LAMBORGHINI 400GT 2+2
Chassis #1141
Engine #1139

Lamborghini 400GT
ALL YOU NEED IS
LOVE
Article by Peter Collins

This could be your opportunity to own a significant Italian supercar once owned by a Rock and Roll superstar

It's a long stretch, unacceptable by the ergonomic and safety standards of today, but it doesn't take much to imagine one of the most valuable left hands in the world moving across this car from the delightfully slim wooden steering wheel to the Blaupunkt radio and switching on to listen to Radio Caroline broadcasting what the competition were up to in 1968. The hand belonged to Paul McCartney.

This car was Paul's first Lamborghini. It had been on fim before, visible parked in the street below the Apple building in a scene from the Beatles' retrospective film seen recently on television. It was red then but as can be seen now metallic claret, complemented by a beige interior.

After the initial excess of the Scaglione designed prototype Lamborghini 350GTV, which first appeared at the Turin Show in 1963, Touring was approached to produce a more practical body, with less of the "Dan Dare" style, and this went into production as the first series Lamborghini. These first cars were all fitted with a Bizzarrini designed 3.5-litre V12, with a few of the last ones being fitted with a 4-litre version. But somehow Ferruccio wasn't really satisfied as he had always wanted a 2+2.

This led to him commissioning Touring to come up with the goods, with the result being what we see here. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss it as 350GT with rear seats but, in fact, Carl Anderloni's team left not a single panel unchanged.

That this is a practical "2+2" GT car is evident upon opening the door to gain access to the rear seats; a touch on a chromed lever sends the front seat forward and lowers the backrest in one effortless spring-loaded movement.

Time to move off. The V12 started easily anbd settled down to a happy idle for some time in the heat of a summer's morning, so I was expecting some stumbling or hesitancy and the need for extra revs to get the car on the move. Not a bit of it, a touch of the trottle and away we went, smoothly and with no hassle - difficult to believe that just ahead of you are twelve cylinders, six double-choke Webers and four overhead camshafts, enough to produce 320bhp at 6,500 rpm. Taking stock, a glance at the instruments reveals oil and water temperature, ammeter and fuel gauge in four small round central dials, with speedometer and rev counter flanking the oilk pressure gauge in front of the driver. The less said about the switchgear the better, most of the toggles seem to have been located at ransom, probably after a luch involving local grape products!

Clutch and gearbox weights are a surprise with none of the muscle-man physique required to operate them, even in London traffic. Surpisingly, Lamborghini even fitted syncromesh to reverse gear on their boxes which featured five forward speeds.After a prolonged period of maneuvering for photography in very hot conditions, second gear felt a little notchy to engage; Henry Manney writing in Road & Track found the same thing in his 350GT test, but this was nothing a blast out of town to bring the temperatures down couldn't cure.

It takes a remarkably short time to settle in and soon you feel at home, confidently moving the car through traffic, helped by responsive steering and that friendly gearbox and powerful brakes. Luckily this is one of just five 400GTs to have been fitted with right-hand drive, two of which are now in the USA. It is almost as if saying to you, "Don't worry, I may be a supercar, but I'm on your side". Much of this feeling of confidence comes from the practicalities of the car, the windscreen and the rest of the glass area allow a panoramic view of what's going on all around you. The pillars are slim and the high cockpit roof designed by touring to accommodate the rear seat passengers allows for superb all round visibility.

By now it is clear that this is a sophisticated, docile car with easy road manners, yet one which, when you fully depress the trottle, takes off with a relentless push in the back reined in only by the desire not to have your photograph taken and studied by the country's finest. The noise that accompanies this urge is a tingling howl which inexorably rises until it is time to shift up a gear for a repeat performance. Of course, it is necessary to repeat this exercise as often as possible.

This car has recently had its wishbone and coil suspension rebuilt and the ride is of 90's quality, with little bump thump. Henry Manney described it as being, "steady as a rock at 135mph when most cars would be gambolling like a spring lamb", but the previously mentioned elegantly slim steering wheel must not be gripped, wather just rested between the fingers - the car does the rest.

Returning the car, I swithced off and, taking a moment to reflect remembered once again that I was looking down the same, long, bonnet of the car that had endeared itself to Paul McCartney nearly thirty years ago, enough to make him purchase subsequent products from Sant'Agata. Did it have the same impact on me . . . yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!

Text and photos courtesy of