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Italy's performance car world seems to have come full circle
in the past few years. Though neither Lamborghini nor
Ferrari will openly admit it, in many ways they are now
back battling it out, each with stupendous machines that
hark back to those days of the top speed wars of three-plus
decades ago. Then as now, Lambo has the powerplant in the
middle of a stunning shape, while Ferrari uses an engine up
front in a blistering, refined berlinetta, the 599 GTB Fiorano
(see page 30, this issue).
The current battle is being waged on more equal footing.
Lamborghini is no longer a scrappy upstart, but a seasoned
company with four-plus decades of history. It also possesses
considerably more engineering and financial horsepower
than at any time since its inception. And this allows the firm
to pursue founder Ferruccio Lamborghini's original mission
statement with a vengeance.
When the prototype 350 GTV debuted at the 1963 Turin
Show, Ferruccio told Road & Track's Athos Evangelisti, "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
GT car without faults. Not a technical bomb. Very normal.
Very conventional. But a perfect car."
So how does that decades old edict apply to my favorite
current Lamborghini, the Murciélago Roadster? It may have
a 580 horsepower V-12 mounted in the middle, with an even
more powerful version due next year, but Ferruccio's desire
for a car that is sufficiently fast, quite comfortable, perfectly
finished and relatively easy to drive is very apparent within
the first few miles. This is due in great part to the revolution
that occurred in Sant'Agata over the past few years. Audi
has owned Lambo since 1998. The number of prototypes
constructed, and the development process they undergo, are
indicative of the night and day difference from the days of
the Miura and Countach.
Back in the 1960s and '70s, "the customer of a GT car
was prepared to accept a car that was very rough," says
Gianpaolo Dallara, Lamborghini's former chief engineer
who was the father of the Miura, 350 GT and other classic
Lambos. "The customer was the test driver…so when you
sold a car to the Shah of Persia, you first had to deliver a
mechanic because the amount of testing was no more than
12,000 kilometers (7,450 miles if your conversion skills
are rusty. ed). You never did an endurance test (before you)
sold that first car. You never had a fleet of two or three to
test. Now the customer asks for much more, and is much
more demanding."
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