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(from Lamborghini
Press Release) The history of Lamborghini had been
distinguished by the construction of extraordinary sports cars that
had no need to draw on the experience intriguing but also very
expensive of a Racing Department. From the very beginning,
Ferruccio had made it clear that he had no intention of funding
these expensive adventures and that was how the company had always
operated.
The arrival of Chrysler,
and of various executives who were hypnotised by the glamour of auto
racing, changed this attitude as well. Towards the end of 1987, the
French Formula 1 team Larrousse asked Mauro Forghieri, the
celebrated designer of Ferraris finest models from the Sixties and
Seventies, to create a new engine, and he turned to his good friends
at Lamborghini with the proposal of embarking on the project
together. After obtaining Chryslers approval, Forghieri designed
his engine, a V12 with a 3.5-litre capacity, the maximum
displacement allowed by regulations. A new parallel structure,
separate from Lamborghini and named Lamborghini Engineering, was
established in Modena specifically for this engine. The speed of the
designer from Modena and of the organisations with which he worked
was renowned. Ready within a matter of months, the new engine was
officially demonstrated to the public in April 1988.
Naturally, the news was
sensational. The debut in Formula 1 racing of a company like
Lamborghini long the master at producing high-quality,
top-performing twelve-cylinder engines was a major event, and one
that could cause plenty of headaches for Lamborghinis direct
rivals. Moreover, the commitment and risk for the company were still
rather limited, given that Lamborghini was simply supplying engines
to the Larrousse team, which obviously pledged to pay for them. The
1989 season was rather disappointing, but the fault for these poor
results lay above all with the French team, which did not have the
money and organisation required to compete at the highest levels.
Nevertheless, the engine showed excellent potential that deserved to
be exploited. As a result, even a titled team like Lotus requested
Lamborghini engines for the following season.
Thanks also to this
double supply of engines to two teams, the results for 1990 were
nothing short of brilliant. At the end of the British Grand Prix,
Bernard won an extraordinary fourth place and Suzuki placed sixth.
The Hungarian Grand Prix was even more rewarding for the Lamborghini
engines, which placed fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively with
Warwick (Lotus), Bernard (Larrousse) and Donnelly (Lotus).
Nevertheless, the best placement of the whole season came from
Suzuki on his home turf at the Grand Prix in Japan, as he placed
third and gave the company its first podium finish. This was the
best placement ever achieved by a Lamborghini engine in all its
seasons of activity.
The finale of the 1990
season definitely on the rise, with 14 points racked up by the
teams with a Lamborghini engine understandably fuelled the
excitement in both SantAgata and Detroit. Thus, a wealthy Mexican
businessman decided that, in the wake of this success, he would
place an order with Lamborghini not only for a F1 racing engine, but
for an entire car. The opportunity was obviously too good to pass
up, and once the customers ample finances were confirmed, Forghieri
and his team briskly went to work on the entire project. The single-seater
was a relatively conventional one, but its design showed great
attention to detail and it brought together all the experience
gained by the Modena designer throughout his long career. In
particular, it made the most of the data collected over two years of
working with the teams using this engine. The new car was entered
into the 1991 world championship season, but suddenly the Mexican
backer mysteriously disappeared (he was never heard from again) and,
at this point, there arose the serious problem of financing the
team. An Italian industrialist came forward, offering to make up the
shortfall to race the car, which was thus able to participate in the
world championship that year as the Modena Team.
That season, Lotus and
Larrousse decided to forgo the Lamborghini engines, which were
requested instead by Ligier. But the effort involved in following an
entire racing team and outsourcing engines and with decidedly
inadequate funding for this purpose aggravated the already known
problems, and the season of Lamborghinis single-seater was not a
thrilling one. If greater financial resources had been available, it
would probably have been possible to find better solutions to the
various problems that arose during the season. However, Chrysler
inexplicably refused to support this activity in any way, even when
it became evident that the economic problems faced by Lamborghini
Engineering would trigger a drop in the performance of the F1 car
and thus a problem in terms of brand image. Despite Forghieris
commitment, the American companys insensitivity to this problem led
to a progressive decline in automotive performance and the 1991
season ended negatively, with the definitive withdrawal of the
Modena F1 Team from the world championship. Now this lovely single-seater
can also be admired at the SantAgata museum, and it represents one
of the most important missed opportunities in the history of
Lamborghini.
The 1992 season saw the
return of Lamborghini as the engine supplier for the Larrousse and
Minardi teams, the latter coming out of a difficult season with
Ferrari engines. In 1993, the Modena company supplied V12 engines
only to Larrousse. In both seasons, enormous engine problems arose,
reflecting the lack of funds available for the technical development
of the engine. The fact that it was fundamentally a well-designed
engine is proven by Ayrton Sennas interest in it, and the Senna
tested a Lamborghini engine on the McLaren he was driving at the
time. The agreement was in place and ready to be signed when
Peugeot, which wanted to return to Formula 1 racing by supplying one
of its engines to a high-profile team, stepped in and the deal fell
apart, thereby ending Lamborghinis adventure in the world of
Formula 1 racing. The firm continued, with good overall results, to
compete in the field of marine engines, an area that was completely
foreign to the original philosophy of Lamborghini cars but allowed
it to achieve important results in specialised championships like
powerboat racing.
