• The car is more than just a form of transportation. We believe it can also exude beauty, style, and emotion like a piece of art.
• Earlier this year, we released an updated list of the most beautiful cars money can buy. 
• Now, we have created a spin-off of the most beautiful cars that either debuted or have been road tested by Business Insider in 2017.

At Business Insider, we are firm believers in the idea that cars are more than just a means to get goods and people from point A to point B. Cars can also be rolling pieces of art. 

Earlier this year, we updated our list of the 10 most beautiful cars money can buy. Now, we are doing a spin-off of that list just for 2017. 

While we recognize that beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, here is a collection of the most aesthetically pleasing production cars that either debuted or have been road tested by Business Insider over the past year. 

Here's a closer look at the 10 most beautiful cars of 2017 on sale at dealerships today.

SEE ALSO: Here are the 21 best cars for winter weather driving

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10. Porsche Panamera: Once the ugly duckling of the Porsche lineup, the second generation Panamera is now the belle of the ball.

The new Panamera features a redesigned rear end with a sleeker fastback roofline; a move that fixed the previous car's awkward proportions. We liked the Panamera so much that it was named Business Insider's 2017 Car of the Year.

9. McLaren 720S. The first of McLaren's second-generation supercars debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

• Lamborghini showed off its new Urus "super sport utility vehicle" to media at the Detroit auto show.
• Designer Mitja Borkert also showed off an interesting design technique.
• The Urus is Lambo's bid to get in on the high-end ute game.

Lamborghini revealed its new Urus SUV to the US media in Detroit on Monday night, after earlier showcasing it in Europe.

The Urus is the culmination of a major trend, kicked off by Porsche over a decade ago with the Cayenne and more recently pushed forward by Maserati, Alfa Romero, Jaguar, and Bentley (and soon, Rolls-Royce): the luxury SUV from brands that we might have once though would never do an SUV.

Ferrari is essentially now the only big-name performance automaker to lack a ute — and that's going to change in the next few years, as CEO Sergio Marchionne again stressed in a press conference in Detroit.

Lamborghini actually built an SUV-ish vehicle once before, the LM002, a Hummer-like offroader than was produced for about seven years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It's now regarded as an oddity, and in truth it doesn't look all that much like a Lamborghini.

The Urus, meanwhile, absolutely does. In an interview with Business Insider, designer Mitja Borkert (he joined Lambo in 2016, after working for Porsche) said that the Urus was shaped to evoke the sharklike, aggressive, make-no-mistake-about-it presence of Lamborghinis such as the iconic Countach and the current Aventador.

In fact, here's an image of Borkert drawing the profile of the new SUV. 

Except that he isn't "drawing," in the conventional sense of using a marker or pen to create his lines. If you look closely, you can see a small bit of black tape dangling beneath his right elbow.

That's because he's making a "tape drawing" of the Urus, to a reduced scale. I first saw budding car designers do this at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the Harvard or Oxford of automotive imagination. (I also watched Borkert draw the old-fashioned way, with a pencil and paper, while I was chatting with him).

Tape drawings allow designers to replicate their designs at scale and engage with them physically, rather than simply outputting big digital renderings and sticking to a wall. Tape also enables the designer to be more precise at scale than he or she could be if trying to replicate a drawing.

And tape connects with another unusual car-design practice: clay models. Remarkably, in an era when pretty much anything can be designed digitally, car folks still create sculpted clay models of new vehicles, right up to full-size examples. They use tape to characterize — and refine — the lines. 

It's always amazing to me when I see a car designer using these old, tried-and-true techniques, even when I know that they can make full use of the digital tools available to them.

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NOW WATCH: Lamborghini just unleashed the fastest SUV in the world

• Lamborghini Dubai is the Italian supercar maker's largest dealership.
• The 30,000 square foot facility opened in April 2017.
• The three-story build showroom is designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott.
  

Dubai is world famous for its sizable population of supercars. Even the Dubai Police operates a fleet of high-priced exotics for promotional purposes. So it's only reasonable that Lamborghini would establish its largest dealership in the United Arab Emirates.

Opened in April 2017, Lamborghini Dubai features 30,000 square feet of showroom and shop space inside a stylish three-story building designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott. The structure features a glass facade connected to the building with steel cables.

Lamborghini Dubai is owned and operated by Al Jaziri Motors.

Recently, Business Insider had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility.

