Lamborghini Model by Model E-Book

Peter Collins

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A beautifully illustrated guide that takes the reader through each Lamborghini production model and some of the most significant concept cars. It presents a thorough base for anyone who wishes to understand more about the history and depth of the company, and how the model line developed and evolved. There are specification sheets for each model and the history and development of the company is covered, from Ferruccio Lamborghini's origins in manufacturing tractors, to producing some of the best known and technologically innovative supercars today. Beautifully illustrated with 200 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

LAMBORGHINI

Model by Model

PETER COLLINS

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© Peter Collins 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 938 4

CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: In the Beginning

CHAPTER 1     THE FERRUCCIO YEARS

CHAPTER 2     UPHOLDING THE LEGEND

CHAPTER 3     AUDI TAKES OVER

Index

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IT IS A sobering thought that Lamborghinis have only been in production for fifty years and yet, in that relatively short time, the name has become a byword for the epitome of performance supercars. This stems without doubt from the fact that today they produce a large percentage of the most startling examples of this genre.

But you only have to trawl through a dictionary of cars on the internet to find out that the autostrada to greatness is littered with the abandoned relics of so many started but never finished, automotive projects and anyone at the time would have been forgiven if they had filed Ferruccio Lamborghini along with the likes of Bizzarrini and ASA, for instance. Both of the latter produced great cars, but both were just others in the long list of manufacturers without staying power. The determination of Ferruccio coupled to the young, fertile minds of his team made for a combination that could perhaps only have succeeded in the way they did in the 1960s.

As I worked through this book, I had to keep reminding myself of things like just what else was there out there when the Miura and Espada appeared? They made the Jaguar E-Type seem antediluvian, not to mention local competitor Ferrari, as Sig. Agnelli is reported as noting at Monaco.

The life of the bull of Sant’Agata, and this is simply a model by model overview of the story so far, consists of three periods involving a central ‘interregnum’ era bookended by that of the eponymous factory’s boss and VW/Audi. It is clear that Ferruccio had a strong sense of direction and of what he wanted to achieve; the question is whether he accomplished his ambitions. For a personal answer, I would say a qualified ‘yes’ as the Islero was, as near as dammit, the car he had always envisaged and maybe, by the time of the Urraco, which was introduced for the practical reason of generating cash flow, he had fallen out of love with the project anyway.

We are lucky that the various owners subsequently kept things going through difficult times both internally and externally, for now we can see a company moving from strength to strength.

To strengthen my task in completing this book I must thank Cristina Guizzardi at Sant’Agata for her encouragement. In no particular order, Ted Walker – the Ferret – was very helpful with photographs, as was Keith Bluemel. Rebecca Ruff of Artcurial Auctions vitally provided many pictures, without which I would have been in trouble, as did Amy Christie at RM Auctions.

Great experiences with Auto Italia magazine and colleagues Phil and Michael Ward, as well as Roberto Giordanelli, being able not only to write about and photograph these exciting cars, but also to drive them, have provided solid background to many of the models’ stories.

My heartfelt thanks to all.

This is not a story with an end. It will be fascinating to watch what happens at Sant’Agata during the coming decades.

INTRODUCTION: IN THE BEGINNING

IT WILL NEVER be properly established whether tractor magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to build his own cars as the direct result of having been treated as badly as were many other of Enzo Ferrari’s clients in the1950s and 1960s. The legend has it that he got home from an entirely unsatisfactory visit to Maranello with his underperforming car and resolved to beat the Prancing Horse at its own game. However, Ubaldo Sgarzi, in an article in Classic & Sports Car magazine, stated that the problems with Lamborghini’s Ferrari 250 GTE consisted only of bad plugs and under-carburation. Sgarzi knows this, he said, because he was asked to try the car one evening after having been introduced to Ferruccio in a bar in Bologna and thereafter started a relationship that resulted in his employment at the Sant’Agata factory for nearly thirty years.

The eponymous Lamborghini script sits proudly on top of the factory.PETER COLLINS

Ferruccio Lamborghini succeeded through a combination of sheer hard work, engineering talent and astute business awareness.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact was that Lamborghini, born on 28 April 1916 and, by the mid-1950s, very successful through sheer hard work, had decided that he could add construction of the best GT car in the world to his CV, if he chose the right people. Birth at the end of April meant that he was a Taurean and this star sign denoted those who were determined to succeed through hard work, tenacity and initiative.

Right from the off, he demonstrated all those features and, living on a farm and of peasant stock, the concept of ‘making do’ was not alien to him. It is said that, as a youngster, he even set up his own, very basic, forge and machine shop, such was his love of things mechanical. His parents encouraged him in this, sending him to technical school in Bologna. During World War II, whilst in Rhodes, he was attached to the Regia Aeronautica and became highly adept at maintaining their well-worn military vehicles, proving able to keep even the most decrepit examples running.

