Everyone knows the Lamborghini Diablo. Following in the footsteps of the brand-defining Countach, the Diablo modernized the Lamborghini supercar with clean design, available all-wheel drive, and a Ferrari F40-beating 202-mph top speed. But not everyone knows just how difficult the Diablo’s birth was.
This history video from Bay Area classic-car dealer OTS does an excellent job shining light on the Diablo’s story. It’s a tale that makes you realize it’s amazing the car exists at all.
Lamborghini originally intended to release the Diablo by 1988, but Chrysler’s purchase of Lamborghini in 1987 put paid to that idea. Chrysler decided it wanted to change the Diablo, forcing designer Marcello Gandini to revise his original concept for the car significantly, much to his chagrin. Lamborghini finally launched the Diablo in 1990, just in time for a global recession that all but killed the supercar market.
Chrysler sold Lamborghini in 1994. The company was owned by a couple of investment groups until Volkswagen’s purchase of it in 1998. VW put Lamborghini under Audi’s control, and the German brand quickly got to work helping Lambo update the Diablo.
The Diablo’s 11-year production run spanned four different owners of Lamborghini, and if you count the fact that development on the car started before Chrysler came in, the car really stretches over five owners. That’s, uh, a lot. Yet, the Diablo was a brilliant car, a huge improvement over the Countach, but one that kept the Lamborghini essence.
Under Audi’s stewardship, Lamborghini has gone from strength to strength, expanding its lineup to the three models we have today and increasing production numbers by many orders of magnitude. The Diablo was the bridge between Lamborghini’s days of barely being able to keep the lights on to one of the VW group’s crown jewels.
