Lamborghini Model by Model

Peter Collins

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781847979384
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Trasporti e ingegneria automobilistica

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.

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.

As there was nowhere to build it, space was allocated in a corner of Ferruccio’s tractor factory for its construction. Ferruccio had taken on Ingegnere Giotto Bizzarrini to design the mechanicals and Franco Scaglione to design the bodywork. The chassis was to be built by the Modenese firm Neri & Bonacini. Ferruccio wanted plenty of power and it was settled that the motor would be of 3.5 litres and a short-stroke V12, but, with the designer being Bizzarrini, who had been part of Ferrari’s competition department and who was responsible for that company’s 250 GTO, what actually resulted carried more similarities to a race unit than one for touring, which was what Ferruccio really wanted.

The end result, as seen at the initial Press debut of the car on 26 October 1963, a week before its public announcement at the Turin Show, was such that, by this time, Ferruccio had already decided that the GTV was essentially not the way he wanted things to go and had already commissioned others to move his project forward.

Problems ranged from the fact that the chosen body designer, Scaglione, had rather fallen out of fashion; this can be seen in the basic shape of the car, which looks remarkably like the 1954 Alfa Romeo Sportiva, a lovely motor car but one that was then almost ten years old – an eternity in the automotive world. The body was constructed by Carrozzeria Sargiotto in their apparently tiny premises in Turin and the practical and pragmatic Ferruccio quickly realized that both it and the engine were not really what he wanted, despite the fact that it was, undeniably, spectacular and brought the name Lamborghini to the attention of the world.

A period picture of the 350 GTV showing the six exhaust outlets of the original car.
FERRET FOTOGRAPHICS

For many years the GTV was stored in non-working order in the factory. This picture of it was taken circa 1974.
FERRET FOTOGRAPHICS

Fully restored to working order over twenty years ago, this is the front of the GTV today.
KEITH BLUEMEL

Rob de la Rive Box, in his book History of Lamborghini, suggests that the car was designed around the engine, but, as is well known today, in fact the GTV had no engine under its bonnet at its debut, because, it was later suggested, it would not shut with the stack of vertical Weber carburettors on top of the engine block. It was also said that there might be a 2.2-litre 6-cylinder unit under development in addition to the V12, but any further allusions to that were to wait another three years. Road & Track magazine reported that there would be a competition version of the engine, but Ferruccio himself specifically ruled out racing as any part of Lamborghini’s forward planning and so it remained until recently.

Another member of the Ferrari competition set-up at Maranello was Ing. Gian Paolo Dallara, who was well known to Bizzarrini; the latter recommended him to Ferruccio as a possible candidate to take the new road-car project forward. Dallara was a cousin of Ing. Alfieri and had worked at Maserati, as well as alongside Carlo Chiti at Ferrari. At only twenty-four years old, he seemed a perfect fit for the job and was hired by Ferruccio, thus effectively ousting Bizzarrini. The result was that Dallara oversaw the toning-down of the GTV into a more reasonable product without, in any way, diminishing its dynamics. It was telling that Road & Track published a photo of a chassis on the Turin Show stand and described it as the ‘Touring’ version of the new car.

Autocar referred to the GTV as ‘fierce but not beautiful’ and alleged that it was designed by Giorgio Prevedi, under the supervision of Scaglione. We will probably never know the complete facts, but one thing was certain, Lamborghini was already hard at work ensuring the company’s future and the car with which it would succeed. Finally, many years later, Lamborghini agreed to selling the GTV to Bologna Lamborghini dealer Romano Bernardoni and his cousin Stefano Pasini. The long-neglected prototype at last had an engine – with the vertical carburettors – installed and on 26 January 1990 moved under its own power for the first time.

GTV

Engine	V12
Valve gear	Four overhead camshafts, two per cylinder bank
Bore and stroke	77 × 62mm
Capacity	3497cc
Power	350bhp approximately
Transmission	ZF five-speed gearbox; rear-wheel drive
Chassis/body	Tubular spaceframe with alloy body built by Carrozzeria Sargiotto
Suspension	Independent all-round wishbones and coil spr...