Balboni on 60 Minutes [History Of Lamborghini]
Balboni on 60 Minutes [History Of Lamborghini]
Transcript
00:00If there is one consuming passion in this country, it is with cars.
00:14If there is one consuming passion in Italy, it is with cars.
00:18If there is truly a dream car to satisfy those passions, the name it bears is this, Lamborghini.
00:25Being a dream, it is, of course, utterly impractical.
00:28Price about 120,000, space, two seats, no trunk.
00:32If this story looks like a commercial, well, no harm done.
00:35They can only make about 300 a year, and you might have to wait two years to get one.
00:41A vineyard in central Italy, a 70-year-old gentleman farmer who still gets a thrill from
00:49tending his own vines.
00:51The end of another day, time to put away the tractor and let the other thrills begin.
01:07His name is Ferruccio Lamborghini.
01:10The tractor he was driving was a Lamborghini.
01:12The car he is driving is a Lamborghini.
01:19The speed he is going is pure Lamborghini.
01:23Signor Lamborghini no longer owns the company that bears his name.
01:27It was lost to a business group after he ran into financial difficulties, but he is the
01:32father of this model.
01:35He got into the car business in 1963, having become dissatisfied with the best of Italian
01:40high-performance cars.
01:44Watch this red one perform, and you will understand why he is now satisfied.
01:52We do not advise anyone to drive at these speeds on public roads.
01:56Valentino Balboni, the test driver, is licensed to do it and does it brilliantly.
02:02Brakes are just something, man.
02:16The company does not have a test track.
02:18Our cars are built for the road, it says.
02:23It's a thrilling ride, I must say.
02:31The broken lines fly by like tracer bullets, or get eaten up like some supersonic pac-man.
02:39This is no special effect.
02:41This is 180 miles an hour.
02:46Do you find it relaxing?
02:48Yes, yes. With this back, yes.
02:5216 years ago, Lamborghini, with a team of engineers, designed and began to build his
02:58ultimate road car.
03:00It remains today the fastest production car available.
03:04180, even 195 miles an hour.
03:08And, about the most expensive, about $120,000.
03:12When it was unveiled in the early 70s, it had no name.
03:15But a local reporter took one look and said,
03:18Kuntash.
03:21Which translates loosely as, holy cow.
03:24And the name stuck.
03:27Some vital statistics for the true car fanatic.
03:30The engine has 12 cylinders, each of which has a displacement of 1.5 liters.
03:35The engine is a naturally aspirated V6.
03:38For the true car fanatic.
03:40The engine has 12 cylinders, each of them with 4 valves.
03:43It develops almost 500 horsepower.
03:46The rear tires are almost 14 inches wide.
03:49The brakes are enormous, vented discs that are to stopping,
03:53what those 12 cylinders are to moving.
03:56The gearbox has 5 speeds.
03:58You would normally shift into 5th at about 140 miles an hour.
04:03And from a standing start to 30 seconds later.
04:08You are closer to 200 miles an hour than to 100 miles an hour.
04:13The Lamborghini factory in Sant'Agata is, despite the futuristic look of the car,
04:18an oasis of old-fashioned artisanship.
04:31The Kuntash barely uses any bought-in subcontracted parts.
04:35Everything from engine block to gearbox is made right here.
04:38And most things made by hand.
04:40Just like a good suit.
04:45There are no robots, only people who began their careers as teenage apprentices.
04:51The place is as clean as a surgery.
04:53And the machine as thoroughly tested as a fighter plane.
04:57All of which means that peak production is 3 cars a week.
05:01The waiting list for one is more than a year.
05:05Is this the Lamborghini Kuntash for everyone, for every driver?
05:09For everyone who can afford it?
05:11No. I think it is a special car for special people.
05:16Daniele Odetto is the marketing director for the Kuntash.
05:20Is there such a thing as a typical Lamborghini purchaser?
05:23A typical owner?
05:25Yes, very large even.
05:27Because if you are shy, you cannot go around with this car.
05:30It's like going out in the evening with a beautiful woman.
05:35Not everybody can afford it.
05:37Not because they don't have enough money or because they have enough power.
05:41But because they are not the type that likes to go out with a very beautiful woman.
05:48Because, you know, this white car is like a beautiful virgin.
05:53If you see the red, it's like a mature woman.
05:56If you see the black one, it's like an intriguing woman, you know?
06:02What are its weaknesses?
06:04The weakness is that it's not a very comfortable car, of course.
06:07You cannot go with the baggages, etc.
06:12You must have another car, like a Roll Royce that follows you with a chauffeur.
06:16And arrive the day later, the day after, with all the baggages.
06:20And of course you cannot go with children.
