The Lamborghini 350 GTV, Ferruccio's dream has been built.

Format : 750 x 517

Size : 114 Kb

Lamborghini 350 GTV

The first 'Gran Turismo' bearing the now famous bull emblem, was the 35O GTV from 1963. Before then, only farmers used tractors bearing this emblem. According to the legend, at this time, Ferruccio Lamborghini, who was already very wealthy, had some problems with his personal Ferrari, but the people who surrounded Enzo Ferrari at that time didn't pay any attention to this 'farmer'. Ferruccio was so angry, he decided to built his own car, and it would be more refined than any Ferrari. Ferruccio built a completely new factory just to create his ideal sportcars, but the 350 GTV was designed and built at the tractor factory at Cento, before the Sant'Agatha factory was completed. The engine became a V-12 of course, designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, who recently had left Ferrari. This beautiful engine first roared into life on Lamborghini's Schenk Dynometer on May 15, 1963 (according to Rob de la Rive Box). The power output on these first tests was 350 DIN (374 SAE) horsepower at 8000 rpm. However, Ferruccio didn't want a highly tuned racing engine, but a smooth running touring car, so Bizzarrini lowered the output to 'only' 270 bhp at 6500 rpm for the 350 GT production car. The square steel tube chassis used for this prototype was welded up by Neri & Bonacini of Modena, who actually made two slightly different chassis, the engine used many parts manufactured by ATS Microfusioni at Sasso Marconi and the gearbox was bought from ZF, completed by a differential from Salisburry. The black leather interior of this protype was produced by an external upholsterer and the body of the 350 GTV was designed by Franco Scaglione, and was built by Sargiotto Bodyworks of Turin, so other than carefull assembling of the differnt components, not much was really build by Automobili Lamborghini SpA, not yet anyway. This prototype was finished in a bright metallic blue and attracted a lot of attention on the 1963 Turin Auto Show. The fabulous engine was put next to the car and in the engine compartment they put a cradle of ceramic tiles ! The engine couldn't be installed in the car because with its vertical carburetors, it didn't fit under the hood. Recently the car has been restored for collector Romano Bernardoni, by Emilianauto of Bologna, after 20 years of storage, this time the engine was built into the car which caused major modifications to the chassis. It is now finished in a bright metallic green with a light-toned leather interior, and the car is fully driveable. The 350 GTV was intended to be placed in the official Lamborghini museum, together with other memorable Lamborghini's, but this priceless piece of Automobili Lamborghini SpA history was sold to a collector in Japan, where the car resided in the Noritake Collection for several years. Today this unique car is shown in the official Lamborghini museum located at the factory, joined by the very last Countach ever built next to one of the first Countach ever made, and some of the other special Lamborghini's that were built during the years, like the Diablo Roadster prototype and the Cala.

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