Bertone presented study 114, the new Lamborghini Bravo, on the 1974 Turin Auto show, it was designated to be the successor of the P300 Urraco, and used the same mechanicals.
The Bravo was a very low-slung car, with several stylistic references to the Countach, the new styled wheels on the Bravo, among other things would later end up on the Countach. The Bravo name was another reference to the raging bull emblem, a return after the LP400 Countach, whose name was in no way connected to a bull.
Like the Countach, the Bravo was a futuristic looking car, but it was completely functional, this prototype even ran more than 40.000 very hard test-miles before it ended up in the Bertone museum. The Bravo used a completely new design for the window arrangement, they were rather dark and the front windscreen seemed to continue into the side windows without any windshield post being shown, this created an impressive effect of continuity, the side windows actually went straight into the rear air intakes.
Another styling feature were the front and rear hoods, by using rectangular air intakes, and continuing this same design for the pop-up headlamps together with the all-new ‘five-cylinders’-theme wheels that were later used on the Countach and the Silhouette, the Bravo looked very good, and at some time even production of this car was possible, but in the end it wasn’t commercialized.
The Bravo was a true stylistic masterpiece, however the interior, as on most prototype cars was not as well finished as the exterior. The passenger compartment seemed to be for Italians only, no way would a tall person fit into it, as for the dashboard, it was only a plank with the most important dials built into it, the complete picture looked rather good, but if the car was to be put into production, the interior had to be completely redesigned.
After being displayed at various Auto shows all over the world, and covering over 40.000 miles, the Bravo was finally retired to Bertone’s private museum, where it can still be admired at this time, next to several other dream-cars.
The Bravo was universally admired, but 1974 was no time for Lamborghini to start building a completely new car, so the Bravo remained a one-off.
