spot_img
HomeFeatured VehiclesJay Leno takes a look at the engines that power Lamborghinis

Jay Leno takes a look at the engines that power Lamborghinis

-

The latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage isn’t about physical Lamborghinis, but rather the heart and soul of a brand: the engines.

Leno brought on Andrew Romanowski, president of the Lamborghini Club of America, who showed off two engines from the Italian firm’s history.

The first was a 3.5-liter V12, the first Lamborghini engine. Normally, it sits under the hood of a 350 GT. Romanowski said he’s in the process of restoring the car, but the engine is ready to roll. For the show, Romanowski threw it on a cart modeled after one used by Lamborghini at a 1960s auto show to display it and fire up.

As the story goes, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to build a better engine for a road car than Ferrari. While that’s subjective, the V12 powerplant certainly caught everyone’s attention. The engine originally made 315 horsepower, but Romanowski didn’t offer the output of his restored version.

The rest of Lamborghini and Ferrari’s history is rather well known. Cliff notes for those interested: two Italian men, a sports car builder and a tractor builder, argued about building a better car, and Ferrari told Lamborghini to do it himself. So he did.

Jay Leno took a look at two engines from Lamborghini on the most recent episode of Jay Leno's Garage. | Screenshot
Jay Leno took a look at two engines from Lamborghini on the most recent episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. | Screenshot

Lamborghini’s V12 was regarded as smoother and slightly more advanced than the engines Ferrari had put into its own road cars. On the cart, it also looked like an artistic masterpiece, with the valve covers elegantly displaying the Lamborghini name. The engine features four cams, two valves per cylinder, and six Weber carburetors.

Leno remarked that it came at about the middle point of the development of the automobile, and that it’s not very complicated in comparison to today’s engines. As an overhead cam engine, however, it’s basic design is more advanced than some of today’s pushrod engines from American automakers (though those engines make plenty of power and have other advancements of their own).

At the 8-minute mark, Romanowski fired it up, and it sounded lovely.

The second engine on display was an 8.0-liter marine engine owned by Lamborghini enthusiast Rob Leary, who Romanowski described as a guy who “caught the Lamborghini bug” a few years ago. Since then, he’s bought up all sorts of obscure engines and items from the Italian car maker. The marine engine is essentially a bigger version of the 3.5-liter V12.

According to Leary, the 8.0-liter V12 could have made its way to the Countach or LM002, but the engine was too large and heavy for any road car so it was made for boats instead. This particular engine is fuel-injected and was built for boat racing in about 1988. A carbureted version was meant for pleasure boats.

spot_img

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -