What a boring place a world without Lamborghini would be. The Italian super car manufacturer has only been building cars since 1963, but in that short 57-year period, its impact has exceeded that of automakers that have been around nearly twice as long.
A big part of that is the brand's approach. No design is too wild – and no amount of power is too much – for a car with the raging bull on its nose. But with nearly six decades of boundary-pushing design and engineering, what's the best Lamborghini?
Picking a brand's best products is no easy feat, of course. After all, how does one even describe what makes a car “the best”? Are we talking about the most powerful, the prettiest, or simply the cars that pushed the envelope the furthest? In Lamborghini's case, we're using “best” to mean the cars that had the biggest impact, not just on the world of supercars, but on the automaker itself. Tuck in, here are the 15 best Lamborghinis of all time.
A big part of that is the brand's approach. No design is too wild – and no amount of power is too much – for a car with the raging bull on its nose. But with nearly six decades of boundary-pushing design and engineering, what's the best Lamborghini?
Picking a brand's best products is no easy feat, of course. After all, how does one even describe what makes a car “the best”? Are we talking about the most powerful, the prettiest, or simply the cars that pushed the envelope the furthest? In Lamborghini's case, we're using “best” to mean the cars that had the biggest impact, not just on the world of supercars, but on the automaker itself. Tuck in, here are the 15 best Lamborghinis of all time.
15. Lamborghini Murcielago
Lamborghini's flagship cars typically set the trend for that decade. The 1970s had the Miura, the 1980s the Countach, and the 1990s the Diablo. When the Murcielago roared onto the scene, it swept away the then-dated styling of the Diablo with clean lines and minimal fussy details. It hasn't aged too well, especially in the face of the current trendsetter, the Aventador, but the Murcielago was Lamborghini's standout design in the new millennium.
14. Lamborghini Estoque
Lamborghini has never built a sedan, but for a hot minute, it looked like a possibility following the Estoque's debut at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. Then the global economy imploded, Lamborghini's sales (and those of nearly every other automaker) tanked, and the Estoque's promise went unrealized. This was a handsome four-door, featuring all the right Lamborghini elements but in a four-door, front-engine body.
13. Lamborghini Urus
More than even the Huracan and Gallardo, the Lamborghini Urus shows the impact of the Volkswagen Group's influence on the Italian brand. The company's first large-scale SUV, the Urus rides on a Volkswagen Group platform and shares its twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 with a host of Audi, Porsche, and Bentley products. It's easy to forget that German influence, though, from behind the wheel. The Urus has a personality all its own, both in how it looks and how it drives.
12. Lamborghini Reventón
Like the Veneno, the Reventón was an extremely rare vehicle sold only to Lamborghini's most loyal customers. Unlike the Aventador-based Veneno, though, the Murcielago-based Reventón actually had some impact on the company's other products. The $2.1-million Reventón influenced the facelifted versions of the Gallardo, as well as the Murcielago's replacement, the Aventador.
11. Lamborghini Jalpa
The Lamborghini Jalpa was the brand's second attempt at an entry level model, following up on the limited success of the Silhouette. The Bertone body is like a miniature of the Countach, but with cleaner lines than the Silhouette, while a more powerful V8 engine – a 3.5-liter to the Silhouette's 3.0-liter – cut the zero-to-62 sprint down to a brisk six seconds flat. Ultimately, the Jalpa was far more successful than the car it replaced, with 410 units sold to the Silhouette's 54.
10. Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
Lamborghini's reliance on carbon fiber stretches far back than the 2011 Sesto Elemento (Italian for “sixth element”, which on the periodic table is carbon), but this Gallardo-based coupe took the use of the material to the extreme. Limited to the track, the Sesto Elemento's carbon-fiber construction cut nearly a ton of weight. Yep, this big-ish, 570-hp coupe weighed in at just 2,200 pounds. Lamborghini made only a few, but that's beside the point – as a technical exercise, the Sesto Elemento is incredible.
9. Lamborghini Veneno
Possibly the rarest production car on this list, Lamborghini built just five Veneno Coupes and nine Roadsters, each carrying multi-million-dollar price tags. Despite its radical body, this car's bones and engine are from the Aventador – there's a 6.5-liter V12 that scoots the Veneno to 60 in just 2.8 seconds.