SEE ALSO: Inside the $350 million Emirates complex designed to fix the Airbus A380 superjumbo

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Lamborghini Dubai is located on the emirate's main thoroughfare Sheikh Zayed Road not far from the Mall of the Emirates.

Step inside the glass doors and you'll find yourself in the main showroom.

Here's a row of Lambos in the showroom. Two Aventadors and one Huracan.

• Startups raised over $5 billion issuing their own digital currencies last year and there are now over 1,400 in circulation.
• "In 2018 what’s going to happen is some consolidation of the market," cofounder of cryptocurrency IOTA tells BI.
• "I think there will be a shake-out of these ICOs," private equity veteran and cryptocurrency enthusiast Doug Barrowman says.

LONDON — Cryptocurrency market participants are predicting a fall in the number of digital currencies in circulation this year as the projects behind them fail to gain traction or consolidate.

2017 saw a boom in so-called "initial coin offerings" (ICOs), where startups issue their own digital currencies — structured like bitcoin — in exchange for real money to build their businesses. Startups raised over $5 billion through ICOs last year and there are now over 1,400 cryptocurrencies in circulation. These coins can be traded on online exchanges, unlike equity in early stage, private businesses.

Regulators around the world have warned that these investments are highly speculative and investors risk losing all their money. China and South Korea have banned ICOs, while executives from the World Bank and the ECB have compared the crypto market to Ponzi schemes.

Surprisingly, even cryptocurrency market participants are skeptical of many of recent ICOs.

"The market environment that we’re in right now is just everyone wants to get a Lamborghini," Dominik Schiener told Business Insider. "They’re primarily focused on making money real quick."

Schiener is the cofounder of IOTA, a cryptocurrency aimed at being the currency of the internet of things. IOTA created a cryptocurrency back in 2015 — practically ancient history in the cryptocurrency world. MIOTA, the currency, is now the 11th biggest cryptocurrency by value.

"In my opinion, in 2018 what’s going to happen is some consolidation of the market," he said. "Projects that don’t really add any concrete value or have a unique selling point will definitely fall out."

Bitconnect, the company behind a controversial cryptocurrency lending and exchange platform, closed its doors last month after an ICO in 2016. It could be perhaps the first example of what is to come for the market.

Doug Barrowman, a private equity veteran who got involved in the cryptocurrency world two years ago, told BI: "I think there will be a shake-out of these ICOs, of the 1,400 or so that have been done."

He believes the market has been over inflated by unskeptical investors simply hoping to make short-term gains speculating on coins, rather than backing long-term projects.

"No one is actually looking and saying, is the ICO any good? Speculators are just trading altcoins," Barrowman, who is conducting his own ICO, said.

"A lot of global crypto investors, they don’t even care what the ICO is. The white paper comes out, it’s been thought about for five minutes, and then everyone plays the same game — they pump it high, they dump it, they buy back when its dumped, then they pump it again on some more news."

Business Insider highlighted the prevalence of "pump and dump" scams in cryptocurrency secondary markets last year.

Scheiner said: "Market manipulation has really hurt IOTA since the beginning. All you have to do is spread a lie and have your Twitter and Reddit trolls and bots go lie. Then it quickly changes the public perception and then the market just crashes. Then you issue a correction and say hey that’s not true. That’s how those people make money."

Dom Williams, the lead developer of the DFINITY, told BI: "The Ethereum ICO was very successful but it brought in a lot of bad actors. I think most of them have got zero chance of delivering what they’ve been promising."

Williams has been working on the DFINITY network, a crypto-based cloud 3.0, since 2014, when Ethereum held its ICO. DFINITY recently raised $61 million from venture capitalists and Williams told BI they didn't do an ICO because they worried about "being guilty by association."

US regulators have moved to shut down $600 million ICO scam last month and another scam replaced its website with just the word "penis" after trying to raise money through an ICO. Thankfully, it only raised $11.

Charlie Lee, the founder of litecoin, told Business Insider recently: "I think there's a bit too much scam in the space, in terms of people getting in just to get rich quick."

Schiener said: "I’ve only participated in two ICOs in my life — Ethereum and IOTA."

His relative conservatism matches that of the founder of Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCC, who told Business Insider last month he "wouldn't touch" ICOs.

"I don’t know if we’re going to be 250 successful ICOs out of 1,400 or what," Barrowman said. "There’s going to be a shake-out, there’s no doubt about it.

