1963 Lamborghini 350 GTV
Imagine for a moment that you’ve gone to an international car show, and on arriving discovered that John Deere has built a car. And not only that, but it is a super fast and exotic grand tourer, designed to take on the biggest names is GT carbuilding. You’d probably have to go home and lay down, but you would have also gotten an important insight into what it must have felt like to be at the 1963 Turin Auto Show. Because that is where Lamborghini, up until that point a company known for building tractors, unveiled the 350GTV. This was the prototype that would lead to the production 350GT, Lamborghini’s first production car.
It featured a controversial semi-fastback body design by Franco Scaglione, which was modified for series production by Carrozzeria Touring, and Lamborghini’s own 3.5 liter V-12 engine.
To this day, it is considered one of the smoothest V12 engines ever. The engine was made mostly from aluminum, using hardened steel only on the crankshaft. Each short stroke cylinder had four big bore valves. Most impressive was the fact that Lamborghini’s engine had a quadcam unheard of in anything other than a Formula 1 racecar. Each pair was propelled by a silent chain attached to half engine speed sprockets. Compare that to Ferrari’s typical single cam production models. That engine was mythically powerful compared to its competitors. When most other engines produced under 250 horsepower, the Lamborghini V12 had 347 prancing horses at their disposal. Which made Enzo regret insulting the tractor mechanic turned mogul.
The white leather upholstery found inside the prototype was created by an external upholsterer, again because Ferruccio’s factory just wasn’t ready to do the job yet, other than some careful assembling of the different components, not much was really build by Automobili Lamborghini SpA, not yet anyway.
Naturally, the engine was the most important part in this new car, but it still needed some other components too, like a chassis and a beautiful bodywork, Ferruccio wanted to impress people with his first car, so he had to get it right from the start.
For most of the GTV’s life, it remained engineless due to clearance problems. Indeed the capable engine that Bizzarrini developed would not fit due to the tall downdraft Webers. After being ignored for over 22 years, a large restoration on the car was undertaken. During this process, the chassis was modified to accept the production 350 GT V12.
Lamborghini’s dream car was designed to directly oppose Ferrari’s race-ready, track-derived monsters. Wanting a higher level of refinement, Lamborghini’s first car to roll off the assembly line was the 1963 350 GTV.
