Lamborghini Diablo | Icons

25 April 2022 Redazione Supercars Lounge

Words Carlo Brema / Photos Lamborghini Media

Speaking of the 90s today, it almost makes tears appear on your face. It seems like we are looking back to a period so distant in time that it has very little in common with the world we know today. It is that magical time gap in which analog sports cars almost completely launched the swan song of a way of understanding the driving experience to be truly understood by those who were capable of exploiting the potential of an engine and a chassis together combined. It was the decade in which the frenetic race at maximum speed was at its first peak, absolute value that consecrated a dream car and cemented its shape on the walls of teenagers’ bedrooms and in the garages of those dreaming of spaceships on wheels and not just a random sedan. There were sharp edges, flashy aerodynamic appendages and gargantuan engines that competed to go below 4 seconds on the 0-100 kph, ignoring all those delimitations to which we have become accustomed and which over the years have imposed a radical change in supercars philosophy.

Speaking of the 90s in automotive terms is also equivalent to retracing the unmistakable silhouette of the Lamborghini Diablo, the model that incredibly managed to carry out the arduous task of replacing the fabulous Countach, maintaining a body close to the ground and a series of stylistic solutions with no hidden intentions, rather aimed at making the design of the new Lambo exotic from every point of view. Strong traits, a rear end reaching 2 meters in width in order to accommodate the generous 5.7cc naturally aspirated V12 with 492 horsepower, sitting just above colossal 335″ tires, doors with scissor opening and pop-up headlights, which despite were now considered an 80s trend, contributed to making the Diablo image even more unique and exotic.

This was the car to beat, a real speed king with license plate and insurance, capable of accelerating from a standstill to 100 in just 4.1 seconds and then touching 325 per hour, entering the Olympus of the most desired supercars ever. The Diablo was raw power, there was not much room for comfort, as the bucket seats of the very first generation offered space just for the driver and passenger in front of a rather bare dashboard. Driving pleasure was nowhere near what is meant today, not even talking about the most extreme ready to race weapons. The sound of the V12 forcefully came into play and the thrust of almost five hundred horses and a torque of 580 Nm were joining when you least expected that, between 5,200 and 7,000 rpm. While you had to tinker with a 5-speed manual gearbox and make sure that traction (rear axle only) managed to properly harness the fury of one of the wildest bulls of Sant’Agata Bolognese, the Diablo had already been able to bewitch precisely because taming it would be a far from simple task.

Marcello Gandini’s design, modified in collaboration with Tom Gal of the Chrysler Style Center (owners of the Lamborghini brand at the time) undergoes numerous interventions aimed at updating and modernizing subsequent versions of the Diablo. In 1993 it was the turn of the Diablo VT (Viscous Traction) which not only increased the car’s power, now at 530-hp and 605 Nm of torque, but also introduced all-wheel drive. In 1993 it was also the moment of the special edition Diablo SE 30, lighter thanks to the use of plexiglass panels and the absence of air conditioning and power steering and with a design that reflected its strong racing vocation, as for example in the case of the fixed rear spoiler now offered as part of the standard package. Just 15 of its 150 units also included a specific kit called Jota, which reached 600 horsepower and presented aesthetic details that guaranteed immediate recognition, as in the case of the two large air intakes for cooling. The first generation of the SV (Super Veloce, which means “super fast”) introduced an even more aggressive look and 520 horsepower distributed on the rear axle only.

The second series arrived in 1996 and brought with it mainly aesthetic bits such as the farewell to the retractable headlights and an interiors now made more comfortable, also declined for the renewed SV, in this case produced only in 1999. The maximum expression of the brutal power of the Diablo, both visual and performance-like, landed with the GT, the road version of the GT1 competition prototype, which, unlike what was hoped for, never saw the light of days in racing world. Its 12-cylinder increases in size, up to 6-liters and with an optimized mechanical compartment reaches a maximum power of 575 hp and 630 Nm of torque, numbers allowing a top speed of 338 per hour and a 0-100 of just 3.7 seconds. The last era of Lamborghini purity ends with the third generation and its VT 6.0, which combines a more modern and more civilized look than the SV and GT, thanks to a more linear and less violent power delivery, previewing the substantial metamorphosis that was about to take place shortly thereafter with the Murcielago.