8. Lamborghini Diablo
If the Countach was the 1970s in super car form, the Diablo was a perfect example of car design in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Almost impossibly wedge-shaped, the Diablo served as Lamborghini's flagship from 1990 to 2001, although we'd argue the most desirable examples are the pre-facelift cars, which featured pop-up headlights. Pop-up headlights are always better. But regardless of which year we're looking at, the Diablo is the last of the pre-Volkswagen Group Lamborghinis, for better or worse.
7. Lamborghini Espada
The Espada was the beginning of the end for front-engine, V12-powered Lamborghinis. Sold alongside the Islero and Jarama, it succeeded the 350 GT and 400 GT as the Italian brand's grand touring model. So why'd we choose the Espada over the Islero or Jarama? For a start, Lamborghini sold the Islero for just a single model year, while the Jarama looks like an anonymous performance car from the 1970s. The Espada, though, is Sophia Loren in car form. Curvy and seductive in its shape, the long hood hides the front-mounted V12, while an expansive greenhouse and fastback shape let in plenty of light. It's a stunning vintage GT.
6.Lamborghini Gallardo
Yes, the humble Gallardo deserves its position on our list. The Gallardo is here not because it was the first affordable Lamborghini – the company hoed that row before – but because it was the first product with input from Lamborghini's German overlords at Audi. That meant a degree of quality and reliability that had eluded the company's previous products. That it's also, to this day, the most successful model in the brand's history helps the Gallardo's case for such a high ranking. Over 14,000 examples left the Sant'Agata Bolognese factory during the car's 10 years of production.
5. Lamborghini L 33 Tractor
Before Ferruccio Lamborghini built sports cars, there was the L 33 Tractor. A product of Lamborghini Trattori, the L 33 was the first product wholly built by Ferruccio's outfit (aside from its engine). Under that long hood sits a diesel-powered 3.5-liter straight-6. While the L 33 was the first, it was far from Lamborghini Trattori's last tractor. The company is still around today, independent of Lamborghini the automaker, selling farm equipment all over the world (although not in North America, sadly).
4. Lamborghini LM002
The Lamborghini LM002, also known as the Rambo Lambo, was way ahead of its time. It had a cargo bed, a lifted ride height, a chunky SUV body, a four-wheel-drive system with a two-speed transfer case, and custom Pirelli rubber. That made it far and away the most versatile product Lamborghini had ever built. At the same time, the Countach V12 and five-speed manual ensured that this truck still accelerated like a Lamborghini should, hitting 60 mph in 7.7 seconds (don't laugh, according to the October 1987 issue of Car And Driver, a Range Rover took twice as long to get to 60 as the Rambo Lambo). The LM002 is to the Urus SUV as the Miura is to the Aventador.
3. Lamborghini 350 GT
The first production car to wear the Lamborghini badge, the 350 GT, famously, came about after Enzo Ferrari snubbed Ferruccio Lamborghini. Maranello's fragile cars and the poor ownership experience dissatisfied Lamborghini, a successful tractor manufacturer. Enzo didn't much care about Lamborghini's complaints, so Ferruccio decided to take a whack at car production. The 350 GT was the first fruit of that labor.
Carrozzeria Touring did the 350 GT's long, sleek body, while the legendary engineer Giotto Bizzarrini originally developed the front-mounted V12 for the 350 GT’s prototype, the 350 GTV. The 350 GT might not pack the visual punch and straight-line speed – it had around 280 hp – of later Lamborghinis, but it was a strong first step for the brand.
2. Lamborghini Countach
If you took the significance of the Miura and said “Yes, that, but with more disco”, the Lamborghini Countach would be the result. Where the Miura was the first real supercar, the Countach pioneered the angular wedge shape, scissor doors, and big aerodynamic elements (although the car in the above shot is missing the rear wing that came on later examples). That said, the Countach also came with numerous (character-adding, we'd argue) drawbacks. It was hard to get in and out of, impossible to see out of – drivers had to literally hang out of the car to back up – and the driving experience was difficult, to say the least. But as a defining moment in Lamborghini's lore, the first Countach is hard to beat.
1. Lamborghini Miura P400
There really couldn't have been another car here. The Miura is, without question, the best, most significant, most inspirational car Lamborghini has ever made. It pioneered the overall proportions and engine position of almost every Lamborghini that's followed. It's a desperately pretty car, but at the time, the Miura was also incredibly quick. Fittingly for the world's first supercar, the first mid-engine Lambo was also the fastest production vehicle when it hit the market.
See more at: Motor1.com