"Ultimately after the euphoria of this ICO boom, people are going to say, what does that ICO actually bring to the world?"

Schiener's prediction is even more drastic: "I personally think only some 5 to 8 projects will be able to establish themselves and continue to raise. Most of the projects serve no concrete purpose in my opinion."

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• The Geneva Motor Show is the first major European car show of 2018.
• It will be packed with the latest offerings from Audi, Aston Martin, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Volvo, and VW.
• The show is open to the public from March 8 to the 18 at the Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland.

The 2018 Geneva Motor Show is the first major European car show of the year. Usually, Geneva is a big to do. Car makers pull out all the stops to show off their latest and greatest.

Aston Martin CEO Dr. Andy Palmer offered up a spot on description of the show when he said, "Geneva is a highlight of the industry calendar and a motor show with a rich history and great atmosphere."

And what rich atmosphere it is.

The world's top brands will be there. From Ferrari to McLaren and Aston Martin to Bentley, Geneva will be packed with the next generation of exotics. In addition, there will be a host of production-ready models from mass-market luxury brands, such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and BMW.

The 2018 Geneva Motor Show opens to the public from March 8-18 at the Palexpo Arena in Geneva, Switzerland.

Here's a closer look at the 24 coolest cars at the show:

SEE ALSO: I took a $400,000 Rolls-Royce Dawn convertible on a road trip through New Jersey — here's what it was like

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Geneva will mark the auto show debut of Aston Martin's new Vantage sports car.

Dr. Andy Palmer wasn't kidding when he said he had a big surprises in store for everyone. In fact, he had a couple. The first one was the debut of the 1,100 horsepower Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro track-only hypercar.

And then Aston Martin unveiled the futuristic Lagonda Vision Concept electric car.

• Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrency) millionaires are buying Lamborghinis as the ultimate status symbol in their community.
• People who made riches in bitcoin and ether have bought the Italian supercar for as little as $135, because they invested in crypto before its value spiked.
• At the same time, Lamborghini reported record sales in 2017.

Silicon Valley may be flush with cash, but its monarchs often don't like to flaunt their wealth. The culture encourages tech's casual billionaires (or mere millionaires) to stay humble, spend on sneakers and hoodies instead of parties, and focus on the work more than the spoils.

So far, cryptocurrency millionaires have been the exception.

People who made their riches in bitcoin and ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, are buying Lamborghinis as the ultimate status symbol in their community.

The sexy Italian sports car has become an internet meme: When a new coin promises to make buyers a lot of money, someone might ask, "When's Lambo?" on social media. They want to know how long it will be until the holder can afford the supercar, which starts at $200,000.

Peter Saddington, a 35-year-old coder living in Atlanta, paid 45 bitcoins to ride off in a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan (price tag: $200,000) last fall, at the height of the crypto craze. Those coins cost less than $3 a piece when Saddington bought the digital currency back in 2011.

"Buying the Lambo with bitcoin is proof it can be used for real transactions, buying really cool stuff," Saddington told Yahoo Finance in 2017. "It's not only used by criminals."

The car was used, and Saddington paid the seller directly in bitcoin. He paid the dealership a transaction fee of $7.95 and the sales tax in cash, according to Yahoo Finance and CNBC.

In 2015, realtor Piper Moretti, whose company The Crypto Realty Group specializes in helping people buy homes with crypto, saw one of her first crypto-clients buy a Lambo with bitcoin.

A family from the East Coast fell in love with a $3.2 million home on Manhattan Beach. Her client, who asked not to be named, wanted to pay in bitcoin. But the seller's agent was dead-set against it. Moretti said they had to find a way to show they weren't trying to scam the seller.

Around that time, the price of bitcoin spiked, and Moretti's client decided to spend some of the extra money on a Lambo from an Orange County dealership that accepts bitcoin as payment.

Moretti told her client to "send me everything you have on this," including all the receipts and documents from the transaction, which she then provided to the seller's agent.

"The Lambo actually helped us get the house," Moretti told Business Insider.

Cryptocurrency is "not just internet-nerd money," she added. "You can actually buy things."

Lamborghini sales are on fire

Still, buying a Lamborghini may be "the single acceptable way to spend money" in the cryptocurrency community, according to a recent article in the New York Times.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has blasted crypto investors in the past for flaunting their new wealth.

