Lamborghini

Italy, 1963 to date

Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini SpA, S. Agata Bolognese

In 1946 Ferruccio Lamborghini was an amateur tuning Fiat 500s, but by 1949 he had started a tractor-building venture. His first Lamborghini cars were built up from Allied war surplus, but by 1966 the Lamborghini car company had boomed into a big factory turning out twenty Lamborghini cars a day, with a profitable side-line in oil burners. The Lamborghini car appeared in 1963 as a hobby for its sponsor and was a 3½-litre 4-ohc V12 with six Weber carburettors, developing 360bhp. The specification of the Lamborghini car included a 5-speed ZF gearbox, self-locking differential, multi-tubular frame, all-round independent suspension by coils and wishbones and servo-assisted Girling disc brakes. Lamborghini’s own GT coupé bodies had huge single windscreen wipers and retractable headlamps. Gian Paolo Dallara was responsible for design. Some 200 Lamborghini cars were delivered in 1965, by which time the new make was providing Ferrari with serious competition, though Lamborghini did not race his Lamborghini cars.

For 1966 Lamborghini GT models had 4-litre engines and henceforward the Lamborghini car company made their own gearboxes and final drive units. Even more exciting was the Lamborghini P400 Miura, introduced at Turin in November 1965, with this 4-litre unit mounted transversely at the rear, spur gear final drive and a top speed of 180mph. This Lamborghini car was in production by the end of 1966. In 1967 there as a bizarre prototype on Lamborghini Miura lines, the Lamborghini Marzal with 175bhp 2-litre 6-cylinder engine, and 6-headlamp layout. This Lamborghini car did not go into production, and a year later came a revised conventional V12, the front-engined Espada. A 2+2 edition, the Lamborghini Jarama, followed in 1970. New in 1971 was a small V8, the 2½-litre 220bhp Lamborghini Urraco, a development of the Lamborghini Miura with McPhearson strut suspension replacing the coils and wishbones. This, the Lamborghini Espada and the Lamborghini Jarama were offerd in 1973 by Lamborghini cars, when the Lamborghini Miura gave way to a new coupé, the Lamborghini Countach, powered by a 5-litre 440bhp version of the V12 unit mounted longitudinally at the rear, behind its gearbox. With a claimed maximum speed of over 200mph, the Lamborghini Countach cost £15.200 on the British market. Lamborghini cars wear the emblem of a bull, and have the unusual feature of synchromesh on reverse gear.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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