Valentino Balboni earned his status in life for being Lamborghini’s go-to test driver for the better part of 40 years. The legendary test driver has since retired from his day job, but it’s evident that his love for all things raging bull has yet to subside. That was made clear time and again, and it’s being reinforced today with the launch of his new tuning company, which will simply be called “VB.”

Like some of the world’s most famous aftermarket firms, VB will cater exclusively to tuning parts for Lamborghini, and while details are still unclear on what kind of projects VB will undertake in the future, it is kicking off its birth with its first creation: a super exclusive, ultra lightweight titanium exhaust that was created specifically for the Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce.

If a picture paints a thousand words, the image of the new exhausts flanking Valentino Balboni looks downright amazing. Each exhaust is hand-made, weighs just 13.8 pounds, and promises “a new dimension in sound.” It’s also made from Grade 2 titanium and the whole process of creating the whole thing takes up to 350 hours, underscoring the kind of attention-to-detail that Balboni was famous for in his time as Lamborghini’s test driver.

The only downside to the product is that VB will only make 30 units of the exhaust with all units available only to the 600-unit Aventador SuperVeloce, a car that not surprisingly sold out a long time ago. Details on the price are still unknown at this point, but expect more information about the new company to come out when VB officially launches the ultra-light titanium exhaust at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 20, 2016.

In the meantime, we can start imagining the possibilities of what VB is capable of when it begins doing complete tuning programs for Lamborghini supercars. Considering the wealth of knowledge Valentino Balboni has of the things that go on in Sant’Agata Bolognese, VB could turn into the preeminent tuner of all things Lamborghini.

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Why it matters

I don’t know too many men who are as important to the modern-day history of Lamborghini as Valentino Balboni. The man is an icon of his time and he fully deserves whatever success he gets out of this new tuning company that he is creating. Like everybody else, I am interested to know what Balboni’s plans are for VB once it gets off the ground. The new lightweight titanium exhaust is a great first product to have, but it is really limited so is VB going to continue down this road and create other limited edition products or are we going to see the company venture into becoming a full-blown, Lamborghini-dedicated aftermarket company?

Knowing how Balboni largely owes his career to Lamborghini, I wouldn’t be surprised if VB ends up partnering with the Italian automaker to create some unique programs for both the Huracán and Aventador. Maybe we can even expect one-off creations or partnerships between Lamborghini’s Ad Personam individualization program and VB down the road. That’s an exciting proposition.

That said, there is one thing about the new tuning company that will likely shape its identity once it’s fully operational. Nobody knows how the titanium exhausts will cost, but I imagine them being on the expensive side given their rarity and exclusivity to the Aventador SuperVeloce. Is this going to be the trend moving forward, or is VB going to adopt cheaper methods by which it builds its programs?

There are so many questions here because we haven’t been given enough answers at this point. But the new company promises that those answers will come soon enough so at this point, the best course of action is to wait and see what the new tuning firm plans to do next.

Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce

Read our full review on the Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce here.