More ground breaking was the 1966 release
of the Miura, which used a transversely mounted V12 behind the occupants.
With a Bertone designed two seat bodyshell (actually by Gandini and Giugiaro
whilst working there), the Miura proved a great success and continued until
1973 when it was replaced by the equally famous Countach. In the meantime,
the Islero had replaced the 400GT in 1968 as the companies 2+2 coupe, whilst
in the same year the Espada had introduced genuine four-seater capacity
to the marque. 1970 saw the Islero replaced by the similar Jarama whilst
two years later the V8 Urraco entered another market segment, that of the
'small' supercar.
Also in 1972 Lamborghini sold 51% of his
company to a Swiss businessman, with the remaining 49% going to another
Swiss in In 1987 Chrysler purchased Lamborghini
and development began of a new Countach replacement, as well as a Formula
One engine. The latter debuted in 1989 and continued for some years without
success, whilst the former, named Diablo, emerged in 1990 and continued
in production for many years. Continuing the mid-mounted V12 theme it is also
available with four wheel drive and a roadster has also been built. In
1998 Lamborghini was sold to the VW Group, where it comes under the control
of Audi. This site fails to cover German cars, so it falls outside our remit.
Ferruccio
Lamborghini was already a successful businessman when, in 1963, he decided
to found a car company, named after himself. He chose Sant'Agata Bolognese
as the location and recruited a variety of famous and capable engineers
to design his cars, including Bizzarrini, Dallara and Stanzani. The first
car, the 350GT, entered production in 1964 and combined a Bizzarrini developed
quad-cam V12 with a Dallara developed chassis. As might be guessed, this
combination proved 
very
effective, and it remained in production until 1968 (albeit in revised
400GT form from 1966).
1974.
The latter year saw the Countach revealed in production form complete with
4-litre mid-mounted V12 and brutal, angular styling. Production continued
until 1988 by which time the engine had been increased to 5-litres. The
companies problems did not go away, however, and in 1978 they went into
receivership. Three years later the Mimram brothers took control and began
to revitalise the marque. First came the Jalpa, a restyled and heavily
modified Urraco, then more potent Countachs and then, in 1982, the LM002.
The latter was a Countach engined four wheel drive off-road jeep-like vehicle,
quite a break with tradition !
There is a page on each of the models as
follows :
Lamborghini Books : buy them online here (in
association with Amazon)
 Lamborghini
: The Spirit of the Bull |
Paul W. Cockerham, 1998 |
| Lamborghini Miura | P.Coltrin & J-F.Marchet, 1999 |
 Lamborghini
(The Legend Series) |
David Hodges, 1998 |
 Lamborghini
Road Test Book : Countach & Jalpa 1980-85
Includes road tests, data, new model reports etc. Covers the Countach, S, LP500, 500S, 5000S, Jalpa, 350. |
edited by R.M.Clarke, 1985 |
 Lamborghini
Countach : The Complete Story |
Peter Dron, 1995 |
Links
A general Lamborghini website
The Lamborghini Registry website.
Lamborghini comment form
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