It appeared in a Rocky montage at one point.
In fact, it wasn't just any Rocky montage; rather, it was the montagiest of montages from the Rockiest of Rockies, Rocky IV. Not to be confused with the rockiest of the Rockies, Rocky V, who is unquestionably the most rockiest of all. The climax is... a street brawl involving a Tommy Gun, of course. Really? Then there's Burgess Meredith's final appearance as Mickey Goldmill, which will be difficult to sit through without crying.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. To put it another way, the comparatively humble little Jalpa was given prominent billing in Rocky IV and was depicted as a symbol of his success, complete with a license plate reading 'SOTHPAW'. Who knows, Rocky's success may not have reached the level of an Aston Martin or that "Happy Birthday Paulie" robot; we don't know what happened to his money. What we do know is that a jet-black Jalpa was waiting for him when he needed to cruise around and think things through.
Lamborghini only sold a few units.
In the automotive industry, there is something of a rule: unless you're talking about an obscenely expensive hypercar, the build run has to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not thousands of units. Despite this, Lamborghini only sold slightly more than 400 Jalpas throughout the model's entire production run.
However, it performed significantly better than the Silhouette on which it was based, which sold only 53 units in total.
Despite this, it was able to save the company.
At the end of the 1970s, Lamborghini was... well, to put it in the local lingo, essere fino al collo in esso, which means "to the very end of the line." Because of the recession of the mid-1970s, the 1973 Oil Crisis, the fact that Lamborghini's only two-car lineup was not officially sold in America (at the time, the company's largest market), and the failure of the Cheetah military vehicle to win a supply contract with the United States Armed Forces, Lamborghini was forced to close its doors. And then slathered it all over the place.
The plan was crystal clear while the company was in receivership and under new management: rework the Silhouette into something people would actually buy, sell as many as possible, and keep the wolves away from the door. And, even with just a little more than 400 Jalpas finding new homes, it was more than enough.
Following that, Lambo used the funds to update the Countach, which was eventually approved for sale in the United States as the LP500S.. Another update to the Countach – the LP 5000 Quattrovalvole – as well as a reworking of the Cheetah as the ultimate vanity vehicle, the LM002, helped to transform Lamborghini from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to one that was sold to Chrysler for $25 million in 1987 dollars. In today's money, that's more than $61 million, or approximately £50 million.
Just in case you're interested, AM General was awarded the Humvee contract by the United States Armed Forces, in case you were wondering.
It's actually a development of the Urraco in some ways.
Technically speaking, it's a development of the Urraco's drop-top version of the vehicle. As a result, it is an evolution of the Urraco's evolutionary process. However, because that is a rather dense heading, we kept it as simple as possible.
So, there's the Urraco. For the majority of us, it's that black supercar that didn't do much for James May during the early days of Top Gear television. However, if you were able to locate one that actually worked, it was a proper thing to do. The engine was designed by Gian Paolo Dallara, the body was designed by Marcello Gandini, and the car itself was created to compete with the Ferrari Dino 308 and Maserati Merak, among others. Which, interestingly enough, were the two other automobiles featured in TG telly's film.
Even though it was in the shadow of the Countach, it was actually a better daily driver.
It's no secret that the Countach can be a little difficult to live with on a day-to-day basis, and the Countach is no exception. It was as loud as a My Bloody Valentine concert, using the clutch was equivalent to doing a leg press, it was wider than the road you were driving down, and visibility was as good as a typical blizzard, to name a few things.
For its part, the Jalpa boasted an exceptionally light clutch, good visibility, a comfortable and quiet interior, and was still narrow enough to fit into a single lane despite being fitted with bolt-on arches. Of course, when compared to a modern automobile, the steering wheel – and, in some ways, the throttle pedal – feel as hefty as a Black Mirror episode.
Ferruccio wasn't even at the helm at that point in the story.
Lamborghini was experiencing some difficulties by the early Seventies. Ferruccio's tractor business was the first to suffer, as a result of a series of events that many would argue were not Lambo's fault in the first place. Everything is familiar: export business, orders that aren't delivered, a coup in Bolivia – that sort of thing. As a result, he sold it to another tractor company. Regarding the Lamborghini automobiles, Ferruccio sold a 51 percent controlling interest to a Swiss investor in 1972, and then sold the remaining 49 percent to another investor following the 1973 Oil Crisis. The Jalpa did not appear until after these investors had driven Lamborghini to the brink of bankruptcy and the administrators had intervened.
Ferruccio, on the other hand, had already given away the entire game by relocating to a villa near Lake Trasimeno where he began making wine, which he claims is truly delicious. Perhaps a Top Gear wine review will be forthcoming? Our pitch for a sister publication – Top Beer – didn't go anywhere, but there's always hope in the world of publishing.
Before the Urus, it was the last Lambo V8 until now.
And, while the Urus is a well-known Lamborghini, it is not necessarily what comes to mind when you think of the brand. This isn't even an oversquare, all-aluminum V8 like the one designed by Gian Paolo Dallara; it's more like a VW-Audi V8 than a genuine Lambo V8. That Gian Paolo Dallara, you know who I'm talking about.
Like so many things in life, the best was saved for last in the engine world. The 255bhp V8 in the back of the Jalpa has been stroked to 3.5 litres from the Urraco P300's 3.0 litres, and it has quad cams as opposed to the Urraco and Silhouette's single cam per bank. It can accelerate from a standing start to 60 mph in... well, somewhere around six seconds.
Yes, that is correct. It has been reported to take anywhere between 5.8 and 6.8 seconds; however, the current consensus suggests that it is more likely to be in the latter rather than the former.
It did, in fact, have a decent boot.
Lamborghini has brought you the practical supercar, which was made possible by the company's financial woes. For the simple reason that it makes sense.
Although we have only had a few decades on this planet, one thing we have learned is that humanity does not operate under such limiting principles as commonsense, logic, or even self-preservation. We must have progressed beyond that point, or something. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
For the purposes of this article, if you can track down and acquire parts for a 40-year old, limited-run supercar from an Italian manufacturer, and then convince those parts to work together to produce a functional machine, you could easily convince yourself that the Jalpa is a practical supercar. On the other hand, what about your better half? That is your responsibility, not ours.