Lamborghini Day 2017 in Tokyo celebrates the brand’s 50th Anniversary in Japan

Lamborghini Day 2017 in Tokyo celebrates the brand's 50th Anniversary in Japan

Lamborghini Day 2017 in Tokyo celebrates the brand's 50th Anniversary in Japan

Lamborghini Day 2017 took place this Friday at The Prince Hotel in Tokyo, attended by Stefano Domenicali, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Automobili Lamborghini, as well as media, customers and VIPs. The event featured the Asian debut of the Aventador S Roadster, which made its world premiere at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Lamborghini’s arrival in Japan, starting from the first imports of the 400 GT model. To celebrate this event, the Sant’Agata Bolognese super sports car manufacturer created a limited series called “Aventador S Roadster 50th Anniversary Japan”, produced in just five units destined exclusively for the Japanese market. Each of the five Aventador S Roadsters is a one-off car, with colors and finishes inspired by one of the five natural elements of Japanese culture: water, earth, fire, wind, and sky. The “water” version was presented and displayed during Lamborghini Day in Tokyo.

The concept for the car was developed by Lamborghini’s Ad Personam Department along with the Centro Stile, a collaboration that led to the idea of developing a unique paint for each model, featuring special shading effects in which, in the case of the “water” version, the blue tends to black. The artisan creation of the paintwork required 170 hours of labor and the contribution of ten specialists. The exterior is completed by the windscreen frame and the hard top, both made of exposed carbon fiber.

The interiors are realized in Nero Ade black leather and Nero Cosmus black Alcantara. Another unique feature of the car is the embroidery on the seats and on the hard top that evokes the Japanese symbol for bamboo (Y). The color of the stitching matches that of the exterior, with the same gradations and shading: an effect that required 100 hours of labor by six specialists. The interior finish is completed by a hexagonal carbon fiber plate with the Japanese symbol of the car’s elemental namesake.

Stefano Domenicali, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Automobili Lamborghini, commented: “On the occasion of this important anniversary for our brand in Japan, I wish to thank our Japanese customers for their support over the years and their strong bond with our marque. Thanks to them, Japan has now become our second most important market worldwide in terms of cars sold. And with the arrival of the Urus in 2018, we predict further unprecedented success in this country.”

Andrea Baldi, Head of Lamborghini’s Asia Pacific area, added: “In January of this year, we opened two new showrooms, in Kobe and Yokohama, creating a total of eight dealerships. Our objective is to continue the growth of our commercial network over the coming years, especially in view of the arrival of the Urus Super SUV.”

The Lamborghini Day events also included the “Lamborghini Day Concours d’Élégance Tokyo”, now in its second edition. The most beautiful models of the brand’s history, including Miura, Diablo and Countach participated in the Concours, with a total of 50 automobiles. The participating cars also included the Miura SV restored by Lamborghini Polo Storico that won Best of Show at the “Lamborghini & Design Concours d’Élégance” held in Neuchâtel on 17 September. The jury, composed of 13 international judges, evaluated the most representative models of each era, divided into eight classes. The Best of Show prize was awarded to an orange Countach LP 400 from 1976 (car serial number#1120186).

During Lamborghini Day 2017, downtown Tokyo witnessed a parade of more than eighty modern Lamborghini models, that wound through the famous area of the Tokyo Tower and the fashionable Ginza district.

courtesy: media.lamborghini.com

The new Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese: production site doubled, incorporating cutting-edge technologies

The new Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese: production site doubled, incorporating cutting-edge technologies

The new Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese: production site doubled, incorporating cutting-edge technologies

Automobili Lamborghini’s ongoing strategic investment programme, aligned with the launch of its new Super SUV the Urus, sees its production site now doubled with the creation of substantial new facilities and technologies at its factory headquarters in Sant’ Agata Bolognese, Italy.

As well as expanding the site from 80,000 to 160,000 m2, the Urus will also bring about a substantial increase in the company’s production capacity, doubling it to 7,000 units a year.

The new production facility houses a new assembly line dedicated to Urus, the new finishing department for all Lamborghini models, and a new office building with LEED Platinum certification: the highest standard in the world for energy and environmental certification in building design and construction. A new test track has also been built with thirteen different surfaces specific to SUVs, as well as a new logistics warehouse, a second trigeneration power plant, and the new energy hub for centralized production of all the energy carriers.

Ranieri Niccoli, Chief Manufacturing Officer, commented: “With our third model, we wanted to introduce the most innovative production technologies and smart factory concepts, supporting and complementing the activities of our workforce. Urus ushers in a new model of factory, which we call Manifattura Lamborghini, a new point of reference in the luxury automobile industry. The substantial resultant benefits include greater production flexibility, better information accessibility, and the interconnection of systems: strengthening the professionalism of craftsmanship that has always distinguished us and supporting the doubling of our production volumes.”

The creation of new buildings and the installation of innovative technologies involved more than 600 enterprises working on the project with a total of 3,600 external workers.

The factory expansion was completed in a record time of just 18 months, during which the company operated at full production capacity and achieved record sales in 2016 (+7% over the previous year). The project was achieved without neglecting Lamborghini’s commitment to environmental sustainability: the entire production facility in Sant’Agata Bolognese maintains the carbon neutral certification obtained in 2015.

Manifattura Lamborghini

The new Industry 4.0 assembly line, dedicated entirely to the Urus Super SUV, integrates new production technologies to support workers in assembly activities.

The super sports car maker expresses this approach as Manifattura Lamborghini, which is characterized by four basic principles:

  • Craftsmanship: preserving and optimizing craftsmanship with the integration of innovative technologies, increasing the potential for product customization on one hand, and guaranteeing the highest quality standards on the other.
  • Competencies and specialization: digitalization enables workers, via touchscreen devices, to access production information made available by easily-consulted interconnected systems.
  • Production process: AGVs (Automatic Guided Vehicles) are used as vehicle and material transport systems. Thanks to this system, the flexibility of the building layout is maintained.
  • Ergonomics and safety: collaborative robots assist the workers, to improve ergonomics and for repetitive operations that require high quality, such as window gluing, under-body screwing, and wheel assembly.

courtesy: media.lamborghini.com