"If all that we accomplish is lambo memes and immature puns about 'sharting,' then I WILL leave," Buterin said in a Twitter rant in December.

An illustration of Buterin, dressed as a religious icon and holding a red Lamborghini Aventador between his outstretched palms, went viral on Reddit in 2017 and has been widely shared since.

We don't know how many crypto millionaires have been minted or how many bought the car. But a recent article in Quartz points out that as the price of ether rises, so do Lamborghini sales.

The luxury automobile maker delivered a record 3,815 vehicles to customers in 2017. It was the seventh consecutive year of sales growth, according to Lamborghini.

A general manager at Lamborghini Newport Beach in Costa Mesa, California, told CNBC that the dealership had "over 10 transactions" involving cryptocurrency in December, when bitcoin reached $19,000 per coin. That's up from about two transactions a month between 2013 and 2016. 

Crypto millionaires aren't necessarily responsible for the uptick in Lamborghini sales. A relatively small number of people are invested in cryptocurrencies, and many fewer bought in before the price of bitcoin and ether spiked in 2017 — making some holders enough money to buy a sports car.

Fans of crypto and Lamborghini can calculate when their crypto investment will create enough gains for them to buy the supercar on a parody website called When-Lambo.com.

A disclaimer on the website says: "The results of the calculation," which is based on the coin's value over the last seven days, "are completely fictional."

SEE ALSO: Lamborghini is the world's craziest supercar maker — here's how it came to be

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NOW WATCH: NFL superstar Richard Sherman is all-in on cryptocurrencies, but doesn’t think his grandmother should invest

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Silicon Valley may be flush with cash, but its monarchs often don't like to flaunt their wealth. The culture encourages tech's casual millionaires to stay humble, spend on sneakers and hoodies instead of parties, and focus on the work more than the spoils.

Cryptocurrency investors, on the other hand, haven't shown the same humility. People who made their riches in bitcoin and ether are buying Lamborghinis as the ultimate status symbol in their community.

Here are the current crypto prices as equity markets nosedive:

SEE ALSO: Google is banning all bitcoin, ICO, and cryptocurrency ads starting in June

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Amber Baldet, the face of JPMorgan's efforts in blockchain technology, is leaving the bank to start her own venture, the bank said Monday. Baldet has been a tour de force among Wall Street's blockchain circles — and we'll be sure to let you know about her new venture as soon as we find out. 

Here are the current crypto prices:

SEE ALSO: Google is banning all bitcoin, ICO, and cryptocurrency ads starting in June

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NOW WATCH: Neo-Nazi groups let a journalist in their meetings and rallies — here's what he saw

• Conceptual artist and photographer Kevin Abosch recently sold a blockchain-inspired artwork called "YELLOW LAMBO" for $400,000.
• The artwork is inspired by the hashtag #lambo, which is often used in cryptocurrency forums online. 

Kevin Abosch's technology-inspired artwork and photography challenge the traditional perceptions of value.

In 2016, Abosch sold a photograph of a potato for more than $1 million.

In February, a group of 10 collectors purchased his virtual artwork "Forever Rose" for $1 million in cryptocurrency.

And just last week, Abosch sold another digitally-inspired artwork called "YELLOW LAMBO" to former Skype COO Michael Jackson at the San Francisco art fair "If so, What" for $400,000 — more than the starting price of an actual Lamborghini.

The artwork is composed of 42 inline alphanumerics in yellow neon representing the blockchain contract address for a crypto token called YLAMBO, which Abosch also created. Abosch named the artwork after the hashtag #lambo, which cryptocurrency enthusiasts often use in online forums. 

"When I first became aware of the use of #lambo on social media, it struck me as vulgar," Abosch told Business Insider. "But the more I thought about it, I realized that it's actually just a declaration acknowledging the insanity around the crypto zeitgeist."

The coveted Italian luxury car is a prized commodity in the cryptocurrency community, and in recent years, it's become a symbol for easy, cryptocurrency-acquired affluence. It's the Lamborghini's symbolic trappings that inspired Abosch to create a conceptual artwork which he describes as a meditation on value. 

"Depending on who you speak to, one person might ask, 'Why would someone spend $400,000 on bitcoin?' Another person might ask, 'Why would someone spend $400,000 on a car or a piece of artwork?'" said Abosch. "It's a cause for discussion on why and how we value anything at all."

