Lamborghini Estoque Hits the Chopping Block

Lamborghini has shelved plans for the Estoque, a four-door coupe concept the Italian luxury brand had unveiled at the Paris auto show last year.

"The timing and market conditions are just not right for an additional model line," Maurizio Reggiani, head of research and development at Lamborghini, told Autocar. The Estoque was still in the early stages of development, with limited resources having been put into it, which made it easier for Lamborghini to shelve the project.

It seems the collapse in auto sales has made even premium and luxury automakers scale back their ambitions. On Friday, BMW also cited a poor economy as the reason for canceling the Z4 M.

The Estoque concept was a four-door, four-seat luxury coupe/supercar with a mid-front engine and all-wheel drive that had been scheduled for launch in 2011. The supercar was to have come with a series of engines, including Lamborghini's current 5.2-liter V10 as well as a high-powered diesel version of unspecified specs.

But Lamborghini lovers will still have other (possibly) upcoming models to fawn over, such as the Superleggera (super lightweight) variant of the Gallardo LP560-4. And Reggiani has re-affirmed Lambo's commitment to the e-gear transmission, a 6-speed manual gearbox with an electro-mechanical gizmo to help smooth out the shifts, and promises a "really surprising" update to it. No DSG for this supercar-maker, which doesn't carry the same "sense of occasion and drama" that a manual gearbox does, Autocar quotes Reggiani in the story. How very Italian.