Lamborghini’s aesthetic extravagance only served to inspire those who sought to capitalise on the image
WORDS RICHARD HESELTINE PHOTOGRAPHY RH ARCHIVE/C&SC
The legend behind how and why Ferruccio Lamborghini became a motor mogul is precisely that: a giddying blend of scene-setting folklore and fantasised codswallop. As we all know by rote, the self-made tractor magnate was unimpressed by his Ferrariʼs reliability and chose to tell Enzo Ferrari what he thought of his products – to his face. However, he was left kicking his heels waiting for an audience with Il Commendatore. This served to enrage him further so he chose to build something better.
The truth of the matter is perhaps less fanciful: there was greater prestige in having your name associated with an exotic road car than a mud-plugging farm implement. Even so, while the marque he went on to create in his own image raised the bar by several notches for its productsʼ outlandishness, there were plenty of designers and coachbuilders out there willing to push those boundaries even further. Here are 10 of our favourites.
1 Miura P400 Roadster
This one-off confection enjoyed a long life in the spotlight, but it did have two incarnations as a show car. The car was first unveiled on the Bertone stand at the 1968 Brussels Salon, where it attracted plenty of interest. Aside from the roof surgery, the Roadster had large side-mounted intakes, while the V12 powerhouse was now visible beneath a transparent engine cover. However, there was no intention on Lamborghini’s part of the car being put into production.
The Miura Roadster was subsequently acquired by the American International Lead and Zinc Research Organisation (ILZRO), which reworked the car into the catchily named Zn75, borrowed from the periodic table. The brightwork was replaced, where possible, with zinc-plated parts, with the original pale-blue hue making way for a sludgy dark green. The Miura was then purchased by the firm’s MD, who in time loaned it to a car museum in Boston. More recently it was restored to its original Brussels motor show configuration.
Anorak factA Miura S was converted into open form many years later, but not by Bertone. The SVJ Spider was displayed at the 1981 Geneva motor show
2 Bertone Genesis
The precise back story behind the creation of the Genesis is mired in conjecture. What is beyond question is that it was conceived internally within Bertone, despite often being referred to as the Lamborghini Genesis. Stile Bertone had enjoyed a long
