TG’s guide to concepts: Lambo's Estoque

Back in 2008, before the financial world collapsed, optimism tended to rule. So when Lamborghini revealed an angular four-door that could handily double as a hypercar-harassing super saloon, we were overcome with, well, optimism. You see a theme here. 

Unfortunately, 2008 turned out to be the year when all of that optimism was quashed under a tidal wave of pain, misery and crushing debt.

In the scheme of things, the indefinite delay of a luxury saloon is pretty far down the list of concerns, but it’s still a pretty big loss for the car world. Let’s sympathise together then, shall we?

The Estoque was new ground for Lamborghini. The company had flirted with four-seaters in the past – anyone remember the Espada? – but this was the first time it had dipped a toe in the super-saloon market.

But that toe certainly caused quite a ripple, if we were to torture the metaphor a little longer. Its lightweight bodywork – a mix of carbon fibre and aluminium – was moulded into a shape that really had no right to look as good as it does.

Incorporating the angular, Reventon-style front end into the flowing lines of a four-door GT car seems like a recipe for dissonance and disaster, but somehow, Lamborghini Centro Stile pulled it off.  

Underneath the long, GT-car bonnet was a 5.2-litre V10 and a lot of speculation. Lambo's bosses and engineers said at the time that anything from a turbodiesel to the Murcielago-based V12 could work, but that’s really as far as it went. In our minds, the 5.2-litre V10 would have fit the bill perfectly – it’s shorter and lighter than the Murcielago’s V12, which would have kept the weight balanced. It would have also been a unique selling point between the V8-powered Panamera and V12-engined Aston Rapide. These are all idle musings, mind you.

Regardless of its motivation, the Estoque would have used the all-wheel-drive setup so favoured by Lamborghini. And, given its length is in excess of five metres, we count that a stripped-out, rear-drive Superleggera was ever going to be on the cards.

Apparently, ‘Estoque’ refers to the sword that a matador uses to end the torture of a bull at the end of a fight, which is quite gruesome when you think about it.

In any case, the Estoque was eventually little more than the Seppuku of Lambo’s four-door saloon programme, if you catch our drift. After an indefinite delay, it now seems all but definite that plans for an Estoque production have been snuffed in favour of the Urus SUV.  

Lament all you like – and we’re right with you – but SUVs, as we’ve said a hundred times, are what make car companies money these days. Badmouthing Lamborghini for not building a super saloon is like criticising H&M for not selling silk cravats – they’d do it, if they thought enough people would buy one.

But where does that leave the Estoque? Well, only one concept car was made, with a 5.2-litre V10, all-wheel-drive and a seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox. 

It now resides next to a series of Lamborghini ‘coulda beens’ and ‘never-dids’, while the Urus edges closer to production – likely spurred on by the success of the Bentayga. And the Cayenne. Oh, and the Range Rover SVR. And of course the F-Pace. And then there’s the…