Wallflowers need not apply
The legend behind how and why Ferruccio Lamborghini became a motor mogul is precisely that: a giddying blend of scene-setting folklore and fantasized rubbish.
As we all know by rote, the self-made tractor magnate was unimpressed by his Ferrari’s reliability and chose to tell Enzo Ferrari what he thought of his products – to his face.
However, he was left kicking his heels waiting for an audience with Il Commendatore.
This served to enrage him further so he chose to build something better.
The truth of the matter is perhaps less fanciful: there was greater prestige in having your name associated with an exotic road car than a mud-plugging farm implement.
Even so, while the marque he went on to create in his own image raised the bar by several notches for its products’ outlandishness, there were plenty of designers and coachbuilders out there willing to push those boundaries even further.
Here are 10 of our favorites.
1. Lamborghini Miura P400 Roadster
This one-off confection enjoyed a long life in the spotlight, but it did have two incarnations as a show car.
The car was first unveiled on the Bertone stand at the 1968 Brussels Salon, where it attracted plenty of interest.
Aside from the roof surgery, the Roadster had large side-mounted intakes, while the V12 powerhouse was now visible beneath a transparent engine cover.
However, there was no intention on Lamborghini’s part of the car being put into production.
The Miura Roadster was subsequently acquired by the American International Lead and Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO), which reworked the car into the catchily named Zn75, borrowed from the periodic table.
The brightwork was replaced, where possible, with zinc-plated parts, with the original pale-blue hue making way for a sludgy dark green.
The Miura was then purchased by the firm’s MD, who in time loaned it to a car museum in Boston.
More recently it was restored to its original Brussels motor show configuration.
Anorak fact A Miura S was converted into open form many years later, but not by Bertone. The SVJ Spider was displayed at the 1981 Geneva motor show
2. Bertone Genesis
The precise back story behind the creation of the Genesis is mired in conjecture.
What is beyond question is that it was conceived internally within Bertone, despite often being referred to as the Lamborghini Genesis.
Stile Bertone had enjoyed a long and symbiotic relationship with the marque stretching back to the mid-1960s.
Nevertheless, that relationship had cooled appreciably during the 1980s, primarily because Lamborghini tended to be strapped for cash, or worse.
Then into the breach stepped the Chrysler Corporation. In 1987, the smallest of Detroit’s Big Three purchased Automobili Lamborghini.
This was during a period when it was on an image-building crusade, having only narrowly staved off ruination less than a decade earlier.
The first fruit of this Italo-American relationship was the Portofino concept sedan, which appeared at the Frankfurt motor show later that same year.
It followed through with this 1988 Turin motor show standout: a minivan equipped with a chain-driven, quad-cam V12 mounted up front.
Anorak fact The Genesis was shaped by Marc Deschamps, whose CV also included the Lamborghini Athon and the Citroën XM
3. Touring Flying Star II
Carrozzeria Touring’s appearance at the November 1966 Turin motor show brought with it the unveiling of the Flying Star II, but only three months later, the doors were shuttered on this historic coachbuilder and styling house.
In its final appearance at an exhibition, the Milanese concern displayed this one-off Lamborghini alongside a Fiat 124 sedan that had been turned into a two-door convertible.
The two cars could not have appeared more disparate.
There was no pretence of this being anything other than a strict two-seater, even if the shooting-brake-style outline suggested otherwise.
However, there was a decent amount of space for luggage, with access made that much easier thanks to the rear hatch that mostly comprised the back window.
Touring, which had partnered with the youthful Lamborghini concern from the outset, had hoped the Flying Star II might be adopted as a production model, but it wasn’t to be.
Anorak fact The sole prototype was later owned by Jacques Quoirez, brother of the much-garlanded novelist Françoise Sagan
4. Lamborghini 3500 GT Zagato
The first of two 3500 GTZs made a low-key debut at the 1965 British International Motor Show at Earls Court, where it was sandwiched between an Alfa Romeo Gran Sport Quattroruote and a Lancia Flaminia 3C 2800 Super Sport Zagato on the British Zagato Ltd stand.
Styled by Ercole Spada and 100mm shorter overall than the 350GT that sired it, the 3500 GTZ was purportedly built at Lamborghini’s behest.
However, the project was canceled almost immediately – but then Lamborghini was embroiled in realizing the mold-breaking Miura, so it was perhaps a distraction.
The London show car was subsequently acquired by Lamborghini’s Milan agent and sometime race-car driver Gerino Gerini.
The real mystery surrounds its sister car, no photographs of which were ever published in period.
What is known is that it was painted silver and used by Lamborghini engineer Paolo Stanzani as a daily driver, until a crash ended play when the car was barely eight months old.
Anorak fact Legend has it that the sister car was repaired and sold to the USA; other sources insist it was broken up at the factory in period
5. Lamborghini Athon
Stile Bertone’s wild-looking Athon emerged at the 1980 Turin motor show and instantly divided opinion.
Autocar, for example, reported: ‘Some people think it looks like an armored car or a mobile rocket launcher; other people think it looks beautiful.’
