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Geneva 2013: ItalDesign Giugiaro Parcour is ready for the urban jungle

Stephen Edelstein
By

The Volkswagen Group owns a lot of car companies, and that means it can do some crazy things. For example, it can take the chassis from one of its divisions (Lamborghini) and have another (ItalDesign Giugiaro) turn it into an off-road concept car.

Behold, the ItalDesign Giugiaro Parcour.

As the name implies, the Parcour is designed for moving through urban terrain very quickly, but not necessarily on pavement. Under the skin is the Lamborghini Gallardo’s 5.2-liter V10, producing 550 horsepower, a seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission, and all-wheel drive.

Things get strange when you notice the massive tires and jacked-up ride height. The Parcour actually has adjustable suspension, just like a Porsche Cayenne, that allows the driver to raise the ride height from 8.2 inches to a towering 13 inches. The system comes complete with Comfort, Off-Road, Ice, and Track modes.

The suspension system actually uses eight shock absorbers; two per corner. When the Parcour is hunkered down in Track mode, only one shock per corner is used.

ItalDesign says the Parcour will do 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 kph) in 3.6 seconds, and reach a top speed of over 200 mph. That’s very impressive for a tall SUV-ish vehicle, and is partially due to a relatively slim 3,400 pound curb weight.

Seated in the two-place interior, the driver looks at a large LCD screen that shows all vehicle information. The top half takes the place of the center console screens found in many production cars, displaying GPS maps, visuals for the audio system, and the backup camera’s images. The bottom half displays speed, engine rpm, fuel levels, and the odometer.

The do-it-all screen is housed in a Plexiglass dashboard, along with climate and audio controls and knobs for adjusting the suspension and transmission programming.

If a futuristic mid-engined off-road Lamborghini wasn’t strange enough, there’s also a topless Roadster version.

The Parcour is just a concept car, but if it did go into production, it would be the first off-road supercar since the Lancia Stratos. It also makes Lamborghini’s Urus SUV seem a lot less interesting.

Whether you’re a product planner or a consumer, the Urus is obviously the more sensible choice, but since when did Lambo care about being sensible? The Parcour seems truer to the spirit of Italy’s raging bull, which is why we can’t wait to see the next collaboration between Lambo and ItalDesign.

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Stephen Edelstein
Stephen Edelstein
Contributing Editor
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
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