Lamborghini Latinoamérica grabs the bull by the horns with Miura II plans
by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) on Oct 25th, 2010 at 7:59AM
Think the Murcielago is getting long in the tooth? Well it is. But the Murci’s advancing age looks positively pre-pubescent next to the Diablo. Wait a second, you say? The Diablo hasn’t been built in nearly a decade now. Well Lamborghini hasn’t – not the automaker we know in Italy, anyway. But its underpinnings still carry on in a land far, far away from the factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Over the years, Lamborghini has had more owners than Chrysler. Which is ironic, because before the Volkswagen Group took it over, Chrysler was its happy papa. But in between, the Raging Bull was tamed by an Indonesian outfit called MegaTech. (It seemed strange at the time, less so now since Malaysians bought Lotus and Indians took over Jaguar.) The new investors were apparently a little strapped for cash, though, so in 1995 they worked out a deal with a Mexican entrepreneur named Jorge Antonio Fernandez Garcia, AKA Joan Ferci.
Under Ferci’s direction, Automóviles Lamborghini Latinoamérica SA continued building derivatives of the Diablo for years after its architecture was phased out back in Italy. (They might have gotten their hands on a newer platform, but there’s apparently some dispute with Volkswagen over the original deal inked with MegaTech.) Apparently, the Mexican federal government has enough faith in Ferci that they’ve reportedly given him a grant to build a new factory at which he plans to produce a new generation of, um… “Lamborghinis”.
The Diablo-based Coatl and Alar – which may or may never have actually made it into production – could carry on, supplemented (or potentially replaced) by such planned designs as the Miura II pictured above, and even an SUV called Gran Toro to pick up the reins that Sant’Agata let fall with the demise of the old LM002.
[Source: Argentina Auto Blog]