Back home after the cessation of hostilities, his skills and inventiveness were exactly what was needed in an agricultural community and, with little chance of obtaining new equipment in the war-torn country, he simply built his family a tractor out of what he could find and glean. Whilst allegedly on his honeymoon, he came across the British Forces disposing of armoured vehicles. Acquiring some, he removed their casings and, with some work, converted them to tractors, which he then sold. His business germinated successfully to the point where he was able to build a purpose-designed factory in 1949 in the town of Cento. By 1954, he was building tractors with varying sizes of diesel engine of his own design, fast becoming Italy’s largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment.

In 1960, inspired by a trip to the USA, he started a business manufacturing and selling home and commercial heating and cooling equipment. His emphasis was on after-sales service and this alone ensured success, but he possessed a desire to do something with cars. His natural flair for mechanical things led him to strip a Fiat 500 Topolino down to essentials and convert it to overhead valves. With this, he entered the 1948 Mille Miglia. He ended his run not that far from where he lived when he finished up in an inn, which, he later said, he entered through one of the walls. He never competed again, but the itch to have his name on a car of his own build remained and when Ubaldo Sgarzi tried his Ferrari in Bologna in 1962, this moment was almost the catalyst for the start of the project that has become the car manufacturer that Lamborghini is today.

The late Bob Wallace, the fledgling company’s first test driver/engineer, always denied the story concerning the desire to beat Ferrari at his own game, stating that Ferruccio actually wanted to beat everyone – that and the fact he could see a way of making money from it. Wallace was from New Zealand and had spent time as a mechanic with Ferrari, Maserati and Serenissima. In late 1963, he was given the chance to join the developing Lamborghini set-up and did so, figuring he might have a lot both to learn and to contribute. As it turned out, he contributed something to every car that rolled off the Sant’Agata production line for many years.

Sant’Agata was the village, north-west of Bologna, on the outskirts of which Ferruccio had purchased land and established his state-of-the-art car factory. The atmosphere of creative energy attracted gifted young engineers such as Gian Paolo Dallara, who at twenty-four years old had moved straight from Milan Technical Institute to being assistant to the legendary Carlo Chiti at Ferrari, before moving to Maserati and then Lamborghini in March 1962. He brought with him Paolo Stanzani, who eventually became factory manager and chief engineer.

Perhaps the most experienced member of the initial team, though, was the redoubtable Giotto Bizzarrini, who had been one of those who left Ferrari in the winter of 1962, but not before he had designed the immortal 250 GTO. His creation of a 4-camshaft V12 for the first Lamborghini, the GTV, was heavily influenced by his racing background and there is no doubt that he, Dallara, Wallace and all wanted to go racing, but Ferruccio said ‘no’. It was the correct decision at the time, as such a distraction would have meant a less than 100 per cent effort put into the road cars and all agreed, even though Wallace tinkered on the sidelines with a few personal projects.

Legend has it that Ferruccio built his parents a tractor out of parts he found around their farm. This is the engine of a much later production Lamborghini tractor.EUROPEAN CLASSIC CARS

So, by 1963, the key elements were in place to launch Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini to the world at large. When interviewed for Road & Track magazine at the Turin Show that year on the launch of the 350 GTV, the tractor magnate said:

In the past I have bought some of the most famous Gran Turismo cars and in each of these magnificent machines I have found some faults. Too hot. Or uncomfortable. Or not sufficiently fast. Or not perfectly finished. Now I want to make a perfect GT car without faults. Not a technical bomb. Very normal. Very conventional. But a perfect car.

What happened next is described in the following pages.

An example of an affordable Lamborghini tractor. The company pioneered 2- and 4-cylinder air-cooled engines.EUROPEAN CLASSIC CARS

THE FERRUCCIO YEARS

An Auto Italia test sees the ex-Twiggy Miura leading two others at the test track.AUTO ITALIA ARCHIVE

350 GTV

AMONGST THE BACK pages of the 26 July 1963 issue of Autocar magazine is a one-page article. Alongside a photograph of a bare rolling chassis with engine fitted is the headline ‘Italian 3500cc GT from a New Constructor’. Thus the Lamborghini 350 GTV was introduced to many British readers over their morning cornflakes. Bare details, such as the engine will have twin overhead camshafts with a bore and stroke of 77 × 62mm and that the chassis weighs only 188lb (no metric then), were included, along with the information that a factory had been built to produce the new car.

It all seemed so simple, but, of course, there was a lot more to it than that.

It has passed into legend – or myth –that Ferruccio Lamborghini wanted to build what we would nowadays call a supercar and that he insisted it would be the best in the world and usable by anyone. His enthusiasm was rather like a virus and affected everyone he involved in the project. In the end, the final product – the GTV – was actually not what he had envisaged at all and he was quite disappointed.