Another dream I longed to fulfill was a visit to “Supercar Valley

The 1980s was big for me. Adolescence, that rollercoaster ride that is being a teenager and becoming a man all squeezed into the decade of Ray-Bans, boom boxes and those stupid little pastel-coloured straight ties. Being car mad from an early age there are a significant number of automotive experiences included in my 80s mix. Amongst them all, one that still stands out was an infatuation with the Lamborghini Countach. For me the debate over what was better – the Ferrari 512 BB or the Countach – lasted all of about 1 millisecond. The Lambo just looked so “extreme and mega cool” that the more conventionally styled Ferrari had no chance, and accordingly my bedroom wall was adorned with images of the car, whose name in Italian slang loosely translates to “Phaaaaaw”.

This was all good stuff for a teenage boy; however it is fair to say my automotive palate has matured significantly in its sophistication in the last twenty-plus years. Having actually driven and analysed my beloved Countach a little more closely I realise it is flawed.

Most specifically by the compromise of form over function and its origins with a small manufacturer from near Bologna in Italy. This means that for other than the hardcore Lamborghini enthusiast most who still aspire to own a Countach are probably better to keep it as a picture on their wall and restrict those visions of posing behind its wheel to their dreams.

Another 1980s dream that I have long been determined to turn to reality is a visit to “supercar valley”. The area around Modena in the heart of the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy that is home to over half the world’s supercar manufacturers and certainly most of the ones that really matter. Ferrari, Pagani, Maserati and of course Lamborghini were all born of these fertile plains. In October, as the colours of autumn descended on Italy, I swept into Bologna as a guest of my boyhood idol, Lamborghini, to realise this dream.

Now, I’ve climbed off more planes than I care to remember over the years, and there is always something warm and reassuring when arriving in a foreign country being met by a chauffeur holding a board with your name on it. “The Ritz Carlton – Mr Blair Cole”: very nice.  However, this particular sojourn kicked off better than most. Meeting editor-in-chief Bassam and me at the exit from immigration in Bologna was a sharply dressed man in a black suit holding a simple black sign adorned with that unmistakable gold on black sign of Taurus.  If I had forgotten why I was here, it was a sharp reminder: we were nearing Sant’Agata, the home of possibly the most extreme car company on the planet. Lambo country.

Unfortunately my eagerness to immerse myself in this hedonistic automotive experience would have to wait as the chauffeur directed us into his Merc (interestingly not his Audi) and not in the direction of Sant’Agata but toward the hotel. The Hotel Commercianti is tucked away in the centre of old Bologna next to the cathedral and down a myriad narrow and twisty cobblestone streets in the traffico interdetto (forbidden transit) zone. The pose value of trundling a Lambo in here the following day would be huge, but the prospect of the practical challenge of navigating a mid-engine supercar in here and into the Commercianti’s basement parking had beads of sweat forming on my forehead. The entrance passage was designed for horse and cart, not a 1.9-metre wide supercar.

The following day dawned clear and crisp. Filled with fine pasta from the evening before and anticipation of the day ahead, we were soon speeding toward Sant’Agata, again with a finely dressed Italian chauffer at the wheel. This time it was of a Lancia Thesis (interestingly again not an Audi). Sant’Agata is a small non-descript town typical of the rural townships scattered across the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. The automotive icon that separates this one from the others is rather small and creeps up on you. The Automobili Lamborghini factory is not the monstrous steel and glass monolith one would normally associate with such a well-known carmaker. It is, however, an interesting blend of the old and the new. A modern glass fascia to the reception, museum and office areas courtesy of a capital injection by Audi after their acquisition of Lamborghini back in 1998. The original factory buildings sit in behind and as if a monument to its origins, some factory frontage remains, preserved complete with the Lamborghini name first hoisted into place at this site on Ferruccio Lamborghini’s commission back in 1963.

