eccentrica V12 roadster reimagines lamborghini diablo as supercar

ECCENTRICA BRINGS ITS OPEN-AIR DIABLO TO THE QUAIL

Eccentrica is unveiling its new V12 Roadster at The Quail by The Peninsula, A Motorsports Gathering, during Monterey Car Week, and designboom will be there to see it in person. Based on a first-series Lamborghini Diablo, the open-top restomod follows the company’s original Eccentrica V12 with an arguably straightforward proposition: take one of the least discreet supercars of the 1990s, remove the roof, and rebuild almost everything underneath. Created together with Milan-based studio Borromeo De Silva, the Roadster uses more than 3,500 bespoke components to reinterpret the Diablo without sanding away the qualities that made it quite so unreasonable in the first place.

Rather than simply cutting off the roof and hoping California weather does the rest, Eccentrica has reworked the structure around the new open cabin. The body combines steel and carbon fiber, while the track has been widened and the proportions adjusted to give the car a more planted stance without disguising its Diablo origins. A dedicated aerodynamic study addresses airflow around the exposed cockpit, and carbon fiber structural reinforcements compensate for the missing roof. Revised suspension geometry and a custom semi-active damper system further update a platform born well before software started asking drivers whether they would like to install something.

carbon fiber reinforcements compensate for the removal of the fixed roof | image © designboom

A NATURALLY ASPIRATED V12 KEEPS THINGS ANALOGUE

Behind the cabin sits a re-engineered 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V12, recalibrated for sharper throttle response and improved thermal and airflow management. It produces 550 hp at 7,000 rpm and 600 Nm of torque at 6,500 rpm, with a claimed top speed of 208 mph (335 km/h). Power is managed through a six-speed gated manual gearbox, while three driving modes adjust the car for different road conditions. Hydraulic steering remains part of the equation, paired with a modern Brembo braking system — contemporary assistance, in other words, without turning the experience into a touchscreen exercise.

The engineering program is led by Maurizio Reggiani, former Lamborghini chief technical officer whose résumé includes the Murciélago, Gallardo, Aventador and Huracán. For the Roadster, his team has focused as much on feedback as outright numbers, modifying the suspension, steering, braking and chassis to make the car more immediate from behind the wheel. The approach reflects Eccentrica’s broader obsession with what it calls analogue emotion: sounds, vibrations and mechanical inputs are treated less as imperfections to be filtered out than as part of the point. There are faster ways to travel in 2026, certainly, but few involve a metal gate between the gears.

the eEccentrica V12 Roadster reworks the Lamborghini Diablo into an open-top restomod | image © designboom

ONLY 19 ROADSTERS WILL BE BUILT

Inside, the Roadster combines Connolly leather, Alcantara, anodized materials and exposed carbon fiber, balancing its motorsport references with a more tailored finish. Each example will be configured individually with its owner, extending to colors, trims, materials and detailing throughout the cabin and exterior. Eccentrica plans to build only 19 V12 Roadsters, giving every car its own specification rather than treating customization as a particularly long options menu.

The result sits somewhere between preservation and provocation. The familiar wedge remains unmistakably Diablo, but the widened stance, open cockpit and reworked surfaces shift it away from straightforward restoration. More importantly, the Roadster doubles down on a kind of driving increasingly defined by what it leaves out: no turbocharging, no automatic transmission and, now, no roof. Following its digital reveal earlier this month, the V12 Roadster made its first physical public appearance at The Quail on August 14th.

more than 3,500 bespoke components reshape the original diablo platform