After Abosch sold his blockchain artwork "Forever Rose" earlier this year for what is thought to be the largest sum ever paid for a piece of virtual art ("Forever Rose" is an ethereum-based token called ROSE that's inspired by a photograph Abosch took of an actual rose), Absoch said he received several confused inquiries regarding the nature of the piece. 

"There is no physical or visual manifestation of the work," said Abosch. "Someone asked me, 'How is it possible that something that you can't see or touch can have value?" Abosch's answer: "I have to wonder whether or not people who ask this question have an unhealthy relationship with material things."

In May, Abosch will present another blockchain-inspired artwork at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

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• Lamborghinis were spotted parked outside New York's blockchain conference Consensus this week.
• Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and others have long revered the Lamborghini as an aspirational symbol of wealth.
• But it turns out that the Lamborghinis in question didn't actually belong to any of the attendees: They were staged rentals.

Lamborghinis have long been an aspirational symbol within the cryptocurrency community. So it made sense that several of the coveted Italian sports cars would make an appearance this week outside Consensus, New York's massive blockchain conference.

Onlookers first posted photos to Twitter of three gleaming Lamborghinis parked outside the Hilton Midtown Hotel in Manhattan early Monday morning.

But, as it turned out, the cars don't actually belong to any of the attendees.

Bloomberg reported the cars had been rented by the cryptocurrency exchange BitMex, and it's speculated that the company paid $1,000 apiece for the flashy stunts.

The staged Lambos weren't the only part of Consensus that was fake, either. A group of bankers protesting cryptocurrencies also turned out to be a marketing stunt for a mining company.

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NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos reveals what it's like to build an empire and become the richest man in the world — and why he's willing to spend $1 billion a year to fund the most important mission of his life

• Elizabeth White made a business out of trading in cryptocurrency holders' digital wealth in for luxury items like Lamborghinis, designer fashion, and yachts.
• Now, she's launching her own cryptocurrency, a "stable token" called the "White Standard."

For many in the cryptocurrency community, the hashtag #whenlambo signifies the Lamborghini as the embodiment of the aspirational wealth they someday hope to possess.

But for Elizabeth White, #whenlambo conveys a personal challenge.

When the hashtag started trending in cryptocurrency forums last year, White says she thought to herself, "You know what, I can get these people a Lambo."

Affluence may abound in the cryptocurrency community, but it isn't always easy to transform digital wealth in for real-world assets. Punishing transactional fees, low daily exchange limits on trading platforms, and wildly fluctuating values can make trading digital currencies in for fiat a difficult endeavor.

White, who has long worked in the racecar industry, decided to leverage her connections to hedge funds and luxury car dealerships to provide cryptocurrency holders access to the Italian supercar of their dreams. 

"There's so much new wealth in the cryptocurrency community," says White. "Cars seem to be a big seller because it establishes you as a cryptocurrency holder."

Typically, White's initial exchanges take place over the secure messaging app Telegram. White says she can facilitate a deal for a luxury car in exchange for cryptocurrencies in a matter of days. 

"We had a very large sale to a buyer in China from a seller in California for a $4 million car," says White. "The negotiation was very quick. It took less than a week and the settlement took about 30 minutes."

White says her company, suitably called "the White Company," can handle such fast-paced deals in a mix of fiat and digital currencies because of the liquidity of the hedge fund, Apis Capital Management, with which she works. 

"We're able to quickly convert someone's holdings at any moment," says White. "I can take these large amounts of money and purchase the items for my client, and then re-ingest their cryptocurrencies back into the fund." 

Among the transactions she's handled are deals for Super Bowl suites, yachts, honeymoons, luxury fashion items, and engagement rings. 

The ability to cash in digital assets for real-world goods is an important and validating function for cryptocurrencies, says White. 

"It all goes back to offering cryptocurrency holders something they need," she says. "They need the ability to purchase something in the real world with their digital wealth."

White's experience cashing in cryptocurrency assets for tangible goods has inspired her in an entirely new direction. Now, along with her finance partner Edgar Radjabli, she's launching her own cryptocurrency called "the White Standard" that she hopes will someday be used to handle the majority of online transactions.

Unlike ether and bitcoin, which have both been historically traded as a method of speculation, the "White Standard" is a "stable coin"— a digital token with the chief goal of serving as a means of digital commerce. White says that each White Standard, which are built on the blockchain application Stellar, will be backed by an American dollar, ensuring that the coins maintain a real-world value. 