We were welcomed by Federica Fazzini from Lamborghini’s communications department and after the obligatory cappuccino and sweet pastry in the staff canteen we were ushered through to the Murcielago production line and the selleria (upholstery shop). Murcielagos are still hand-assembled on the site of the production line that gave us the Countach and the Diablo. Only three cars a day roll off this line against the nine Gallardos the more automated production operation next door churns out.  This reflected in the car park and load-out areas were awash with Gallardos punctuated only by the occasional Murcielago. The colours were something to behold: bianco idis, grigo avlon, verde draco, blu hera, gialo orion, arancio atlas, nero aldebaran and more. Some of the new matt colour options looked simply stunning in Sant’Agata’s morning light. Forget the glossy brochures, if you really want to nail the perfect colour combination for your new Lambo, a flight to the factory and walk through this car park would have to be the perfect solution.

‘This is rare metal for any car or design enthusiast to savour’

The official Lamborghini merchandise worn by the office based employees is very stylish, very Italian; a nice touch. The Lamborghini factory staff seem quite “matter of fact” as they go about their daily tasks as I guess you would expect of anyone performing a repetitive job even on something as mouthwateringly delectable as a Lamborghini. But they are particular and careful. The guys on the assembly line were quick to joke around with us and despite the language barrier seemed eager to share a pride for what they were helping bring into being.

The men and women in the selleria hand-working the leather and alcantara across dash boards, centre consoles and seats are magical to watch. Their finished product is gorgeous. It may not be quite as consistent and perfectly finished as something mass produced out of Germany, but real craftsmanship still lives here and there is something special in that.

I could have sat sipping cappuccinos watching the auto art rolling in and out, and back and forth all day, but what I expected to be the most interesting part of the factory visit beckoned.

Like much of the factory the museum has had significant investment since Audi’s acquisition and although small by comparison to the displays of larger automakers, it offers an interesting snapshot of the history of Automobili Lamborghini and is well worth a visit. The museum doesn’t quite carry an example of every Lamborghini automobile ever produced, but it represents most, from a 1966 400GT all the way to a 2008 Reventon.  An example of the first baby Lambo in a 1974 Urraco, Lamborghini’s first genuine full sized four seater in a 1968 Espada and a gorgeous black 1987 LM 002, the monstrous V12-powered SUV inspired by the demands of the Arabian desert. This is rare metal and standing in the museum looking at around 40 examples of Italy’s finest is an experience for any car or design enthusiast to savour. However, time was not on our side this time around and we had to move on.

Lunch dispatched with, Bassam and I showed our drivers licenses, signed on the dotted line of the liability waiver and took the keys to the bianco isis (white) LP560-4 that had been sitting patiently in front of the museum entrance waiting for us all morning. Federica curiously inquired about our plans with the car over the weekend. With a glint in our eyes we discussed our plans to recreate the route long used by test drivers from both Lamborghini and Ferrari to refine their products. The winding Abetone road through the mountains to Lucca and onto the Italian Riviera beckoned. This promised to be something special.

First up, however, a photo call and a chance to capture the old and the new as our lovely, shiny, new LP560-4 went head to head with an equally lovely if not 40-years-older 400 GT at the factory gates. With the intrepid factory photographer, Umberto, hanging from the boot of his Audi TT (yep, finally an Audi) we captured the new Gallardo on a run down the “Balboni Highway”. The rather innocuous piece of road near the Sant’Agata factory that assumed legendary status in the USA back in the 1980s when an NBC camera man strapped himself in the passenger seat of a Lamborghini Countach for what turned into a 300-km/h ride of his life with fabled factory test driver Valentino Balboni. This is the crazy kind of stuff that helped make the Lamborghini reputation what it is today before digital cameras, the internet and YouTube came along to make such media common place. By a complete stroke of luck, it so happened that a friend of mine, Stefano Mecchia, was also visiting the factory that day and as a personal friend of Valentino, we were fortunate enough to briefly meet the man himself. For a guy with one of the most desirable jobs on the planet Valentino is both modest and unassuming. However, his genuine passion and pride for Lamborghinis is evident in every word, wry smile and flicker of his eyes. The epitome of Italian cool, we hung on every word uttered by this living legend until it was time to part ways.

