LAMBORGHINI DIABLO
by David Gidman
In June 1985 Lamborghini began development of a replacement for the
Countach, Lamborghini’s then flagship sports car. It was codenamed
Project 132. The brief stated that the top speed of the new car had to be at
least 196 mph. The design of the car was contracted to Marcello Gandini,
who had designed its two predecessors. When Chrysler Corporation
bought the company in 1987, funding the company to complete the
car’s development, its management was uncomfortable with Gandini’s
designs and commissioned its design team in Detroit to execute a third
extensive redesign, smoothing out the infamous sharp edges and corners
of Gandini’s original design, and leaving him famously unimpressed.
The new car was named Diablo, carrying on Lamborghini’s tradition of
naming its cars after breeds of fighting bulls. The Diablo was named after
a ferocious bull raised by the Duke of Veragua in the 19th century, famous
for fighting an epic battle with ‘El Chicorro’ in Madrid on 11 July 1869. In
the words of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, the Diablo was designed
“solely to be the biggest head-turner in the world.” The Diablo was presented
to the public for sale on 21 January 1990. Its power came from a 5.7 L version
of the existing V12 from the Countach, featuring dual overhead cams with
4 valves per cylinder and computer-controlled multi-point fuel injection,
producing a maximum output of 485 bhp and 580 Nm of torque. The vehicle
could reach 0-62 mph in about 4.5 seconds, with a top speed of 202 mph.
The Diablo was rear-wheel drive and the engine was mid-mounted to aid its
weight balance.
The Diablo came better equipped than the Countach; standard features
included fully adjustable seats and steering wheel, electric windows, an
Alpine stereo system. Anti-lock brakes were not initially available, although
they would eventually be used. A few options were available, including a
custom-moulded driver’s seat, remote CD changer and subwoofer, rear
spoiler, factory fitted luggage set and an exclusive Breguet clock for the dash
priced at £15,500.
The Diablo VT was introduced in 1993. The VT differed from the standard
Diablo in a number of ways, by far the most notable change was the addition
of all wheel drive, which made use of a viscous center differential. This is
a modified version of LM002’s 4WD system. The VT stands for viscous
traction. The new drivetrain could direct up to 25% of the torque to the front
wheels to aid traction during rear wheel slip, thus significantly improving the
handling characteristics of the car. Other improvements debuting on the VT
included front air intakes below the driving lamps to improve brake cooling,
larger intakes in the rear arches, a more ergonomic interior with a revised
electronically adjustable dampers, four-piston brake calipers, power steering,
and minor engine refinements. Many of these improvements, save the four-
wheel drive system, soon transferred to the base Diablo, making the cars
visually identical.
The Diablo SE30 was also introduced in 1993 as a limited-production special
edition model to commemorate the company’s 30th anniversary. The car
was designed largely as a street-legal race vehicle that was lighter and more
powerful than the standard Diablo. The engine received a healthy boost to 523
bhp by means of a tuned fuel system, free-flowing exhaust, and magnesium
intake manifolds. The car remained rear-wheel drive to save weight, and
omitted the electrically adjustable shock absorbers of the VT model, but
it was equipped with adjustable-stiffness anti-roll bars which could be
controlled from the interior, on the move. The car’s weight was lowered by
replacing the power glass side windows with fixed Plexiglas with a small
sliding vent window as on many race cars and removing luxury features such
as the air conditioning, stereo, and power steering. Carbon fibre seats with
96 wirrallife.com
4-point race harnesses and a fire suppression system added to the race nature
of the vehicle. On the outside, the SE30 differed from other Diablo models
with a revised front fascia featuring new brake cooling ducts and a deeper
spoiler, while the rear cooling ducts were changed to a vertical body-coloured
design. The raging bull emblem was moved from the front of the luggage lid
to the nose panel of the car between the front indicators. The engine lid had
slats covering the narrow rear window, while a larger spoiler was installed as
standard equipment. The single rear fog lamp and rear backup lamp, which
had been on either side of the rear grille, were moved into the bumper; this
change would be applied to all Diablo models. Completing the exterior
modifications were special magnesium alloy wheels, SE30 badging, and a
new metallic purple paint colour, Viola SE30 which is still available via the
Ad Personum department. Only 150 SE30 models were built, and of these,
about 15 were converted to “Jota” specification (although 28 Jota kits were
produced). The “Jota” was a factory modification kit designed to convert the
race-oriented SE30 into an actual circuit racer, albeit at the cost of street-legal
operation. A revised engine lid with two ducts protruding above the roofline
forced air into the intake system; a similar lid design would later be used on
the Diablo SV model. With even more tuning of the Diablo’s venerable V12
engine, the Jota kit produced nearly 595 bhp and 639 Nm of torque. The rear-
view mirror from the interior was also removed because it was completely
useless with the revised engine lid. This further adding to the race feeling of
the car.
The Diablo SE30 was famously used in Jamiroquai’s music video for the hit
single Cosmic Girl in 1996. The video, directed by Adrian Moat, shows three
famous supercars driving and racing each other through several highways
and mountain roads across a desert landscape from clear daylight to dawn.
The cars in the video are a black Ferrari F355 GTS, a viola Lamborghini
Diablo SE30 and a red Ferrari F40. Jamiroquai’s lead singer Jay Kay is driving
the purple Lamborghini with Stuart Zender on the co-pilot seat, but the
driver of the black Ferrari is not shown in detail. It has four different edits:
Versions 1–3, and the so-called ‘Jay’s cut’ version.
In a Top Gear interview, Jay Kay explained that before filming, one car
had been totalled during transportation, and the windscreen of the second
was smashed after one of the precision drivers knocked the camera off the
cliff. Jay stated, “They made three of those special edition 30th-anniversary
Diablos, and one was a Jota, so it was a 600 brake car that was not really
road legal, so there were only two. So I had mine in storage, and the guy goes
to stick it on the car transporter, and then I got word that he’d just totalled
this car, and we kind of had to have a purple one, because it was the purple,
the cosmic, you know it’s just one of those things. So we got the other one,
and I said, “Look, wait until I get there. I’m flying in. Just nobody drive it
until I get there, please. We can’t afford to smash it”. So I came off the plane,
and everybody looked really downtrodden, looking at the floor, and I went,
“Why are you looking so sad?”, and they said, “One of the precision drivers
has knocked the camera off the cliff and taken out the front windscreen, so
there’s no windscreen. Lamborghini can’t send one for another day or so”. So
for most of the video, it had to be done with no windscreen, that’s why you
see me squinting, and actually trying to sing the song as well, while driving
the mountain road”. The F40 was provided by the Pink Floyd drummer Nick
Mason, who drove in the video as well. The video was filmed at the Cabo de
Gata, in Spain.
To Be Continued……..
If you want a Diablo expect to pay £130 and £550k.
For all things Lamborghini contact [email protected]