The brainchild of Luc Donckerwolke, Lamborghini’s then-head of design, the wild Concept S made its debut in non-running, concept form at the 2005 Geneva motor show, where its reception was said to be so overwhelmingly positive that a fully operational (and road-legal) prototype was built to gauge customer demand properly.

Drama queen

Despite plans for a limited production run, high costs and time constraints proved too detrimental for the Sant’Agata-based marque, and the car pictured here – chassis 001 – remains the only Concept S ever built. Furthermore, since the car was delivered to its (sole) owner shortly after its show-stopping reveal at the 2006 Concorso Italiano, it has covered just 180 kilometres, virtually all clocked up either in pre-delivery testing, or while slowly traversing immaculate concours lawns. 

Unique Lamborghinis – especially from the Audi era – very rarely come up for sale and we find it surprising that this car escaped the clutches of the marque in the first place. When the car crosses the block at RM Sotheby’s ‘Driven by Disruption’ sale in New York on the evening of 10 December 2015, it’s expected to fetch between 2,400,000 and 3,000,000 US dollars. 

Photos: Darin Schnabel courtesy of RM Sotheby's © 2015