With the sun setting, we finally wrestled ourselves and the LP560-4 away from Sant’Agata and picked our way back to Bologna and that appointment with the maze of cobblestone streets of the traffico interdetto and the hotel’s narrow basement car park. Along the way we explored the pleasures of snarling downshifts echoing off the surrounding buildings, brutal acceleration runs away from every red light and soaked up the stares of our adoring public. There has been some criticism directed at the Gallardo’s e-gear transmission. I personally found the gear shift fine, although the brief but piercing howl expelled from the exhaust through the electronics with every down shift is so fabulous it overshadows any lack of mechanical sophistication in the transmission itself on the way back down the gearbox. Stay out of Corsa mode and apply a little care to the process and the up shift is also not bad. I hope the gearbox has been built strong, though, as based on our experience the average LP560-4 driver is going to squeeze twice as many down-shifts into their journey than is actually necessary. Countless times I would glance across at the passenger seat after yet another unnecessary pull of the left lever only to see Bassam grinning stupidly back in my direction.

‘Eight pieces of automotive art in only 10 years’

Courtesy of the sat nav and reversing camera option, the Gallardo was soon safely tucked away in the basement car park with relatively little distress as a trade off. Not quite as effortless as a Fiat Punto, I will grant you, but a walk in the park compared with the experience one of Lamborghini’s earlier generation fire-breathing creations would have afforded us, I am sure. 

On Saturday morning we made our way to the small town of Dosso and home of the Museo Ferruccio Lamborghini, otherwise referred to as the “Tonino Collection” after the late Ferruccio’s son Tonino to whom the museum belongs. We were greeted at the gates by Fabio Lamborghini, the impeccably dressed director of this private family museum and a proud nephew of the late, great Ferruccio Lamborghini himself. Whilst Lamborghini Murcielagos and Gallardos are Ferruccio Lamborghini’s living automotive legacy today, this amazing collection is a physical tribute to the achievements of a truly great Italian and his family during his lifetime. There is so much crammed into this collection it is impossible to give it justice in the few words and images offered here. Tractors, air conditioners, cars, fine wines, golf karts and even a helicopter are all part of the collection. On display is the first Lamborghini tractor produced, the Carioca from 1947. Lamborghini’s first car, the one-off Fiat based Barchetta in which Ferruccio competed in the 1948 Mille Migla. There was also the streamlined Scagliioni designed 350 GTV prototype first shown at the Turin show in 1963 from where the production car legacy of Automobili Lamborghini began, and the collection went right through to the beautiful red Miura SV and matching red LP 500 Countach that Ferruccio was driving leading up to his death at 76 years of age in 1993.

Ferruccio passed over the last of his ownership of Automobili Lamborghini Spa in 1974 just over a decade after he created it. When you take in the lineage of that short time you start to not only appreciate his entrepreneurial and creative genius, but the enterprise and sheer drive of its founder. The 350 GT, 400 GT, Iserlo, Espada, Miura, Jarma, Urraco and the Countach: eight amazing pieces of automotive art in only ten years. Arguably the Miura defined the supercar and without doubt it still ranks amongst the most beautiful automotive shapes ever conceived. You already know how I feel about the Countach.

After yet another cappuccino we fired up the LP560-4 and took a short drive to the cemetery in Renazzo to see where Ferruccio and members of the Lamborghini family are laid to rest. We then called, unannounced, on the old family home where Ferruccio grew up as a young boy. On the sight of Fabio, the family now living there greeted us with open arms, even opening up the untouched small workshop on their grounds where Ferruccio first tinkered with farm equipment and fostered his flair for engineering. Next we headed to a small square in the centre of Renazzo, where a memorial stands as a tribute to its most famous son. The sculpture encompasses symbols of the earth, a tractor, Taurus the bull, a Miura bonnet, the moon and the stars. Inscribed below is Il Genio e Contrezza. Concretezza e Genialita – “Genius is Certain. Certainty is Genius.” It captures the essence of a man, born a farmers son, whose creativity and vision backed with pragmatism and determination not only created a significant industrial empire but also gave birth to one of the most iconic and desirable automobiles of all time.

'The sound echoes of walls and through trees'

Yet another day had almost slipped by when we tore ourselves away from the hospitality of Fabio for fear of running out of the hours needed to make the drive down to the Riviera. The Abetone mountain roads would have to wait for the return trip the following day as we headed for the faster SS64 route to Lucca and the Autostrada Azzurra onto the ritzy seaside town of Santa Margherita for the night. 

