Lamborghini Murciélago

The Lamborghini Murciélago is a twodoor, two-seat sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 2002 and 2010. Successor to the Diablo and flagship of the automaker's lineup, the Murciélago was introduced as a coupé in 2001 as a 2002 model. The automaker's first new design in eleven years, the car was also the brand's first new model under the ownership of German parent company Audi. It was styled by Peruvian-born Belgian Luc Donckerwolke, Lamborghini's head of design from 1998 to 2005.

A roadster version was introduced in 2004, followed by the updated LP 640 coupé and roadster and limited edition LP 650-4 Roadster. The final variation to wear the Murciélago nameplate was the LP 670-4 SuperVeloce,

powered by the largest and final evolution of the historic Lamborghini V12 engine. Production of the Murciélago ended on November 5, 2010, with a total run of 4,099 cars.^[3] Its successor, the Aventador, was released at the2011 Geneva Motor Show.

In a continuation of Lamborghini's tradition of naming its cars after stars from the world of bullfighting, the Murciélago was named for a fighting bull that survived 28 sword strokes in an 1879 fight against Rafael "El Lagartijo" Molina Sanchez, at the Coso de los califas bullring in Córdoba, Spain. Murciélago fought with such passion and spirit that the matador chose to spare its life, a rare honor. The bull, which came from Joaquin del Val di Navarra's farm, was later presented as a gift to Don Antonio Miura, a noted local breeder; thus began the famed Miura line of fighting bulls, and the name for one of Lamborghini's greatest designs.

Murciélago is the Spanish name for the bat. The word is pronounced [murθiˈelaɣo], with a voiceless dental fricative [θ] (as in English thing), in the Castilian Spanish spoken in most of Spain. However, the Italian automaker often uses the Southern Spain and Latin American Spanish pronunciation, [murˈsjelaɣo], with an [s] sound.

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