If you had asked us just a few days ago if Giorgetto Giugiaro was behind the design of any production Lamborghini, we probably would have answered, Sure, he must have…right? Wrong. Because none of Lamborghini’s road cars ever bore the famed designer’s lines.

Bertone styled a few, but those only came years after Giugiaro left for Ghia and then went independent with ItalDesign. Over the course of his later career, he did a couple of design studies for the Raging Bull marque – like the Marco Polo of 1982 and the 1995 Cala concept. But though the latter, it could be claimed, eventually lead to the Gallardo (with a very different design), neither of these ever reached production. But this one almost did. Or at least maybe it should have.

Back in the early 1960s, Lamborghini was still making tractors. But word on the street was that old Ferruccio was bent on showing up Enzo Ferrari with a sportscar of his own. So a number of design houses started submitting proposals, unsolicited. Pininfarina, Ghia, Vignale and Michelotti were among those who vied for the contract, but Carrozzeria Touring eventually won out with the 350 GT, based on the work of former Bertone stylist Franco Scaglione.

Now, some fifty years later, an original design submitted by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro, still working at Bertone, has surfaced. And not just in renderings, either. The designer’s son Fabrizio digitized his father’s sketches, milled them into a model, painted it yellow, detailed the body and put it on a set of period-correct Borrani wires.

The design, as you can plainly see, was way ahead of its time. If you’re thinking it reminds you of the Ferrari P3 or 250 LM, or like one of the Alfa Romeo BAT designs, think again, because none of those – nor anything like it – came along until years later. The result was presented to Giorgetto as a 70th birthday present, and is now prominently displayed at the company’s design headquarters in Moncalieri, just nine miles south of Turin. But if you’re not planning on visiting the area any time soon, you can check it out in our high-resolution image gallery.

Giugiaro’s original Lamborghini design unearthed and realized 50 years later originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ferrari sure had a lot to celebrate this past weekend at Silverstone. Not only did Fernando Alonso score the team’s first win of the season, but he did it on a rather momentous occasion for the Scuderia: Sixty years ago in 1951, José Floilán González scored the team’s very first victory at the same grand prix, held on the same second weekend in July as this year’s race.

In what might be seen as a bit of a premonition of Alonso’s victory, or maybe just a little touch of good luck, the two-time world champion borrowed the very same car in which González took the checkered flag there sixty years ago around for a couple of hot laps, and even got it a little sideways coming out of the corners.

The 1951 Ferrari 375 today belongs to F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who was evidently glad to bring it over to the Northamptonshire circuit for the historic demonstration and entrust it to a pair of hands that, as proven on race day, are some of the most skilled in the world. Follow the jump to watch the video.

Continue reading Alonso laps Ferrari’s first grand prix winner at Silverstone… sixty years later

Alonso laps Ferrari’s first grand prix winner at Silverstone… sixty years later originally appeared on Autoblog 5.0 on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thirty years ago, Walter Röhrl and his co-driver Christian Geistdörfer very nearly won the San Remo Rally, after a comeback that would have been one for the ages. Röhrl and Geistdörfer were up against a field of faster, more powerful four-wheel-drive cars in their rear-wheel-drive Porsche 911 SC, and somehow managed to pull within an eyelash of victory.

Unfortunately, a broken driveshaft forced the pair to retire, leaving Michele Mouton’s Audi Quattro to run away with the race. Now, exactly thirty years after their heartbreak in San Remo, Röhrl and Geistdorfer are back in their 911 SC for the five-day, 2000-km Targa Tasmania. The rally starts today, and you can follow Röhrl and Geistdörfer’s progress here at Porsche UK.

The car that Röhrl drove in the 1981 San Remo rally was thrown together last minute because he was without a drive until just before the start of the race. The ill-fated San Remo run was the car’s only outing in professional competition. For this year’s Targa Tasmania, the car was found in a garage and restored to its 1981 competition specification.

[Source: Porsche]

Continue reading Porsche’s Walter Röhrl, Christian Geistdörfer team up 30 years later for Targa Tasmania

Porsche’s Walter Röhrl, Christian Geistdörfer team up 30 years later for Targa Tasmania originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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