Does the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento Have the Bugatti Veyron in Its Sights?

If you have a spare £1.8m in the bank and you are looking for a new supercar, you will not only be spoilt for choice but the list will be a long one. Although the battle for the top spot is currently firmly held by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport which is the worlds fastest and most expensive supercar on the road today.

However Lamborghini has its sights on the Bugatti to take the place of the most expensive supercar with its pricey offering the "Lamborghini Sesto Elemento" its name translated meaning the "Sixth Element". Although the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento sells new for around £1.77 million ($2.90m), where the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport sells new for over £1.62 million ($2.5m), where as the standard Bugatti Veyron is a mere snip at £1.45m.

The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento all sounds good on paper, but there is one small problem, it will never be road legal. This is due to the fact that design wise Lamborgini have opted for the Sesto Elemento to be primarily constructed with a carbon fibre body and chassis with many other weight saving and space age materials used in the cars' construction. This is why there is such a weight saving and this is the reason for the bulging price tag. It is reputedly aimed at the super rich as a play toy for track days at racing circuits.

This weight saving is desirable for optimising the power to weight ratio for the car witch translates into faster acceleration, the Sesto Elemento is designed to accelerate from 0-62mph (0-100kph) in under 2.5 seconds which is faster than most road going sports motor bikes. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport still holds its own within the same acceleration speed, but you have to bare in mind the Veyron is carrying over 1,800lbs more than the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. This is a testament to the Bugatti's remarkable engineering and design, add this to the fact that Veyron will still hold the coveted "fastest road legal car in the world" and it still retains a strong position, it is really just the price that in contention here.

I feel the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento will definitely have a core following and no doubt the exclusively and extremely limited 35 models for sale will sell out very quickly even at this price range. This is mostly about a status symbol and prowess of engineering than anything else. As the Bugatti Veyron gives overall better value (if it's possible to use that term?) because it can be used for both legal daily road driving in every country in the world and if you are rich enough you can also make it into a track car, the choice is yours (if you have the cash to splash).