Lamborghini Fenomeno: 29 from “Space” and 1,080 Horses on Paper

Lamborghini used Monterey Car Week to unleash its latest heavy artillery: the Fenomeno. Another “few-off” limited to just 29 units, it arrived accompanied by a press release packed with every conceivable superlative. As tradition dictates, it is at once a design manifesto, an engineering revolution, and, of course, the most powerful V12 ever to leave Sant’Agata.

The Fenomeno marries a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 producing 835 horsepower with three electric motors for a combined output of 1,080. Zero to one hundred in 2.4 seconds, a top speed beyond 350 km/h—the figures read as expected. Lamborghini also highlights a “6D sensor,” an aerospace-inspired carbon monocoque, and new CCM-R Plus carbon-ceramic brakes that shorten stopping distance by ten percent.

Design-wise, it follows Lamborghini’s established DNA: razor-sharp angles, Y-shaped light signatures, liberal use of carbon fibre, and bodywork that evokes a spacecraft more than a car. Longtail proportions, an Omega-shaped rear wing, and donut-factory-style wheels make clear this is destined more for garages than parking lots. The cabin is minimalist, dominated by screens and carbon fibre.

Its name comes from a bull that survived the arena in Mexico in 2002—a fitting metaphor for a machine no one dares bury.

Yet the truth is more prosaic: the Fenomeno joins a line that includes the Reventón, Veneno, Centenario and Countach, another ultra-rare hypercar whose purpose is simply to prove that Lamborghini can go bigger, louder and costlier still. All 29 are almost certainly pre-sold, destined to live out their days in climate-controlled collections.

Lamborghini calls the Fenomeno a phenomenon. In reality, it is a familiar ritual: every few years, a new extreme V12 to remind the world the brand still shouts the loudest at the table.