The last entrepreneur to successfully launch a car company in Italy was Ferruccio Lamborghini. The industrialist founded the automaker that bears his name in October 1963 in Sant’Agata Bolognese, a small town located in northern Italy, a stone’s throw from Bologna.
From the start, Lamborghini made it clear that his firm’s range-topping cars would use a potent V12 engine. The company’s first mid-engine halo model was the Miura, a sleek-looking coupe that raised eyebrows when it was launched in 1966—because it used the world’s first transverse-mounted V12 engine. As the legend goes, one of the company’s engineers was having a difficult time shoe-horning the 4.0-liter mill longitudinally. He went out to the parking lot, looked under the hood of his Mini, and thought, “Why not?”
At Lamborghini, there’s a common theme: a potent V12 engine.
The Miura was an unexpected hit for Lamborghini, and it helped position the young automaker as a credible Ferrari-fighter. It also allowed Lamborghini to establish a secure foothold in the United States, a country that remains its largest market today.
The Miura helped establish a secure foothold in the United States for Lamborghini.
The Miura was given the axe in 1972, and replaced by the Countach in 1974. Penned by Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, the Countach ushered in the popular scissor doors and the sharp, angular design language that has influenced every Lamborghini model since then. It shared virtually no styling cues with its predecessor, but it continued to use a potent V12 engine. It remained in production until 1990.
In retrospect, it’s unlikely that the Countach’s 16-year long production run was intentional. All was not well in Sant’Agata at the time: Lamborghini filed for bankruptcy in 1978, and it went through no less than four owners, including Chrysler, from 1972 to 1994. Its annual sales dropped to just 166 units in 1992.
The Countach used scissor doors and an angular design.
Development of the V12 engine continued even when the company was in dire financial straits. Lamborghini also attempted to reach new buyers by launching a V12-powered off-roader named LM002 in 1986.
The LM002 was a V12-powered off-roader.
The Countach was finally replaced by the Diablo, which earned the honor of being the world’s fastest production car when it made its debut in 1990. It reached a top speed of 202 miles per hour, thanks to a 5.7-liter V12 engine, the largest ever fitted to a production Lamborghini at the time.
The 2001 Murciélago marked the rebirth of Lamborghini under its new Audi ownership. Offered as a coupe and as a convertible, it turned the dial up to 11 in terms of styling as well as power because it used a 6.2-liter V12. More than 4,000 examples were built over the course of its nine-year long production run, a figure that makes it Lamborghini’s most successful range-topping model.
The Aventador’s 6.5-liter V12 is mounted behind the passenger compartment.
When engineers had a difficult time installing the Miura’s V12 longitudinally, they turned to the iconic Mini for inspiration.
Introduced in 2012, the Aventador is packed with cutting-edge features such as a fuel-saving start/stop system and a keyless ignition, but it remains true to tradition with a naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 mounted right behind the passenger compartment. It delivers 690 horsepower at 8,250 rpm in its most basic state of tune, while the limited-edition Superveloce ups the ante with 740 ponies.
Lamborghini openly admits it might have to adopt new technologies in the coming years (including downsized turbocharged engines and, possibly, a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain) in order to comply with strict new emissions regulations, but it adamantly believes the V12 engine is here to stay.
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