One thing that strikes you about Italy is the apparent absence of its amazing four-wheeled creations from their own roads. You’re likely to see more Italian exotica on a Friday visit to Emirates Mall in Dubai than a day trolling the roads around Bologna. In our four days, and covering over 1,500 km outside of Sant’Agata and Maranello, we saw only three Ferraris and a single Lambo. Ironically the second of the two Ferrari 430 Spiders we saw managed to comically reverse into its identical twin with an expensive crunch, while parking outside a gelataria in Santa Margherita where Bassam and I were sitting enjoying an ice cream, wondering if life could possibly get any better. It drew quite a crowd and these two Tifosi met in circumstances I am sure they would both have otherwise rather avoided. Wish we’d had the camera.

The weather gods smiled on us yet again as day three dawned. Car and driver fuelled, we left the shores of the Mediterranean and made our way back in the direction of Lucca and then north to Abetone through the Pistoia mountains. If the LP560-4 wasn’t already alive enough, the crisp air and twisty mountain roads lined with all the colours of autumn delivered yet a further level to the emotional experience of driving this car on its home turf. Uphill or down, the Gallardo is rapid and sure footed. Windows down with the sound echoing off walls and through the trees, the whole experience is utterly intoxicating. Children yelling “Lamborghini” to draw the attention of friends and family as you trundle through small villages adds further to the realisation that there is genuinely something special going on here. The decision of whether to push on to Maranello for a look at the Galleria Ferrari or take time to extract a little more from the Lambo in these glorious mountains passes without a second thought. A quick drive by the Ferrari factory gates on our way back to Bologna would have to do.  

All along our historical route, the baby Lambo has been pure theater. Whether blasting, windows down, through an Autostrada tunnel at irresponsible speeds, rocketing between turns on a twisty alpine road or simply trundling through the narrow streets of a small Italian town, waves of sensory pleasure wash over you whenever you are behind the wheel of this car. How the boys at Sant’Agata got away with the exhaust note and volume I’ll never know. But the guy in the compliance department is a legend and every red-blooded fan of Italian cars owes him a debt of gratitude. Rolling into Maranello later that evening we proudly announced the arrival of our upstart from down the road with yet another cracking Corsa-mode downshift. It got the attention of the people waiting to part with their cash for some of that increasingly clichéd merchandise from the Ferrari Store and the pair of Ferrari Californias, presumably on a shakedown, that we had followed into town quickly scurried to safety behind the Ferrari factory gates, leaving our little bull posing proudly on it rival’s home turf for yet another photo.

The LP560-4 is unmistakably a supercar. It looks like it’s doing 300 kph standing still, announces its arrival with a sound straight from the heavens and everything about it makes you desperately want one. It is utterly desirable. If Eve was a car she’d have been an LP560-4 and handing the keys back over at the factory reception the following morning was indeed painful. The realisation that our Lamborghini pilgrimage was at an end was a sad moment.

Automobili Lamborghini has certainly come a long way since 1963. The company has flirted with bankruptcy and survived through five different owners since Ferruccio relinquished his remaining shares in 1974. Over these years, car lovers have been treated to the delectable lines of the Miura, the evolution of the king of bedroom pin-ups in the Countach, the embodiment of the old-school supercar in the mighty Diablo and more recently the success of the ultimate supercar tag team in the Murcielago and Gallardo. Audi have done a good job at Lamborghini in their decade at the helm. I feel quietly confident that they understand that in their hands they carry a legacy and not just a car business, and that with this lies a responsibility to car fans the world over. Matching the benefits of corporate scale, resources and quality standards of Audi with the style, flair and passion of old-school supercar Italy can’t be easy. I hope Audi can continue to maintain this balance. Not only for the sake of the fortunate few who get to experience ownership of one of these automotive icons but for all those who extract pleasure from the mere existence of the marque and their special creations. For the sake of the millions of bedroom walls and computer wallpapers of the young and the not so young the world over, long may Lamborghini’s bull charge on. 

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