As a featured marque at Pebble Beach, Lamborghini took pride of place on the fairway with a line-up of historic models, while its latest production cars, the Reventón and Gallardo LP560-4, were showcased with the exotica on the concept lawn.

As one of the three featured marques at Pebble Beach this year, Automobili Lamborghini took pride of place on the immaculate fairway backing onto the sea on the Monterey peninsular with a string of its historic sports cars lined up in a row, while its two latest production machines, the Reventón and Gallardo LP560-4 were showcased along with shining and unique new exotica on the concept lawn.

The Lamborghini line-up on the greens of the Pebble Beach Golf Links' fairway included immaculate examples of historic production models such as the Miura and Countach, as well as unique concepts including the P140, a distinct design that was proposed as a successor to the Jalpa, and a unique barchetta-style Gallardo showcar.

Meanwhile, the concept and pre-production cars lined up on the lawns above the fairway at Pebble Beach always attract much attention from visitors, and the Reventón, limited to just 20-units, was a distinct addition to the circle. Inspired by the sharp 'stealth' lines of the F22 Raptor jet aircraft, its matt colours and angular shape marked it out from the crowd. Lining up behind it was the Gallardo LP560-4, the latest version of the mid-size sports car family which now features a new version of the V10 engine, with 560 bhp and a 0-62 mph time reduced to 3.7 seconds. Its styling and suspension have also been tweaked to improve its handling capabilities.

Alongside these two on the lawn came a number of other debuts. Italian interest was further bolstered by the inclusion of the new Maserati Quattroporte S; pleasantly restyled and featuring the new 4.7-litre V8 engine, this reinterpretation of the luxury sedan is now in the European dealerships. Further Italian influence came from the massive Pininfarina Hyperion, a one-off concept car based on the Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupé. Inspired by the great motor cars of the past, the Hyperion has had its windscreen and driving position moved 40 mm rearwards to create a long, flowing tourer, and unique features include a new storage area in front of the windscreen designed to hold the owners' sporting guns, and the external use of wooden panels which is reminiscent of famous bygone powerboats.

Other cars in this enclosure included two Cadillac representatives: the CTS Sportwagon, based on the CTS Sports Sedan and due to go on sale next year, and the rakish CTS Coupe Concept; the large new Volkswagen CC sedan due in the US later in 2008; Bentley's huge bespoke coachbuilt Arnage RL limousine, the Mercedes-Benz F700 'Research Car'; Rolls-Royce's new Phantom Coupé; a 'Pebble Beach' special edition of the six-year-old Lexus SC 430 which will be limited to a production run of just 300 units which lined up alongside the luxury brand's LF-A Roadster concept; the MKT concept car from Lincoln, Land Rover's one-off LRX study, Chrysler's zero-emission ecoVoyager concept, another US brand built electric-powered concept, this time from Dodge; Jeep's outrageous Renegade concept in eye-catching green, and a supercar debut from the Bugatti marque, the 252 mph Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, which was auctioned off over the weekend by Gooding & Company during the with the proceeds raised above MRSP going to charity.

by Edd Ellison