06:23You must have only a beautiful woman and that's it.
06:27Even now, 16 years after it was launched, it still regularly makes the covers of the motoring magazines.
06:34Probably the most written about car ever built, possibly overwritten about.
06:39For example, devastatingly defiant in looks.
06:43Just light the fuse and keep steering.
06:46Uncompromisingly arrogant.
06:50Another writer says,
06:51like tasting beer for the first time or losing one's virginity,
06:55seeing a Countach is an experience never forgotten.
06:59Another writer.
07:01Here we are talking about the brutal throb of a predator.
07:04The same that vibrates in a cheetah waiting to pounce on a gazelle.
07:12It is hard to find anyone to question the value of the Countach.
07:16Even David Davis, editor and publisher of Automobile Magazine,
07:20and one of America's toughest car critics, is smitten.
07:24It's probably overpriced.
07:27Hemingway said that pheasant shooting was worth whatever you had to pay for it.
07:31And I think that's probably true with Lamborghini driving too.
07:34There's no trunk space.
07:35None whatsoever.
07:37And what trunk space there is, is immensely hot.
07:41It would not be a place to carry a box of chocolates.
07:45Why do people buy it?
07:46Well, it's the ultimate sort of outlaw statement, isn't it?
07:51It's in a time when we've got the Center for Automotive Safety
07:56and all of those people on one side
07:58and the Baptists on the other
08:00trying to sort of corral us and make us behave the way we're supposed to.
08:04You can very quickly establish yourself as being somewhere else
08:08just by parking one of those in front of your house.
08:10It's a car that would just frighten you to death
08:14if you had the slightest doubt of your ability to drive it.
08:17To suddenly have somebody throw you the keys and say,
08:20would you mind driving my car home
08:21and walk out into a dark parking lot
08:23and see this thing sort of glowering at you,
08:26you would call a taxi, you'd do almost anything.
08:28I'd bring in an airlift,
08:30but you certainly wouldn't want to jump into it and drive it.
08:33The whole idea, the whole environment that's created
08:37by that car on a given stretch of road
08:39is just, that's another matter altogether.
08:42You can't accomplish that in a Buick Roadmaster.
08:46As you may have already noticed, this car is not for everyone.
08:50The doors are a wondrous piece of engineering,
08:53but getting in can require a certain degree of agility.
08:59The windows open to mere slits
09:01through which you can't even toss a token into a toll booth.
09:05As for the rear window, if you can call it that,
09:08forget reversing without the aid of someone to direct you,
09:12or do what the test drivers do, heads up, bottoms out.
09:17If you can live without those little compromises
09:20to comfort and safety and have the cash,
09:25you might just fall in love with this little number.
09:29One writer says,
09:30it is not what the Countach can do for you that counts,
09:34but what it does to others.
09:38That is certainly true.
09:40Anywhere the Countach goes, it stops trapping dead.
09:44Even right here in Sant'Agata, where the car is built,
09:48the presence of one is an event.
09:56Or the streets of Manhattan,
09:58even the most jaded people on earth
10:00stop and gawk with respect and envy and awe.
10:04I love this car, man, I love this car.
10:06And misinformation.
10:28It is the toy for the man who has everything.
10:31So, of course, the man who does have everything,
10:34the millionaire publisher, balloonist,
10:36oldest and richest hell's angel on earth,
10:39Malcolm Forbes, has what?
10:41How do New Yorkers respond to it when you bring it into town?
10:45They respond the same way you and I would if we saw one.
10:48They stop, they whistle, cars pull up beside you,
10:51and whether they're in a Cadillac or an old pickup truck,
10:55they whistle, they roll the window down, they say,
10:58What's the name of this car?
11:00How much?
11:01And you go by and you get a toot from other cars
11:04and they give you the sign.
11:06Isn't it great?
11:08Everybody shares enthusiasm for the car.
11:10People don't resent it like they do, say, a stretch limousine.
11:13It takes ten minutes to get around the corner
11:15in the tinted dark glasses, all the crap.
11:17There's nothing junky about this.
11:19There's nothing put on about it. It's pure.
11:32I firmly believe that everyone
11:36who is worth anything at all
11:40should own a 12-cylinder car before they die
11:43because there's nothing else like it.
11:46It's just one of the great operatic experiences of all time.
11:50It's a real noise and there's nothing else like it.
11:53It'll take your breath away.
12:02This machine makes no practical sense whatsoever,
12:06but it's more than just status symbol.
12:10Not a jewel to be stroked and admired,
12:13it's a tool to be used,
12:15and when properly used,
12:17it connects the driver to a great Italian tradition
12:20of technology and design.
12:23It brings out the Italian in us.
12:31www.ElectricUnicycles.eu