1. They created the modern supercar
Did Lamborghini invent the supercar? That’s
a debate that will run and run, because as long as there have been cars, there
have been faster ones. The Miura wasn’t the first mid-engined car, and
contemporary Ferraris were just as quick, but the key difference between the Miura
and other mid-engined cars of its era ford’s GT and the Ferrari 250lm is that
the Miura was not developed from a racing car, or with the intention of going
racing. It was a dedicated road car that employed competition-car engineering
principles, wrapped up in a package that included a welcome dollop of civility.
Rivals were forced to adopt the same philosophy and, since the Miura, every
supercar maker has pursued that goal.
The
Miura, which changed everything
2.
They’re the sharpest-dressed team in the
business
Most CEOs are clothed in grey suits as
forgettable as their last speech, except for fiat’s Sergio Marchionne, who
slobs around in jumpers Richard briers binned after filming on The good life
finished in 1978. and then there’s Lamborghini’s boss Stephan Winkelmann.
Dressed in his trademark skinny pinstripe suit, he looks like he’s walked
straight out of Milan fashion week.
Meet the ex-paratrooper and his team at a
test event and the entire crew will be wearing black combat trousers and tough
military-looking boots. even the girls manning the desk at Sant’ Agata look
like they’ve come straight from the set of a Pussycat Dolls video. They live
the dream!
3. They’ve maintained their own identity under Audi
When parent company Audi informed
Lamborghini that it wouldn’t be showing its new URUS SUV concept at Geneva 2012
because sister brand Bentley was revealing its own mud-plugger, you can imagine
how Stephan Winkelmann and his team might have wondered if they’d be better off
solo, like Aston Martin.
The
current state of the world’s economy means Lamborghini has had a tough couple
of years.
But without the might of the Volkswagen
empire, and its huge technology sharing possibilities, there would be no Urus.
There would be no current Gallardo, never mind a successor; no money to invest
in the carbon technology and brand new V12 engine that underpins the Aventador;
no money to keep the wolves from the door when the books show you haven’t
turned a profit since 2008.
The current state of the world’s economy
means Lamborghini has had a tough couple of years. but at no time in its
history has it enjoyed so much stability as it has since Audi stepped into the
hot seat. That was in 1998, and far from diluting Lamborghini’s spirit in the
intervening years, Audi has only nurtured it. The razor-sharp creases of its
carbon bodywork make the Aventador as instantly recognizable as a Lamborghini as
a Countach or Diablo was in its heyday, yet the cars are built with the sort of
attention to quality that owners could only dream about 20 years ago.
Yes, the 10-year-old Gallardo is long
overdue for replacement, and its ancient Audi parts-bin switchgear should be
bequeathed to the Smithsonian. But when the new one arrives, you can count on
it feeling harder, sharper and more uncompromising than its Audi r8 sister,
just as the current car does. The Urus too, will drive like no other SUV
despite its shared platform. The drawback? It won’t be here until 2016. Damn
those torpid wheels of big business.
4. They had a genius for a founder
‘He wasn’t a great driver,’ laughs test
driver Valentino Balboni, who started at the factory in 1968. ‘But he was
incredibly charismatic, and a great salesman. The greatest car in the world was
whichever car he was trying to sell you that day.’
He was also a talented engineer who built a
massively successful tractor business up from scratch, providing the means to
indulge in fast cars from Maserati and Ferrari, which he disliked enough to
create his own.
‘But
he was incredibly charismatic, and a great salesman. The greatest car in the
world was whichever car he was trying to sell you that day.’
Only a decade later, fed up with economic
difficulties and labor disputes, Lamborghini sold out. Most of the cars for
which the company is famous hail from a period after its founder had exited.
But his spirit looms large.
5. They’ve had more lives than a Buddhist cat
Ferruccio Lamborghini’s nine-year tenure of
his eponymously named car company sounds brief – until you look at the mess
that followed. First, Swiss businessman George Rossetti acquired 51% in 1972,
another Swiss, Rene Leimer, snapping up Ferruccio’s remaining 49% in 1974. That
was the year the Countach went on sale in the middle of a global economic
crisis.