"As they gain adoption, White Standards will be trade-able on other exchanges," says White's finance partner, Edgar Radjabli. "You'll always be able to trade ether and bitcoin in and out of the White Standard." 

Radjabli said that both he and White started considering the possibility of their own dollar-backed digital currency when rumors began swirling that Tether, another dollar-backed stable token, wasn't accurately representing the fiat backing for their coins.

The White Standard, which will be backed by Radjabli's hedge fund, plans on building a foundation of payment networks for cryptocurrency trade worldwide.

"We want to build a coin that will let you instantly buy a cup of coffee or a Lambo with cryptocurrencies anywhere in the world," says Radjabli. 

SEE ALSO: A 21-year-old college student invested 80% of his summer paycheck in cryptocurrencies and made an enormous profit

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• The Chinese smartphone maker Oppo launched its new Find X phone on Tuesday, along with the Find X Automobili Lamborghini Edition.
• Oppo says the Find X Lamborghini edition can charge from 0% to 100% in 35 minutes and will cost nearly $2,000.
• Both versions of the Find X have a nearly edge-to-edge display, a motorized hidden camera, and facial recognition. 

The Chinese smartphone maker Oppo just announced one of the priciest phones you can buy.

At an event in the Louvre Museum in Paris on Tuesday, Oppo announced its new Find X device, a premium smartphone with a nearly edge-to-edge display, a motorized hidden camera, and a beautiful shiny finish.

On its own, the Find X is an expensive device — Oppo said it would cost €999 (about $1,160) when it's released in August.

But there's another, pricier device on the way. At the event, Oppo also unveiled the Find X Automobili Lamborghini Edition, which has superfast charging; Oppo says it can charge a battery from 0% to 100% in 35 minutes.

The Lamborghini edition will cost €1,699, which is about $1,970.

The phone will also have 512 MB of storage, a carbon-fiber texture underneath the glass on the back of the device, and an engraved Lamborghini logo.

Otherwise, the Lamborghini edition will have specs similar to the standard Find X device, including facial recognition, a 25-megapixel selfie camera, and a screen that covers more than 93% of the front of the phone.

Oppo is launching the Find X in Europe this August, but there's no word yet on when the device could come to the US. 

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Classic Car Club Manhattan is a private club with a fleet of over 40 classics, exotics, and supercars. All of the cars are available for members to drive. They also have a members-only restaurant and a racing simulator. The following is a transcript of the video.

This club was made for car enthusiasts.

Aj Caldwell: Oh, my gosh. This is so sick!

Mike Prichinello: Classic Car Club is a private automotive club. Members join, they can drive our cars. They can just hang out.

The club has a fleet of over 40 cars. All available for members to drive.

Mike: My name is Mike Prichinello. I am director of Classic Car Club Manhattan. This is our 8,000-square-foot gallery space. This is where we keep most of our cars. This is our mechanic shop. So, this is where the team keeps everything running smoothly. We have the most advanced simulator room in the country. It's where we do all of our racing and competition.

Classic Car Club hosts a number of events. From racing abroad to gatherings at the clubhouse.

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Premium Italian brand Tonino Lamborghini — which is not Automobili Lamborghini, the carmaker — is launching a luxurious Android smartphone, as we first saw via The Verge.

The device, named "Alpha-One," will be made out of materials such as liquid metal and Italian handmade black leather, and come in a package that also includes a custom leather case.

As far as specs go, save for the old Snapdragon 820 processor, the Alpha-One is actually a pretty high-end handset.

It has a 5.5-inch, QuadHD (2560x1440) AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of memory (and up to 128GB of expandable storage), a big, 3250mAh battery, and two cameras with 20MP at the back and 8MP at the front.

There's also a fingerprint reader, a USB-C port, front-firing stereo speakers, optical image stabilisation for the rear camera, and even a headphone jack and a dedicated DAC for audio fans. The onboard version of Android is 7.0 Nougat, atop which sits a customised software.

As you might expect, the phone will not come cheap: At $2,450 (£1,915), Lamborghini's existing customers will likely be among the few ones who actually get their hands on it.

You can find the Alpha-One online, or in select retailers in the UK and UAE. London's Harrods will be the sole UK partner, while a number of shops, such as the Dubai Mall's Levant luxury boutique, will have it in store in the UAE.

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When Lamborghini was cranking out the Gallardo, it had a major hit on its hands.

