The Lamborghini Manifesto Is A Glimpse At The Brand’s Styling Future

Usually when a car company unveils a new concept, it’s accompanied by much fanfare, a press release that reads like a 19th century novel, and a flashy preview event for the media. This angry-looking wedge, though, is the Lamborghini Manifesto, and was revealed alongside none of that – it was simply slid out on Instagram by the brand’s design boss, Mitja Borkert.

That’s probably because it’s seemingly not an entirely ‘official’ Lambo product, but rather something Borkert’s come up with by himself with a view to “showcasing the potential future of [Lamborghini’s] unique design DNA.” Borkert pulled off the virtual covers at a private event over the weekend celebrating 20 years of Lamborghini’s in-house design studio, Centro Stile.

So, what form does the man in charge of Lamborghini’s design of today think its design of tomorrow should take? It’s pretty unmistakably Lambo-ish, featuring lots of the brand’s current styling fixations like Y-shaped LED signatures and many hexagons.

The typical angry, cab-forward proportions are present and correct too, but there are also plenty of features that place the Manifesto as very much a product of the future rather than today. Check out the single-piece glass canopy, which we can only assume and hope hinges forward like a fighter jet.

Out the back, there’s much tyre on display, a new design flourish that Lambo’s already deployed on the Temerario and Fenomeno but which has been taken to its logical extreme here. Check out the massive Aston Martin Valkyrie-style venturi tunnel, too – did someone say ground effect?

Because this is just the wild imaginings of a designer, we have no idea what Borkert envisions powering this thing. On the one hand, that flat rear deck and huge underbody tunnel don’t seem to leave much space for an engine. On the other hand, we’re still not quite sure we’re ready for an electric Lambo supercar, even as a far-flung concept, so we’re just going to pretend the Manifesto is powered by a 12.7-litre V24 with a scramjet hybrid system. Why not?

Expect the Manifesto to go into production… never. But maybe, just maybe, when the eventual replacements for the Revuelto and Temerario roll around, we might see some of its DNA in the way they look.