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ItalianCar goes to Italy 2001
Outside Automobili Lamborghini
In October 2001 ItalianCar.com.au went to Modena, in the heart of Italy,
the home of fine Italian food and, more importantly, almost all the Italian
performance car manufacturers. Maserati and De Tomaso are in Modena itself,
whilst Ferrari and Lamborghini are just outside in the villages of Maranello
and Sant' Agata Bolognese respectively.Unfortunately the visits to Ferrari
and Maserati - now both part of the huge Fiat group - were perfunctory.
The ItalianCar emails warning of our impending arrival had mysteriously
gone astray and so the planned test drives of the Maserati Spyder and
Ferrari 360 had to be put on hold. You would have thought that a town
with so many exotic car manufacturers would be overrun with Ferraris,
Lamborghinis etc but sadly the only cars we saw on the roads were one
Ferrari and a Maserati Spyder driving around 'under wraps'. Maserati did
not allow us to photograph a few Spyders parked outside. The closest we
got to the Ferrari factory was the main entrance, with the tantalising
scream of cars being tested coming from behind the walls. There were however
plenty of Alfas, Lancias, Fiats, Autobianchis and Innocentis and many
of these now adorn the main models sections of ItalianCar.The visits to
De Tomaso and Lamborghini were altogether more successful.
De Tomaso
De Tomaso is a name steeped
in Italian car racing history. Despite being Argentinian by birth Alejandro
De Tomaso arrived in Modena at the (relatively) tender age of 27 and immediately
began racing Maserati cars. After 4 years in the driving seat he decided
to launch his own car company, initially designing and building racing
cars. In 1963 De Tomaso rolled out the first road-going car, the Vallelunga,
at the Turin Motor Show, and since then De Tomaso has established itself
as a specialist manufacturer of exclusive sports cars. In 1993 Alejandro
De Tomaso was taken ill and this badly affected the business. However
he is now largely recovered and so De Tomaso the company has been injected
with a new lease of life.
 Two
De Tomaso Guaras on the factory floor
The Guara coupe with a red barchetta in the
background
The current De Tomaso model is the Guara - a 4.6L
V8 GT with an impressive 270+ km/h top speed and a sub 5 secs 0-100 km/h.
It is named after a breed of Argentinian hunting dog and comes in two
guises - a conventional coupe and a barchetta. If you're thinking of ordering
the barchetta just remember it doesn't have a windscreen and De Tomaso
advises the wearing of a crash helmet. Oh and don't forget to have a spare
$250,000 AUD handy (if you do decide to order a new Guara you will certainly
be joining a select band - there are probably less than 100 road-going
De Tomasos in Australia).In 2003 De Tomaso plans to phase out the Guara
and produce new versions of the successful Pantera and Vallelunga models,
although at the moment only prototype drawings exist. In the meantime
De Tomaso is looking in a completely different direction with its current
project - the De Tomaso/UAZ 'Simbir' SUV.
A Simbir almost ready to go
De Tomaso has teamed up with UAZ
(rather unfortunately pronounced 'waz') the Russian vehicle manufacturer
to build a Russian/Italian answer to the Land Rover / Range Rover / Landcruiser.
The Simbir will be based on a Russian manufactured chassis equipped with
a VM engine. VM - now part of Detroit Diesel Corporation - supplies diesel
engines to Rover, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Ford and GM and the Simbir will
have the latest model - a 'Turbotronic' 2.5L supercharged 115bhp (81 kW)
engine. It is designed to compete head on with the Land Rover Defender
and Hyundai Galloper and promises excellent off-road capability - a function
of the rugged Russian chassis and a design giving the vehicle the ability
to cope with much rougher terrain. The Simbir still returns respectable
on-road performance - a max speed of 150 km/h and fuel consumption of
about 10kms/l. De Tomaso also emphasises a low noise level (70 dB at 80
km/h if that means anything to you) and plenty of room in the cabin. De
Tomaso has ambitious plans for the Simbir - 20,000 vehicles are planned
over the next 5 years. If you want to order one, it will cost you around
$40,000 AUD.
'I need a UAZ'
Lamborghini
Murcielago. Murcielago means 'bat' in Spanish and
looking at the car it could very well be the next BatMobile - low, mean
and exceedingly fast. This is of course purely coincidental - Lamborghini
name all their cars after bulls or things or people associated with bull-fighting
and the Murcielago is no exception - Murcielago was a bull. The successor
to the Diablo has been much awaited by Lambo fans and the Murcielago -
launched this year at the Frankfurt Motor Show - will not disappoint.
Equipped with a V12 6192cc engine developing 580bhp the all-wheel drive
Murcielago will take you to 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds and then up to
a maximum speed of 330km/h. When ItalianCar visited the new Lamborghini
factory the last Diablo was just being finished (the phrase 'production
line' does not really apply at Lamborghini where each car is hand crafted
- even the seats are made by hand in the factory) as a number of Murcielagos
were in various stages of completion.
A Murcielago on its way out the door
The new factory is an imposing building
which has benefitted from the new owner - Audi - seeing Lamborghini as
a testing ground for advanced technologies that can be applied to other
Audi brands. It also houses a museum containing a number of rare Lamborghinis,
including the very first Lamborghini ever - the 350GTV - which has been
loaned to Lamborghini by the japanese owner. An equally impressive sight
in the yard was a line-up of Diablos back at the factory for servicing.
"I'll swap you these for a 747"
The first Murcielagos are due
to arrive in Australia next February - there are 17 on order - and the
price tag is likely to be 'somewhere under $600,000 AUD'. The car will
be on display at the Melbourne Motor Show, so don't forget your chequebook.For
more information on the Murcielago see the News section, in the meantime
here's another famous Lamborghini - the Countach
© 2001 italiancar 16/11/01
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