Over the course of ten years, the Italian supercar marque produced over 14,000 examples. That's 1,400 Gallardos churned out on average each year between 2003 and 2013.

Now with the Gallardo's successor, the Huracán, Lamborghini has switched production into hyperdrive. In just three years since the car's launch, Lamborghini has produced a total 9,000 Huracáns.

That's more than double the rate of production compared to the Gallardo, and it isn't just a step up for the snack-sized sibling on the Lambo line. In six years time, Lamborghini have built 7,000 Aventador examples. The bigger bull is clearly selling well and the Huracán is doing outstanding.

When Lamborghini eventually brings its Urus to market, the numbers will only continue to grow. Though it will slot into the lineup above the Huracán, there's a strong chance Lamborghini could move more of its SUV than its "entry-level" supercar. It won't be cheap, but it will be powerful with an expected 650 horsepower on tap.

The SUV will also be appealing to those with deep pockets and a desire for a higher-riding vehicle that allows room for family, friends, pets, and groceries. That's a weird sentence to type out when talking about a Lamborghini, but it's one that will come to be when the Urus arrives in December.

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• We got our hands on the Tonino Lamborghini Alpha One and tested it.
• The phone runs Android 7.1 Nougat and has 64GB of built-in storage.
• The Alpha One costs a whopping £1900, £900 more than the iPhone X.

We tested Lamborghini's new Android smartphone, the Tonino Lamborghini Alpha One, to see how it measured up to the iPhone X. 

The Alpha One boasts impressive dual hi-fi speakers but it only has 64GB of built-in memory.

It still has a headphone jack unlike other new phone releases such as the iPhone X and Google Pixel 2.

Produced by Jasper Pickering. Special thanks to Edoardo Maggio. 

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• The Lamborghini Huracan Spyder starts at around $262,000, but our option heavy test car cost nearly $314,000.
• The Huracan Spyder is the drop-top variant of Lamborghini's hot-selling entry-level supercar.
• Our Huracan test car delivered Lamborghini performance with an extra dose of sunshine.

Before it's all said and done, the Huracan will be the best selling Lamborghini supercar of all time.

In just three years, Lamborghini has sold more than 9,000 Huracans worldwide.  It took Lamborghini a decade to sell 14,000 Gallardos, the current record holder. 

And it's not hard to see why it's so popular with the brand's customers. 

The Huracan is fast and agile with smoldering good looks and an intoxicating exhaust note. In 2015, Lambo's entry-level offering was a runner-up for our Car of the Year Award that year.

But what happens when you chop the top off the Huracan? Did the lack soft-top muzzle the Huracan's sparkling personality or spoil its stylish silhouette?

To find out, we spent a week with a Balloon White Huracan Spyder.

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The Facts

The Lamborghini Huracan Spyder is powered by 5.2-liter, naturally aspirated V10 producing 602 horsepower. The Lambo gets all that power to the road through a seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox and an advanced all-wheel-drive system.

The Huracan is also available in rear-wheel-drive. However, that version gets a detuned 572 horsepower version of the same engine.

According to Lamborghini, the all-wheel-drive Huracan can hit 62 mph in a blistering 3.4 seconds and reach a top speed of 201 mph.

The Huracan Spyder starts at a shade over $262,000 with our option laden test car coming out to nearly $314,000.

Raising the roof

Like its corporate cousin, the Audi R8 Spyder, the Huracan gets a tough canvas roof instead of a folding metal affair popular among high-priced drop tops these days. The top is available in three colors; black, brown, and red. Our test car came with the red top.

The electro-hydraulic roof can be raised and lowered in just 17 seconds at speeds up to 31 mph.

As with any convertible, the minute the roof is lopped off, chassis rigidity is compromised. Even with heavy-duty chassis reinforcements to make up for the missing roof, performance is lacking when compared to the coupe counterpart. The question is whether or not Lamborghini has done enough to overcome that. Well, I can honestly say, yes.

The carbon fiber and aluminum-intensive chassis feels rock solid. Lamborghini claims the Huracan Spyder's chassis is 40% stiffer than its predecessor, the Gallardo Spyder. Scuttle shake was nowhere to be found. Even on New Jersey's notoriously pot hole heavy roads.

("Scuttle shake" is annoying vibrations commonly exhibited by cars with lower chassis rigidity that experience too much flex.)

