Giugiaro Parcour goes for a dusty drive

Giugiaro calls the Parcour “a type of GT car that did not exist until now.” We completely agree. The jacked-up, 550-hp, Lamborghini-powered supercar won our Best Concept at the Geneva motor show in March. On Thursday, we got to see it on the street -- actually on dirt.

The Parcour was designed to celebrate the company's 45th anniversary and is loosely based on the Audi R8 platform. It gets the same mid-engine setup with a 5.2-liter V10. A dash-mounted knob controls engine and suspension settings, and we can see it in action in the video. The car looks like it lowers about 3 inches before taking off. It has four drive modes: comfort, off-road, winter and race.

The Parcour weighs 3,417 pounds and can sprint to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds. In the video we can see its pushrod suspension, as well as the adjustable rear spoiler.

Giugiaro vice president Fabrizio Giugiaro talked about the car in Geneva.

“Every time we approach a project for a research prototype, we always start with the same question,” said Giugiaro. “What is missing from the world of cars today? These days [customers] demand a car that is a comfortable and high-performance vehicle, irrespective of its use and of the type of terrain, which is how the Parcour came about -- it is a vehicle that guarantees driving comfort even on rough and challenging terrains. We teamed this with the setup of the ideal midengine sports car. In addition, we wanted to pay tribute to the historic Lamborghini brand, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, using their 10-cylinder engine.”

There aren't any official plans to produce the Parcour, but we'll be sure to let you know if we hear anything.

By Jake Lingeman