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Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.

Lamborghini brings exotic Super Trofeo series... to Kansas

When you think of places associated with Lamborghini, what comes to mind? Sant'Agata, obviously. Monaco? Los Angeles? Hong Kong? How about Kansas? While the king of flyover states might not be the first place you'd imagine a squadron of race-tuned Lamborghinis running, the state is home to Kansas Speedway, a tri-oval that, like Daytona, has an internal road course, allowing drivers to run on the banking and on the infield.
Lamborghini brought its Super Trofeo North America series to the track to give the locals a taste of what high-performance Italian racers are capable of, and to be entirely honest, the racing looked pretty entertaining. The one-make racing series focuses on gentleman drivers in identical cars, and is running its first season on the North American continent, after starting in Europe and expanding to Asia. It's mainly a support race for Grand-Am, the American Le Mans Series and Indy Car races. Take a look below for the footage from the Kansas event.

Urus could be Lamborghini's first turbo

Ferrari has used turbochargers off and on over the years. Porsche has long embraced them. McLaren uses them exclusively these days. As do Pagani and Bugatti. Lamborghini never has, but that could all change in the near future.
According to Auto Express (whose reports we usually take with a grain or two of sodium chloride) in speaking with Sant'Agata's R&D chief Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini could be forced to start using turbocharged engines in the next three to four years. And their first application in the Raging Bull marque's history could be on the upcoming production version of the Urus concept.
The Urus, for those who may not recall, was a crossover concept unveiled at the Beijing Motor Show two years ago and which we saw in a closed-door preview just before that during the New York Auto Show. Taking a sportier approach than the unapologetically utilitarian LM002 (popularly known as the "Rambo Lambo"), the Urus followed the Estoque sedan concept in testing the waters for a different kind of Lamborghini - one to which potential buyers apparently responded positively, as the Italian automaker has been working on bringing it to production ever since.