A decade is a long time in the car world, and nothing proves that quite like the Lamborghini Estoque. Ten years ago, a four-door saloon was still treated like a seal of approval on a carmaker's luxury credentials. Bugatti had hinted at producing the Galiber four-door, Aston Martin was just about to launch the Rapide, the Panamera was a Porsche like none before and the Rolls-Royce Ghost introduced the fabled brand to a whole new audience.
The Estoque was primed to take full advantage. The concept was launched at the 2008 Paris motor show, with production lined up for 2011 - just a year after the Ghost had made its debut. The Gallardo-donated V10 was good for 560hp and 398lb ft, at a time when the Rapide was producing 470hp and the Panamera Turbo 500hp - so claims of a four-door super-sports car were justified. The Lamborghini styling cues, inspired heavily by fighter jets at the time (what else?) certainly made for a saloon car like no other - even if the Estoque wasn't the prettiest Lamborghini around. Remember that it would have competed against cars like the first gen Porsche Panamera and original Bentley Flying Spur, company that would have made the Estoque's slightly pinched nose and busy rear end seem slightly less problematic.
The plan looked to be in place, and with good reason; then-CEO Stephan Winkelmann was keen to expand Sant'Agata production volumes, and knew that couldn't be done with just the Gallardo and Murcielago, so a third model made sense - especially one that would appeal to emerging markets like Russia and China. He even went as far as suggesting that Lamborghini would not show a concept car that it couldn't produce. Maurizio Reggiani was on record talking about powertrains beyond the V10. It had apparently been crash tested, too, both for occupants and pedestrians. While some were up in arms about Lamborghini sullying its heritage with a humdrum saloon (oh, the sweet, sweet innocence of 2008) there appeared to be a strong business case for selling the Estoque at around £150,000.
Then there wasn't. All those rivals bar the Bugatti went ahead, with all going on to achieve decent commercial and critical success. There was every reason to suggest that the Lamborghini would, too - the Gallardo was successfully reworked in 2008 and the Murcielago reached its stunning Super Veloce zenith in 2009. Lamborghini was on a roll, and there was no reason to doubt its capacity to produce a four-door saloon, even if the last front-engined car it has made was the LM002. And the last with both an engine in the front and space for a bobsleigh team was the Espada...
Nobody knows for certain why the plug was so unceremoniously pulled on the Estoque, especially given Winkelmann was still saying all the right things as late as 2010 - suggesting the saloon had won out over an SUV. But clearly the wheels had begun to turn. Perhaps the model's positioning was considered problematic. This, after all, was a company best known for mid-engine supercars. Perhaps Lamborghini decided the additional revenue stream wasn't promising enough - the world was still mired in the aftermath of the previous decade's market cralso had to justify the model's creation to Volkswagen AG, which by this time was in the process of absorbing Porsche - which already built the Panamera. How many high-priced four-door cars could the niche really sustain?
Then, of course, the world all went a bit potty. All concerns around protecting the illustrious heritage, potential brand dilution and styling consistency were thrown unceremoniously out of the window when it became clear just how popular - and high margin - SUVs were destined to become. The writing had been on the wall for years for anyone who cared to read it: in 2003 Audi showed the world a twin-turbo, 500hp, V8 4x4 in the shape of the Pikes Peak Quattro. Somehow this morphed into the soccer mom Q7, and earned a V12 TDI for good measure. By 2009 BMW had launched the X5 and X6 M and the year after the Cayenne Turbo S was available with 550hp. Ultimately, Lamborghini had to pick which horse to back; it chose the shire.
Just a year after the Estoque was due to make production, the first Urus concept was seen at the 2012 Beijing motor show. Not only was there a visible link to the Estoque - that reminiscent front end, similar wheels - there was a mechanical one as well. Because, wouldn't you know, Lamborghini originally planned for the Urus to feature the Gallardo V10. Better yet, the Urus concept was claimed to be "more emotional" than the Estoque, a marketing wheeze that sounded the death knell for the idea of a conventional luxury Lambo. What the brand really meant was "more profitable" and that logic was unassailable. The Urus has since had a dramatic effect on Lamborghini sales. It's unlikely a less fashionable four-door saloon would've delivered the same result.
By that metric the Estoque's shelving must be graded as good strategy. But The Road Not Taken is not about business logic, it's about imagining what might have been, and the idea of a V10-powered four-door saloon, profiled like a grounded jet fighter and badged Lamborghini still seems like something worth clinging to a decade later. The firm made all sorts of silly claims for the Urus when it launched, yet truthfully it had just delivered another hyper-fast SUV, built on someone else's blueprint. The Estoque would've turned no fewer heads - and actually looked good doing it. It wouldn't have been a mid-engined supercar, that's true. But properly done it would still have been legitimate exotica, credibly trading on Lamborghini's powerhouse, ground-hugging ideals, rather than remorselessly trading them in.
Perhaps if it had arrived a few years sooner, the company might've seen it through to fruition. The impulse to make something new was genuine, and without such an obvious roadmap to hand, perhaps Lamborghini would have indulged its inclination to do something different. Today the manufacturer would likely claim that the concept paved the way for it to do the Urus - but the Urus needed no help with paving, it was virtually preordained from the moment of inception. Instead what we're left with is one of the great 'what ifs' of recent car history: the cat among Europe's saloon-building pidgeons, delivering all the outlandish speed-fury that they could not themselves summon. As it turned out, the Estoque is merely emblematic of the road not taken by the entire industry - and a reminder of the off-road route it chose instead.
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