Hear the name Lamborghini and it is more than likely the image conjured up in your mind will be any one of a handful of quick, sleek, sometimes outrageous-looking supercars. Be it the Miura, the Countach, the Diablo, Aventador, Huracan, or a handful of other models, one thing that Lamborghini cars are not is boring.

Of course, Lamborghini’s story did not start, as its peers such as Ferrari, McLaren and others did, on the racetracks of Europe. In fact, its story is rather more pedestrian with the company’s founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, establishing a successful manufacturing concern in the late 1940s building tractors and other agricultural equipment.

But while his company may have been making heavy duty farming machinery, Ferruccio’s personal taste ran somewhat faster and owned and drove many of the best of the time – from Jaguars to Maseratis to Alfa Romeos and, of course, Ferrari.

The story goes that Ferruccio was not overly impressed with some aspects of the cars he owned, and he actually had a run-in with Enzo Ferrari himself over clutch issues with his Ferrari. Legend has it that during this conversation, a bristling Enzo, irritated at Lamborghini’s efforts to engage him on potential solutions, told Ferruccio to stick to building tractors.

Seeing this as something of a challenge, Ferruccio sorted out the clutch problem himself and resolved to build his own sportscars. It wasn’t long before the first model from Automobili Lamborghini made an appearance.

That was the 350 GTV, a prototype two-door, two-seat, Grand Tourer (with the V standing for Veloce, or ‘fast’) that Lamborghini debuted at the 1963 Turin Auto Show along with a new 268kW 3-litre V12 under bonnet. The rear-wheel drive 350 GTV was a decent first try, and though there were issues with the finished car, it did show just how Ferruccio and his team were taking the sportscar challenge seriously.

Their next effort would be Lamborghini’s first production car, the 350 GT.

Built from 1964 to 1966, the 350 GT was based on the GTV but redesigned by coachbuilder and design house Carrozzeria Touring to have a less extreme look. The engine too was less extreme, with the V12 detuned to 209kW, although that was still good to power the 350 GT to a top speed of 250km/h and do the 0-100km/h sprint in 6.8 seconds. The engine was paired with a ZF five-speed manual transmission.

Construction was of the Superleggera (Super Lightweight) type, with a tubular steel framework clad with aluminium body panels. There was four-wheel independent suspension and disc brakes on all four wheels. Some models were equipped with a self-locking differential.

Reception to the 350 GT was good but production was limited. By the end of 1966, 120 of them had been produced, including two convertible version. 23 of these were fitted with the larger, more torquey, 4-litre V12.

This larger engine would feature in the 350 GT’s immediate successor, the bigger 2+2-seater 400 GT, of which around 250 were built between 1966 to 1968.

While it didn’t exactly sell in huge numbers, whichever way you slice it the 350 GT was a sparkling entrant into the bustling GT/sportscar scene that was a hallmark of the automotive industry in Europe in the 1960s, and it was good enough to set Lamborghini off on its way to becoming one of the most iconic supercar manufacturers of all time.

And Ferruccio and his team learned quickly. The model that followed the 350 and 400 GT was the Miura, a strong contender for greatest supercar of its era and one of the most beautiful cars ever built.

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (June 2022) 

1 July 2022