This is a Lamborghini, isn't it?
12/03/2014
This picture is confusing, because you immediately think you see the (Ferrari) Dino 308 GT4. But wait! The photo was probably taken at the end of the 1960s in Sant'Agata, at Lamborghini's company headquarters. And we can actually see the prototype for the Lamborghini Urraco here.
Ferruccio Lamborghini had realized that he had to do something about the Dino 246 GT from Ferrari. He had a V8 engine developed that had the same displacement as the Dino unit, but with two more cylinders and, at least on paper, an additional 30 hp. An attractive 2+2-seater was to be built around the engine, and as the company had already had good experiences with Bertone on the Miura and Espada, Marcello Gandini was allowed to wield the drawing pen again this time. However, as the story goes, the company owner did not like Gandini's first design and a more aggressive-looking body shell was created. This second design was then presented at the Turin Motor Show in 1970 and at subsequent motor shows until the production car, with a barely changed exterior, was available to buy in 1973.
When Enzo Ferrari, who probably got the feeling in the early seventies that the Bertone designs (e.g. Miura, Espada, etc.) were generating more enthusiasm than the Pininfarina concepts he had previously favored (e.g. Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Dino 246 GT, etc.), he then developed the successor to the Dino 246 GT.), then planned the successor to the Dino 246 GT and thus the competitor to the Urraco, he also commissioned Bertone, who had shown with concept cars such as the NSU Ro 80 Trapeze that he could accommodate four seats between the front axle and the mid-engine. Bertone was obviously thinking commercially and used the design rejected by Lamborghini to turn the Dino 308 GT4 into reality.
Commercially, however, the Dino 308 GT4 was more successful than the Lamborghini Urraco, but the 308 GTB , which was presented just two years after the Bertone 308, sold even better, and Pininfarina - with Leonardo Fioravanti at the drawing board - was again responsible for it.
