In the year 1980, Lamborghini had gone through a paradigm shift. After a bad period, and in financial ruin, the company was taken over by its new owners and was about to blossom once again. With a new technical director at the helms, Giulio Alfieri, Lamborghini was ready to shine again at the 1981 Geneva Motor Show. Wanting to take the show by storm, and to show that they were back, Lamborghini exhibited a number of cars. One of them was a Swiss version of the Miura, which was nothing new, as there was another type of car the public hadn’t seen yet. This was the reinterpretation of the original military off-roader, the Cheetah, and was dubbed the LM001. The now new, Swiss owners, the Mimram brothers, wanted to reignite the previously failed attempt at an off-roader and with a new steady flow of cash, the desperately needed evolution of Lamborghinis’ line-up became a possibility.
The LM in LM001 was rumoured to stand for Lamborghini Militaria 001, or Lamborghini Mimram. Although, similar to the original Cheetah, with a rear mount engine, it was more of a reimagining, rather than an evolution of its’ predecessor. The LM 001 however did have some problems, and with it came a successor later on. The show did not stop there however, as the stand also featured two Countach models. Another interesting car being previewed was the Jalpa prototype. With the open top 1976 Silhouette only seeing 52 units produced, never saw any export to the United States, and thus the Mimram brothers wanted to create a new open top “targa style” roofed Lamborghini. Bertone turned the original Silhouette into a beautiful, smooth, and much more refined car. It was in style with the supercars of that era and also used wheels which were pretty much a replica of the ones used on the Athon concept. 1982, the car was dubbed the new baby Lambo. Unlike the Countach though, it housed a nice V8 engine, was a “targa” open top and was exported to the U.S, but still suffered.
It was uncomfortable to drive, had a lot of competition from the likes of Ferrari and Porsche, and was quite normal looking. In fact, it was very dull next to the outrageous and lavish big brother, the Countach, and let’s face it, if people were going to buy a Lambo, they didn’t want to be inconspicuous and understated. By the next year, the Mimram brothers were adamant on introducing an off-roader, and thus, offered the LMA002, now making use of a front mount engine to better balance the car. In 1986 the Countach saw further developments, and was released in the form of the LP5000 Quattrovalvole. A tuned version of the now 22 year old V12, skyrocketed the car to 455 bhp, and well ahead of the competition, and especially of its main rival at the time, the Ferrari Testarossa. This gave Lamborghini a good and steady sale of their cars, and by 1987, the Countach and Jalpa, as well as orders for the LM series were flowing and progressing the company. By the year 1987, the successor to the Countach, the Tipo 132, was in its beginning prototype stages. The Jalpa, also received an update, the Spyder.
Also known as the speedster, the car featured a canvas roof, but because of complications, never made it into production. In the same year, 1987, the company over went a massive change once again, and attained its new owners. This time, the American based motor company, Chrysler took over on the 23rd of April. In order to celebrate the Chrysler overtaking of Lamborghini, a new concept car was created, now by American designers. By 1988, The Portofino was a 4-seater aerodynamic concept developed onto a lengthened Jalpa chassis. Using the same engine as the Jalpa, it was rather fast achieving 149mph (240km/h), however, its’ main feature was horizontally opening “Lambo doors” for both the front and rear passengers. It even used the Lamborghini raging bull in the Chrysler logo, as the badge. This car inspired the later released Eagle Optima, and even further on, the Dodge Intrepid. Still in the same year, another concept was developed, known as the Genesis, designed by Bertone design, which was a super, mini-van styled car, with speed in focus and also featured the Lambo style doors.
At this time the company was also manufacturing engines for Formula 1 cars at their Lamborghini Engineering SpA building. Although the engines were becoming more and more successful over the years, by 1991, the endeavour ended. By 1989, the swansong and last model for the 17 year long production of the Countach, came into what was supposed to be a limited production, but ended up becoming the best selling version of the Countach ever. This car also became the celebration model, to mark the company’s 25 years in existence, and was thus called the Countach 25th Anniversary. In fact, the car was drastically redesigned, and although, used the base of the QuattroValvole, was a brand new Countach. It was a brilliant car and praiseworthy for the celebration model, which was actually supposed to be the belated Diablo, but was behind schedule at the time. At the turn of the next decade, Lamborghini presented their brand new car, on the 21st of January.
