1972 Lamborghini Urraco
Although it was originally conceived as the Lamborghini designed to make an impact on the market sector dominated by the Porsche 911 and the Ferrari 308 its introduction, in fact, almost caused the collapse of the company. It certainly caused Ferruccio Lamborghini to depart from his company as bankruptcy loomed. There was no problem with the Urraco, it was just the fact that its creation took place at a most unfortunate time; in the midst of a fuel crisis, and its introduction absorbed a considerable amount of design and development time.
The Urraco was introduced at the Turin Motor Show and was favourably received to the point where many orders were taken. But there were long delivery delays as initial production was erratic. This was brought about since Lamborghini originally planned to build the car on a computer-controlled assembly line but with funds running short this idea was scrapped and Urraco production was undertaken on a traditional assembly line. This, of course, made a mockery of their original costings. Production was sluggish and two modified models were introduced in a continuing effort to stimulate sales.
The original Urraco was an attractive car which was cleverly engineered. It retained the mid-engined concept of previous Lamborghinis using a newly developed V8 with light alloy block and heads which in the first 2.5-litre form produced 164kW at 7500rpm. It had a five-speed gearbox at the right of the engine. The body was of sheet steel to the design of Bertone’s Gandini with a MacPherson strut suspension front and rear.
Modifying the engine to a 2.0-litre version so it fitted a cheaper tax category and offering an upmarket S model with better trim didn’t help sales as neither was a success. Finally, late in 1974, a 3.0-litre version of the V8 producing 188kW was introduced but unfortunately it came at a time when the market for high-performance cars was stagnant. As a last resort a Targa-top Silhouette derivative was produced but this too failed. Lamborghini went bankrupt and one of the first recommendations by the receivers was that the Urraco be scrapped.
That’s not the end of the story. The Mimram family took over Lamborghini and began development of the Jalpa, based on the Urraco and Silhouette with a 190kW, 3.5-litre engine developed from the Urraco V8. Although not a large volume car it earned its place in the Lamborghini range.
