They make every car fan dream. Names like Miura and Countach are synonymous with technical and aesthetic excellence and are therefore world-famous. It took real enthusiasts to build them ...
The protagonists who became legends of the brand
Since the beginning of its history in 1963, Automobili Lamborghini has distinguished itself as an innovative and forward-looking company. This is largely thanks to a series of engineers, production technicians and innovative minds who have used their courage and visionary spirit to shape the brand with the bull into one of the most prestigious and legendary names in automotive history.
Ferruccio Lamborghini
First and foremost, of course, is the founder, who succeeded in developing a tractor from surplus military equipment and turning it into a successful company. Then, as an established entrepreneur, he took on another challenge and entered the automotive industry with the mission of redefining its paradigms.
At a time when civil and working society still followed rigid rules, he created a sports car company that aspired to produce the best GT cars in the world. To this end, he brought on board a group of young engineers, many of whom had just graduated from university.
Giampaolo Dallara
He was appointed Technical Director at the tender age of 27. Under his leadership, the first Lamborghini production cars were created, in particular the Miura (1966) - the car that led journalists to coin the term "super sports car" to aptly describe its essence.
Everything about the Miura was new and had never before been seen on a production car. A four-liter engine with four overhead camshafts had never been seen before. Meanwhile, the design of the Miura, created by Carrozzeria Bertone, played its part in transforming this twelve-cylinder machine into the most desirable car of its time and, more recently, an authentic collector's item.
Paolo Stanzani
Five years after joining the company in 1963 at the tender age of 27, the engineer was appointed Technical Director, by which time he was already Head of Production. He is credited with the development of the Countach project, which he made the fastest super sports car in the world for almost 20 years. The Countach was equipped with an innovative power transmission, in which the drive shaft ran through the engine block, and was the first production car to have scissor doors. These characteristics still characterize Lamborghini's twelve-cylinder vehicles today.
Stanzani later created the Urraco, a four-seater Berlinetta with a rear transverse V8 engine and Heron head combustion chambers. The car also featured MacPherson suspensions at the front and rear as well as a bowl-shaped steering wheel with a steering column positioned in front of the interior.
Bob Wallace
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1938, Wallace was Lamborghini's chief test driver from 1963 to 1975 and was essentially the person who road-tested all Lamborghini models up to and including the Countach, kilometer by kilometer. It is thanks to him that a working and testing system was developed that still forms the basis of Automobili Lamborghini's R&D department today.
A keen racing driver, Wallace had an agreement with Ferruccio Lamborghini to develop new components and solutions from used parts on company machines in his spare time. These were tested on experimental vehicles, leading to the creation of the Miura "Jota", the Jarama "Bob" and the Urraco "Rallye". The results of this "free experimentation" enabled the rapid evolution of Lamborghini production cars and thus the steep international rise of the brand.
Franco Scaglione
The peer of Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in Florence in 1916, the city that taught him a sense of beauty. He grew up in the heyday of the Futurist art movement, whose proponents were constantly striving for dynamism, movement and speed. After studying aeronautical engineering, he followed his passion for design and began working as a fashion designer, before finally working as an automobile designer for the most important coachbuilders of the time.
Thanks to his BAT concept cars (Berlinette Aerodinamiche Tecniche), aerodynamic research found its way into automobile design in the 1950s. In 1963, Scaglione designed the body of the very first Gran Turismo built in Sant'Agata Bolognese at Lamborghini's direct request. The lines of the 350 GTV are characterized by rounded shapes, wafer-thin pillars and curved windows. This car became the calling card with which the newly founded company introduced itself to both experts and the public, clearly stating its ambitions from the outset.
Giulio Alfieri
The engineer was born in Parma in 1924 and graduated from Milan Polytechnic immediately after the end of the war. He joined Lamborghini in 1975 and was appointed General Director in 1982, where he ushered in the use of composite materials at Lamborghini. He was responsible for the development of the Countach Evoluzione, a prototype made almost entirely of carbon fiber.
The Evoluzione weighed around 500 kilograms (!) less than the normal Countach and reached speeds in excess of 330 km/h. These studies were put to practical use almost immediately, first in the Countach 25° Anniversario in 1988 and then in the Diablo presented in 1990. Even today, carbon fiber technology is still one of the cornerstones of Lamborghini production.
