of 2026 isn’t it. But if you’re interested in where the industry is actually headed—messy, electrified, and geopolitically tangled—this one’s far more revealing.

Volvo moved 153,316 cars globally in Q1, an 11 percent drop compared to the same stretch last year. That headline number stings, especially for a brand that’s spent the last decade carefully rebuilding its premium credibility. But dig a layer deeper and the story shifts from decline to transition.

Electric cars are doing exactly what Volvo needs them to do. Fully electric sales rose 12 percent, now accounting for 23.7 percent of total volume. Add plug-in hybrids—nearly identical in share at 23.6 percent—and suddenly almost half of every Volvo sold plugs into something. At 47.3 percent electrified penetration, Volvo isn’t just keeping pace with legacy premium rivals; it’s quietly outpacing most of them.

That’s the paradox of 2026: growth where it matters, contraction where it used to count.

Europe remains Volvo’s anchor, with 95,335 cars delivered—down a modest 2 percent—but EV momentum is unmistakable. Fully electric models surged 21 percent, helping electrified vehicles claim 57 percent of the regional mix. In other words, more than every second Volvo sold in Europe now comes with a charging cable. That’s not a trend; that’s a pivot.

Meanwhile, the Americas are telling a very different story. Sales cratered 28 percent, dragged down by weak consumer sentiment and the cold reality of disappearing EV incentives. Electrified models took an even bigger hit, down 30 percent, suggesting that policy shifts can still make or break adoption curves overnight. It’s a reminder that even the most carefully planned electrification strategy is only as stable as the regulatory ground beneath it.

China, as ever, plays by its own rules. Overall sales dropped 17 percent, but electrified models skyrocketed 116 percent—driven almost entirely by plug-in hybrids, which jumped a staggering 146 percent. Fully electric cars, interestingly, went the other direction, down 26 percent. It’s a nuanced shift that hints at a market not yet ready to go all-in on EVs, despite its reputation as the global epicenter of electrification.

Volvo’s product cadence may soon help rebalance that equation. The upcoming Volvo EX60—still waiting in the wings—has already generated strong customer interest, and its arrival could plug a crucial gap in the lineup. Until then, models like the long-range Volvo XC70 are carrying the load in key markets like China, where flexibility still trumps purity.

Erik Severinson, Volvo’s Chief Commercial Officer, framed it as a moment of resilience rather than retreat, pointing to six consecutive months of growth in fully electric deliveries heading into March. He’s not wrong. The trajectory is there, even if the quarterly snapshot looks uneven.

Still, the broader industry context looms large. Pricing pressure, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty aren’t abstract threats—they’re showing up directly on balance sheets. Volvo’s 17 percent drop in mild hybrid and internal-combustion sales underscores a reality many automakers would rather avoid: the old profit engines are fading faster than the new ones can fully replace them.

So no, this wasn’t a blockbuster quarter. But it may be a more honest one.

Because right now, success in the auto industry doesn’t look like steady growth—it looks like controlled disruption. And by that measure, Volvo might be doing exactly what it needs to do.

Source: Volvo

NEW CARS

Lamborghini Brings the Miura SV Back to Life in Rome

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Rome doesn’t need much help being theatrical, but for a long weekend in April, it turned the drama up anyway. Between April 16 and 19, the inaugural Anantara Concorso Roma unfolded like a well-directed period film—equal parts rolling sculpture garden and high-society gathering—set against the kind of backdrop that makes even modern supercars feel like they’re late to the party.

And then Automobili Lamborghini showed up with a reminder of who wrote the script in the first place.

The Return of a Legend

Front and center was a freshly restored Lamborghini Miura SV—arguably the final, most polished expression of the car widely credited as the world’s first supercar. This wasn’t just a polish-and-parade job. Over three years, Lamborghini’s heritage division, Lamborghini Polo Storico, performed a forensic-level restoration, peeling back decades of alterations to return the car to its factory-correct form.

Unveiled at Casina Valadier, the Miura didn’t scream for attention—it didn’t have to. In a city built on permanence, authenticity carries weight, and this car had it in spades.

The backstory reads like a restoration thriller. When the car arrived in Sant’Agata Bolognese in late 2023, it wasn’t quite itself. Non-original details had crept in over the years, blurring the edges of its identity. So Polo Storico went deep—consulting original production sheets, period documentation, and historical records to reconstruct the Miura down to the smallest detail.

We’re talking about the kind of obsessive accuracy that borders on the philosophical. The front-fender grilles? Corrected. The delicate fins above the door handles? Re-profiled with proper rounded edges. Rear louvers? Rebuilt to match period regulations. Even the octagonal center-lock hubs and those wonderfully named “Bob-type” exhaust tips—after legendary test driver Bob Wallace—were reinstated.

Inside, the cabin received the same treatment. Air-conditioning provisions restored. Hazard lights reintroduced. A more compact steering wheel fitted. Even the extended handbrake lever made a comeback. It’s the kind of detail work that most people will never notice—and that’s exactly the point.

Fifty Shades of Brown (Done Right)

Then there’s the paint. Finished in “Luci del Bosco,” a deep, earthy brown paired with a “Senape” interior, the Miura looks like it was poured rather than painted. Getting that shade right wasn’t as simple as cracking open an old can of paint—color specifications evolved over time, and nailing the exact hue required yet more archival digging.

It’s a reminder that restoration at this level isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about truth.

A Family Reunion in Rome

Lamborghini didn’t come to Rome with just one star. Owners brought out their own heavy hitters, including two Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary models and another Lamborghini Miura P400—the latter with a Hollywood résumé.

Yes, that Miura. The one from the opening sequence of The Italian Job.

Long rumored to have been destroyed during filming, the car’s survival story is almost as compelling as the movie itself. It turns out the Miura wasn’t sacrificed for cinematic drama after all. Instead, it lived on, its identity eventually confirmed and restored by Polo Storico in 2019 for the film’s 50th anniversary.

At the concours, it didn’t just show up—it won. First place in its class, plus a special award celebrating its cinematic legacy. Not bad for a car once written off as a prop.

More Than Just a Pretty Face

If there’s a takeaway from Lamborghini’s Roman holiday, it’s this: heritage isn’t static. It’s maintained, argued over, researched, and—when necessary—rebuilt bolt by bolt.

As Giuliano Cassataro, Lamborghini’s Head of After Sales, put it, this kind of work is about preserving authenticity over time. That may sound like corporate-speak, but standing in front of a perfectly restored Miura SV, it feels more like a mission statement.

Because in a world increasingly obsessed with the next big thing, there’s something quietly radical about getting the past exactly right.

Source: Lamborghini

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