Lamborghini 1964-2004

Ł49.95

A hardcover collector's item, it combines all three softcover Lamborghini title with articles drawn from leading motoring journals. Part 1 - 1964-1976 What to do if you’re an Italian manufacturing millionaire born under the sign of Taurus and harbouring a desire to beat Enzo Ferrari at his own game? Simple: establish a company for building low-volume, high-performance exotic cars and give the Taurean bull as its logo. Oh, and call it after yourself, of course. So Ferruccio Lamborghini did exactly that, diverting some of the profits from his booming tractor and heating-air conditioning business to building a new car factory at Sant' Agata Bolognese. The factory wasn't quite finished by the time the first car was ready for production, so that was built in the tractor plant with an imported gearbox. But by 1964 - a year after the first Lamborghini was displayed at the Turin Motor Show - Lamborghini was able to build every last part of his new car at Sant' Agata. The 350 GT was quite a remarkable machine, featuring bodywork styled by Touring and an astonishing quad-cam 3.5-litre V12 engine designed by Gianpaolo Dallara, plus all-independent suspension. It remained in production for three years, but was quickly joined by other models; it's the way of supercar manufacturers to offer their wealthy customers a tempting little something extra every year, and Lamborghini did exactly that in the 1960s. All the cars of the 1960s featured versions of that magnificent V12, which was enlarged to four litres from 1966. The 400 GT was really a grown-up 350 GT with two extra seats, but the Miura (announced in 1965) fitted the V12 transversely across the chassis just behind the driver. It was an astounding machine, capable initially of 170 mph or so and, in further-developed Miura S (1969) and SV (1971) forms, of 180 mph. No surprise, then, that the Miura was the supercar of its day for many people. The 400 GT gave way to the Islero in 1968 and the more powerful Islero S, both resembling the car which sired them but restyled by Marazzi. The 1969 Espada, though, was another wildly different design - this time by Bertone - which offered four seats and a front-engined layout. It was successful enough to sell 1217 examples in just under 10 years, making it Lamborghini's biggest seller of the era. From 1970, it was joined by the Jarama, which became a more powerful Jarama S two years later. This car would be Lamborghini's last front-engined design, and would be accompanied through the early 1970s by the small Urraco, which introduced a new V8 engine and again featured astonishingly beautiful styling by Bertone. However, the 1970s were not happy times for Lamborghini. After a slump hit the Italian agricultural industry, its owner decided to sell up. A majority share went in 1972 and the rest in 1974. Yet by this stage, Lamborghini was ready with the truly astounding Countach, whose brutal aerodynamic styling by Marcello Gandini introduced a new look for the marque. Unfortunately, by 1976 - when the Silhouette appeared to suggest the way forward - the company was in dire financial trouble. Part 2 - 1977-1989 Lamborghini entered the second half of the 1970s with a range of four cars in production. The four-seater Espada, the Jarama S and the amazing Countach all featured versions of the Dallara-designed V12, while the Urraco had the company's smaller V8 engine. First to be replaced was the Urraco, which gave way to the Silhouette. Announced in 1976, this was really a reworking of the Urraco by its original designer Bertone, with more than a nod to the brutality inherent in Marcello Gandini's Countach design. The Silhouette, though, did not last. It disappeared in 1978 along with the Jarama S and the Espada, leaving only the Countach in production. These were difficult times for Lamborghini, which had changed hands more than once since its founder had sold the company in 1972. A brief liaison with BMW, whose M1 supercar the Italian manufacturer was to build, ended with the Germans walking away. Lamborghini's owner put the company into receivership in 1981 and it was bought at auction by the Swiss Mimram family later the same year. Even that ownership did not last, and in 1987 Chrysler became the next company to take over the reins at Lamborghini. Yet the cars kept on coming, even though all-new designs did not appear with the regularity Ferruccio Lamborghini himself had aimed for in the 1960s. The Countach took on wider arches in 1978, its V12 was further developed to give 5.1 litres and from 1985 there were four-valve cylinder heads as well to keep the car fresh. Meanwhile, the Silhouette had been reworked, and reappeared after a three-year absence as the Jalpa, this time with its transverse V8 engine boasting 3.5 litres by courtesy of Giulio Alfieri. Lastly, let us not forget the amazing LM002 off-roader (developed from the stillborn Cheetah) which married the 455 bhp V12 of the Countach to a bluff and tough-looking 4x4 to exploit the trend towards luxury off-road vehicles which was gathering pace by the end of the 1970s. By 1989, when the period covered by this book reached its end, Lamborghini was producing 350 cars a year at its Sant' Agata factory. Part 3 - 1990-2004 Lamborghini entered the 1990s under the ownership of the American Chrysler Corporation, and entered the twenty-first century in the hands of Germany's Audi AG. In between, it had been briefly owned by an Indonesian company. Yet the aims of this company, formed as an independent in 1963, remained identifiably the ones which Ferruccio Lamborghini himself had established in the beginning. This period began with the arrival of the Diablo. Thinking about a replacement for the Countach had begun as early as 1985, but Lamborghini's precarious financial state had hindered progress. Marcello Gandini had been assigned to create the car's looks, but his early proposals did not meet with Chrysler's approval (and one of them was diverted to another company, emerging as the Cizeta V16T). His third attempt was reworked at Chrysler's own studios, and it was this which emerged as the Diablo. A quad-cam V12 had been the staple of Lamborghini's range ever since the beginning, and its latest variant went into the Diablo. Less brutal in appearance than the Countach and Jalpa of the previous decade (much to the regret of many enthusiasts), the Diablo established a new style for the marque and, as is the way with supercars, was gradually developed over the years into a number of different variants. The same engine was used in the LM002 off-road machine, but slow demand led to production of this being stopped in 1992. The mid-1990s saw work begin on a replacement for the smaller Jalpa, but the Canto (under development with Zagato) did not meet with Audi approval and the German company cancelled it shortly after buying Lamborghini. Instead, it turned its attention to two new cars: the larger one was to become the Murciélago and the smaller the Gallardo. Both would have styling by Luc Donckenwolcke, assigned to Lamborghini from Audi's own styling department. Audi had entered the picture in 1997, when Lamborghini had approached them about using their new 4.2-litre V8 in a forthcoming sports model. Audi took an interest, and a year later bought the company which was - as so often in its turbulent history - in dire financial trouble. The first job was a makeover of the Diablo, done by Donckenwolcke, and this anticipated the way future Lamborghinis would look. The new big Lamborghini appeared in 2001 with a 6.2-litre derivative of the evergreen V12, and the new smaller car was announced in 2003 as the Gallardo. Styling had been initiated by Fabrizio Giugiaro (but was retouched by Donckenwolcke) and the car was built around a 500 bhp V10 engine built by Cosworth and developed from the Audi V8. There were hopes of selling up to 1200 a year of these cars - huge volumes by the standards of 40 years earlier. It is in the nature of supercars that they are dream machines and many of the people who buy this book will, sadly, only ever be able to dream of owning a Lamborghini. This book will certainly make those dreams more vivid. Models covered: 350 GT, 400 GT, Miura, Espada, Islero, Jarama, Countach, Urraco, Silhouette, LM 002, Cizeta-Moroder V16T, Jalpa, Diablo 5.7 & 6.0, VT 5.7 & 6.0, Murcielago & Gallardo. 456 pages. 106 in full colour. Hardcover. SKU: LMHC ISBN: 9781855206496