By 1978 Lamborghini was bankrupt, before
coming under the control of more Swiss businessmen, Patrick and Jean-Claude
Mimran, who managed to achieve US certification for the Countach and re-launch
the V8 Silhouette as the new Jalpa. Selling to Chrysler in 1987, the Mimrans
made a killing and Lamborghini finally seemed to have found some stability,
plus the funding to push through the new Diablo. Which enjoyed a year of strong
sales before the world plunged into, yes, another economic crisis.
That
was the year the Countach went on sale – in the middle of a global economic
crisis.
In 1994 Chrysler dumped the company onto
Indonesian firm Mega Tech, who had links to supercar joke, Vector. Lambo knew
it needed more product to survive, including a baby supercar. Work began, but
would you believe it, financial crisis (in Asia) stopped play. Luckily someone
dialed 911 and asked for Audi.
6. They weren’t frightened to take on Ferrari
Ferruccio set out to build a better Ferrari and the two companies have been
sparring ever since, Enzo’s cars jabbing with their motorsport know-how, and
Ferruccio’s parrying with brute horsepower and old fashioned wow factor. Here
are five of their key battles.
Miura vs Daytona
Ferrari still thought an engine up front
was best for his V12 cars when upstart Lamborghini arrived with the Miura. Neck
and neck for pace, outlandish Miura gets design vote. Fireside verdict: Miura
Miura: 0-100kph: 6.0sec; Top speed:
275kph; Power: 261kW
Daytona: 0-100kph: 5.9sec; Top speed: 278kph; Power: 263kW
Jalpa vs 308 QV
Lamborghini’s forgotten baby sports car
made do with a cheesy cameo in Rocky IV while the beautiful 308 got a starring
role on prime-time TV in Magnum. Sums it all up. Fireside verdict: 308
Jalpa: 0-100kph: 6.2sec; Top speed:
232kph; Power: 190kW
308QV: 0-100kph: 6.7sec; Top speed: 251kph; Power: 179kW
Countach QV vs Testarossa
Countach was a decade old when Ferrari
replaced its 512BB with the Testarossa. Lambo’s answer? Four-valve heads for
its V12 and a new Ferrari trailing in its wake. Fireside verdict: Countach
Countach QV: 0-100kph: 4.8sec; Top
speed: 298kph; Power: 339kW
Testarossa: 0-100kph: 5.2sec; Top speed: 275kph; Power: 291kW
Gallardo vs 360M
Lamborghini’s new baby out powered the 360,
but steering was deader than a corpse’s handshake. Close fight, but Ferrari has
moved on two generations since. Fireside verdict: 360M
Gallardo: 0-100kph: 4.1sec; Top
speed: 309kph; Power: 373kW
360M:
0-100kph: 4.3sec; Top speed: 295kph; Power: 298kW
Aventador vs F12
Two supercar style or genuine usability?
Four-wheel-drive or sideways at every corner? How do choose between them? If
you’ve got R3.39m to spend, you probably don’t. Fireside verdict: jury’s
still out
Aventador: 0-100kph: 2.9sec; Top
speed: 350kph; Power: 522kW
F12: 0-100kph:
3.1sec; Top speed: 340kph; Power: 544kW
7. They gave us scissor doors
Scissor Doors have become a Lamborghini
trademark, letting even the most car-illiterate tell your supercar from the
rest of the pack. Now every top-tier supercar has fancy doors of some kind, not
only for the car park theatrics, but because these cars are so wide you’d
struggle to open conventional doors in a regular parking space.
Gandini’s 1971 Countach show car wasn’t the
first to sport them, though. Three years earlier, The Young Bertone designer
had employed the same trick on The Carabo Concept, which, incidentally happened
to be based on the Alfa 33 Stradale, a car with McLaren F1-style butterfly
doors. And if any Gallardo owners are feeling left out, Lambodoorkits.co.uk
will sell you a scissor-door package for around $5494.5.
And
if any Gallardo owners are feeling left out, Lambodoorkits.co.uk will sell you
a scissor-door package for around $5,495
8. We grew up with them on our bedroom walls
Okay, so if push came to shove and our
12-year-old selves could have picked anything from Cardies that day, we would
have gone for a 900mm x 600mm print of Tennis girl, no doubt about it. but for
a time, no boy’s bedroom wall was complete without a poster of a Countach,
preferably shot on what looked like the set of a Duran Duran video. scientists
estimate that at least 5 trillion homework hours were wasted mulling over the
merits of that optional rear wing…
