Column Chronicles: The truly fast and furious Lamborghini

The truly fast and furious Lamborghini

Frank Cotolo
August 10, 2017

I'm what you may call a "gearhead," which is someone who loves fast cars, especially those not made in America, where fast cars get you speeding tickets quickly.

My favorite fast car has always been the Lamborghini. It has always been one of the world's most expensive cars. That is one reason it is my favorite. I'm a very material person when it comes to evaluating objects, so the price of a Lamborghini must mean it is a special automobile, otherwise it wouldn't be worth so much.

The Lamborghini has changed a lot since I first saw one in the 1970s. Once gas prices shot up in the 80s, 90s, even people who could afford a Lamborghini stopped buying the car. Also, it was costing more to build a Lamborghini as the 70s came to a close.

The owners of the Lamborghini company blamed poor sales for a decline in the car's popularity.

In 1974, the man who founded the company, who was also the man who named the car after his family, stepped down as the boss of the Lamborghini company but left his name on the product. That is why he was forced to change his last name and became Feruccio Mangatoni, taking his mother's maiden name for his last name and leaving his in-laws without a family name.

Four years later the Lamborghini Company went bankrupt, which forced them to take another look at their product, which they could no longer afford to build, putting their product in jeopardy of never being sold again.

The company took a lot of time to come up with a new idea for a Lamborghini and in 1982 they thought of it and built one called the 500 S, which included a 4.8 liter V12 engine, charging $100,000 to buy it. Some people, mostly rich people, bought the refurbished Lamborghini.

Then, in 1985, they made the 5000 QV with a 5.2 liter, 48-valve fuel-injected V12, which had 414 horsepower. The Chrysler auto company was so impressed that in 1987 it bought the whole Lamborghini Company and in a few years redesigned it into what was called the Diablo, which became available in 1990. By that time, a auto journalist called the Lamborghini "an avatar to project your desires onto," which was grammatically incorrect.

So, ultimately, the Lamborghini was never a great car but always an expensive one and in the world of fast cars that are expensive, the name Lamborghini always rolled off the tongues of gearheads who felt it was more important to favor an expensive fast car that looked great than it was to like any dull looking model that was sparing on gasoline, easy to repair and lasted a long time.

In the new millennium, that attitude has not changed.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.