Road & Track, meanwhile, said: ‘Some thought the new Bertone Athon was the biggest doorstop they’d ever seen, and others described it as an assault amphibian.
‘But more felt that somewhere in those extravagantly molded lines was a car of poise if not necessarily beauty.’
This wedge-shaped projectile was based on a Urraco platform, complete with a mid-mounted 3-liter V8.
A sense of sci-fi whimsy pervaded thanks to the exposed, asymmetrical rear decklid details and the LCD dashboard.
The Athon was a fully functional prototype, even if this car of the future lacked anything by way of weather gear.
Anorak fact Lamborghini was in the hands of the receiver at the time, although it would soon be saved by the Mimran brothers
6. Lamborghini 350GTV
The 350GTV represented year zero for a rivalry with Ferrari that still exists.
Ferruccio Lamborghini unleashed this, the first car to bear his name, at the Turin motor show in November 1963.
Shaped by former Bertone alumnus Franco Scaglione, the 350 Gran Turismo Veloce appeared every inch the svelte grand tourer.
What’s more, its quad-cam V12 was designed by self-willed Ferrari exile Giotto Bizzarrini, and it was fitted in a chassis built by Neri & Bonacini (which was later reworked by the brilliant Giampaolo Dallara).
However, despite its dry sump, this all-alloy unit – replete with six Weber carbs – was too tall to fit under the hood of the GTV.
Unbeknown to onlookers at the show, the prototype was ‘powered’ by a stack of floor tiles in a bid to lend it a correct-looking ride height.
Anorak fact The car was made functional several decades later, the color changing from its original pale blue to metallic green
7. Lamborghini Marzal
Princess Grace famously sat in the passenger seat of the Marzal for a lap prior to the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix.
It was also immortalized in rainbow hues by Matchbox, and in 2011 the full-size version sold for $1.52m. It remains a legend among concept cars.
This Bertone masterpiece foretold the Espada via Marcello Gandini’s near-concurrent, Jaguar XK-E/E-type-based Pirana show car.
The Marzal was also a four-seater, one that featured an expansive glasshouse with much of the glazing being found in its gullwing doors.
LJK Setright declared in CAR: ‘It is perhaps the most extravagant piece of virtuoso styling to have come out of Europe since the war.’
Power came from a 2-liter ‘six’, which was in effect half of a Lamborghini V12.
Ironically for such a well-publicized concept car, the Marzal was rarely seen in public in period: following its Monaco GP outing, it wouldn’t be exhibited outside the Bertone factory museum until 1996, when it was displayed at Concorso Italiano in California, USA.
Anorak fact The Marzal acted as the course car during the 2018 Grand Prix de Monaco Historique race meeting
8. Lamborghini Cheetah
The LM002 off-roader was rooted in assorted prototypes that were created with military use in mind.
This civilian plaything was born of the American armed forces’ desire to replace the M151-series Jeep.
Rivals vied for the lucrative contract to manufacture a new High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), and the prototype was built by Lamborghini in conjunction with Californian off-road specialist Mobility Technology International, with the end product displayed at the 1977 Geneva Salon.
Powered by a rear-sited Chrysler V8 and devoid of doors, the Cheetah resembled an outsized beach buggy.
According to a period report in Overlander, it outclassed all-comers when tested by the US Army; another title suggested it turned turtle during the process, without provocation.
Anorak fact Ford said the Cheetah plagiarized its XR311 concept, an off-road military vehicle that had been in development since 1970
9. Lamborghini Estoque
If the 2008 Paris motor show is recalled at all, it is for Lotus’ launch of five cars (none of which came to fruition).
That, and the arrival of the Estoque, the first front-engined Lamborghini since the LM002.
This striking supersedan was purportedly equipped with a 5.2-liter V10 from the Gallardo, but speculation was rife that a productionized Estoque could use a V12.
Some sources also suggested it might be a V8, or a hybrid, or perhaps even a turbodiesel.
Many a yarn was spun by insiders, but the reality was that the Estoque was a concept car and nothing more.
Despite all the positive ink in the specialist press, suggestions that a variation on the theme might be made in series were officially nixed in 2009.
Anorak fact Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told Autocar in 2011 that the Estoque still had merit, but an SUV was: “A no-go. It doesn’t exist in our price segment, and it’s not a real luxury car.” The Urus arrived in 2018
10. Italdesign Calà
This striking junior supercar made it closer than most to production.
Lamborghini was bumping along the bottom by the time it was acquired by Indonesian firm Megatech (née V’Power Corp) in 1994.
Its new keeper planned three models: a much-needed Diablo replacement, an SUV (the Zagato-designed LM003) and an entry-level model, codenamed L147.
The latter was the only one seen publicly, displayed as the Calà at the 1995 Geneva Salon.
This carbonfiber-bodied, V10-engined concept was a runner, too, although the production version could conceivably have used a supercharged and intercooled variant of the existing Lotus V8.
Negotiations were well under way between various parties in Sant’Agata and Hethel, but they came to nothing when a key stakeholder failed to provide promised funding.
Anorak fact Megatech also owned US supercar ‘manufacturer’ Vector, which was the US Marcos concessionaire (it imported two cars)
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