The experience

On the road, the Huracan Spyder is superb. The heart of this beast is the naturally aspirated V10, shared with the Audi R8. As loud and enthusiastic as the motor is in the Audi, in the Lambo its dialed up to 11. There's an added level of raw power and emotion that simply doesn't exist in the Audi.

Best of all, there are no turbochargers around to disturb the velvety smooth power delivery of the V10 nor are they present to muffle the sweet music of the ten-cylinder symphony.

The twin-clutch gearbox pairs well with the broad powerband of the engine like the dry red and juicy steak.

Around the corners, the Huracan Spyder remains well behaved and composed even when pushed to its limits. The all-wheel-drive Lambo is so docile that my colleague Matt DeBord felt that this raging bull was simply not angry enough.

However, anyone looking to spend time sideways in a Lamborghini should take a look at the less powerful, but wilder rear-wheel-drive Huracan.

Retract the top and the Huracan Spyder takes it to a whole another level. With the air whizzing past you, the rumble of the V10 resonating behind your hear, and a kiss of sunshine on your forehead Lamborghini motoring en plein air is something to be experienced.

• The Lamborghini Urus was unveiled on Monday.
• The SUV is expected to double Lamborghini's annual sales.
• It's powered by a 650 horsepower, 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged, V8 engine.
• Lamborghini claims the Urus has a top speed of 190 mph. 

Lamborghini unveiled the all-new Urus SUV on Monday in a presentation that could best be described as shambolic. A technical glitch forced Lamborghini to temporarily shut down the launch presentation and global webstream. 

While the presentation may have been a bit of a mess, the Urus is anything but. The Lambo looks lean, mean, and ready to take on the world.

The striking off-roader is just the second SUV in company history and is expected to double the company's annual sales total to around 7,000 cars globally. 

Powered by a 650 horsepower, 4.0 liter, twin-turbocharged V8, Lambo claims the Urus can hit 62 mph in just 3.6 seconds and reach a top speed of 190 mph, besting the Bentley Bentayga's 187 mph mark.

According to Lamborghini, this makes the Urus the fastest SUV in the world.

"The Lamborghini Urus is a visionary approach based on the infusion of Lamborghini DNA into the most versatile vehicle, the SUV," Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement. "The Urus elevates the SUV to a level not previously possible, the Super SUV."

With a starting price of $200,000, the Urus is firmly entrenched in a new class of ultra-luxury, high-performance SUVs dominated by the Bentley Bentagya, Range Rover Autobiography, Porsche Cayenne, and the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is set to join that group in the near future.

In addition to the 650 horses under the hood, the Lambo is also equipped with an 8-speed automatic that sends power to an advanced four-wheel-drive system with active torque vectoring and four-wheel-steering.

The Urus is also available with carbon ceramic brakes, adaptive air suspension, and six different driving modes.

Inside, the SUV boasts room for four in a leather lined cockpit with a modern touchscreen infotainment system featuring full Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration.

Lamborghini expected to begin delivery of the Urus in the Spring of 2018.

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In the UN of supercar makers, Lamborghini isn't just a member. It's got a permanent seat on the Security Council. Over the past 50 years, Lamborghini has firmly established itself as one of the most desirable and respected brands in the automotive industry. Like its archrival, Ferrari, the supercar specialists from Sant'Agata emerged from unlikely beginnings and have survived through great financial upheaval. 

In the process, Lamborghini has given the world some of the most insane and iconic cars in recent memory. 

Here's how Lamborghini became Lamborghini!

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For most people, this is the vision that comes to mind when you mention the name "Lamborghini." But that wasn't always the case.

After World War II, Ferruccio Lamborghini found great success making farm equipment for rebuilding Europe. As a result, the wealthy entrepreneur acquired a fleet of the finest sports cars the continent had to offer.

So how did Lamborghini go from tractor-maker to supercar legend? It depends on who you ask.

Following is a transcript of the video. 

This is the fastest SUV in the world. The Lamborghini Urus. 

It's only the second SUV in company history. Here's everything the Urus has to offer:

650 horsepower

62 mph in 3.6 seconds

4.0 liter, twin-turbocharged V8

Top speed of 190 mph

Faster than the Bentley Bentayga’s top speed of 187 mph. This makes the Urus the fastest SUV in the world.

Lamborghini calls it a Super SUV. It's expected to double the company's annual sales for all vehicles. The Urus starts at $200,000.

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