The flying Lamborghini Countach
01/27/2012
Not only the Red Bull bulls have wings. Valentino Balboni let his bull fly back in 1988, long before Red Bull. But let's take everything in order.
Valentino Balboni is the name of the man who won the lottery six times, including an extra number, without winning a single penny. For 40 years, he enjoyed a job that around 99.68% of men can only dream of. He was the test driver for Lamborghini. One day in the late 1960s, he was dragged to Sant'Agata after school by the village priest in his cinquecento. The priest wanted to keep Balboni away from the pinball machine and unknowingly showed him the birthplace of the Lamborghini Miura. Instead of drinking coffee with the priest, Valentino stuck to the fence of the Lamborghini factory. The young Balboni was soon allowed in and the young man immediately helped unload the Miura bodies. Just one week later, he was in and out of the factory every day.
April 21, 1968 was his first official working day, but not as a test driver, of course. He was taken on as an apprentice and so he also did the jobs of an apprentice. But his friendship with the test driver at the time, Bob Wallace, brought him ever closer to winning the lottery. With the Miura SV in the fall of 1973, the time had come for Balboni to take over Bob's job as test driver.
I was able to see for myself that he was a really good driver. That's how the story of the flying Countach came about. While taking stills on a bridge, I had the idea of photographing the car properly in the air. He immediately agreed and showed the bull the red cloth. However, the car only lifted off the suspension with some difficulty, but the wheels were still clinging to the ground. Only on the third attempt did it work. The Countach lost traction for a brief moment, but shortly afterwards - on landing - it also lost the lower front panel. No matter, the picture was in the can.
There is now even a special model of the Gallardo LP 550-2 "Valentino Balboni". Lamborghini dedicated the model to its now retired but not forgotten test driver - for 40 years of loyal service.
More information about the Lamborghini Countach and, above all, many never-before-seen pictures of the spectacular sports car can be found in an article worth reading on Zwischengas.
