The 1960s were the era of the great endurance races, and the 24h of Le Mans was the greatest of them all.
At the end of 1969, 3 years into the production of the Miura, Ferruccio Lamborghini felt that he had the pedigree to enter the fight. He decided that two Miuras would have been prepared exquisitely to run that single race.
With his company in perennial financial dire, he knew that he needed a sponsor. He stroke luck with Cynar - a popular Italian amaro that wanted to challenge Martini-Rossi’s fortune.
Developing an endurance capable car proved to be a task harder than expected. The unsatisfactory reliability of the engine, historically prone to carburetor fires, made the project shift to the following season.
Unbeknown to Lamborghini, Le Mans would soon announce that from 1972 engines would be limited to 3 liters; a figure that Bizzarrini’s 4.0 v12 was happily smashing.
The company concluded that they could not invest other resources in developing a new engine.
The two prototypes never reached Le Mans.
Model touch up and texturing - Federico Ciuffolini
Hope this was the first of many collabs 🙂
Cheers 🙂
