Lamborghini 350 GTV

Cars

At the end of the Fifties Ferruccio Lamborghini had a fateful old moan-up about the finish of the Ferrari he had bought. Few could have predicted that the tractor manufacturer would soon begin to build a car company that aspired to the heights that Enzo Ferrari had assaulted.

The don of SantA’gata was deadly serious from the get go. He made a few phone calls. Franco Scaglione of Bertone soon came on board. The 350 GTV’s body, inspired by the lines of the early sixties Corvettes, evoked the high point of mid-century American futurism and combined that with a typically Italian panache and with a coachbuilders’ finesse.

To design and build the car’s engine, he collared Giotto Bizzarini. Bizzarini was, of course, a legend in his own right. He had built some of Ferrari’s most successful motors – and aspired to creating cars under his own label too. The engineer eventually delivered a bespoke 12 cylinder unit that would form the basis of Lambo V12s for the next 30 years.

The Lamborghini 350 GTV – the first ever road car to bear the mark of the raging bull – was a flawed but beautiful creation. A subsequent model, this time in collaboration with Touring – was a real success and formed the bedrock of the Lamborghini brand. But for our money, you can’t beat the Scaglione penned version. For us, it evokes everything good about Italian cars.






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