2015 Lamborghini Deimos Spy Photos

What It Is: The successor to the Lamborghini Gallardo, which has been on sale for a decade now. While speculation is rife that the Gallardo’s heir will be named after the prison island Cabrera, we previously discovered a Lamborghini trademark application for “Deimos”—the god of terror and dread, if Greek mythology is to be believed—and the Italian marque very rarely trademarks a badge it doesn’t intend to use.

The prototype caught by our spy photographers wears heavy cladding, but it can’t hide its dramatic, wedge-shaped proportions. The car was penned by Lamborghini's own styling department under Filippo Perini and is a fine spiritual successor to the Gallardo, which was designed by Italdesign Giugiaro with significant input by then-Lambo chief designer Luc Donckerwolke. LED headlights and taillights provide futuristic accents and similar depth and signatures to those elements found on the Aventador. As the Deimos’s big brother can attest, such wedge-like, angular proportions translate nicely to a topless variant, something we fully expect in the years after the car’s launch.

Why It Matters: The Deimos, as is the case with the Gallardo, will be Lamborghini's volume model. (At least until the Urus SUV comes to market. It was confirmed earlier this year by Rupert Stadler, CEO of Lamborghini’s corporate parent Audi, although the Sant’Agata-based automaker has yet to make a formal announcement itself.) The Deimos will outsell the Aventador by quite a wide margin, and will continue to serve as a gateway to the world of this extravagant brand. The supercar also must prove that Lamborghini is a true technology leader, both to win over new customers and to maintain its standing within the Volkswagen Group.

Platform: Underpinning the Deimos will be a mid-engine platform that will be shared with the second-generation Audi R8. The frame will be made from aluminum, but Lamborghini will use a significant amount of carbon-fiber componentry in an effort to keep weight down.

Powertrains: Motivation will be provided by an evolution of the Gallardo's naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10, which will continue to be shared with the R8. In standard guise, this engine is expected to make close to 600 horsepower. Power will be routed exclusively to all four wheels, but, as it did in launching the Gallardo Balboni, Lamborghini is considering rear-drive variants for sometime in the future. The automated manual transmission of the current Gallardo will be killed off to make way for a far smoother seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. A manual transmission version is not confirmed, nor is it likely to come to fruition, but it is technically possible.

Competition: Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Audi R8 V-10, Ferrari 458 Italia, McLaren MP-4-12C, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Estimated Arrival and Price: The Lamborghini Deimos will make its auto-show debut in Geneva this coming March before terrorizing showroom floors later in 2014 as a 2015 model. The starting price likely won’t move much from the Gallardo’s entry point of roughly $200K.