1966 LAMBORGHINI 400 GT Flying Star II (1 Made)
Chassis #0904
Engine #0839
Touring #

TOURING'S LAST TRIP
The Lamborghini Flying Star II
by Peter Collins
Design prototypes very rarely become available, but here is an opportunity to obtain a piece of Italian motoring history.

So you thought razor-edge styling died with the Triumph Mayflower, did you? Look at this car and think again. Suddenly, some fifteen years after Coventry had had a try, Carrozzeria Touring took it upon themselves to update the theme and confect a one-off around a considerably more glamorous base, which was in this instance, from Sant'Agata. Carlo Anderloni's team called it the Lamborghini Flying Star II. It was not the first time that the name Flying Star had been used as it has historical precedent. The title appears to have embraced a number of different models.

Touring, which was actually renamed 'Stabilimenta Turinga' during the war as Mussolini was anxious to de-Anglicise company names, had created several styles of bodywork over the years, notably on Alfa Romeo chassis. These included cabriolet-spiders, as they called drophead coupes, and light, two-door, four seater saloons.

By 1930 Touring had established a good reputation for talented coachbuilding and at the Milan show of 1931 came up with yet another innovation: split, crossover and running-boards. Castagna was later to copy this idea for themselves, exhibiting a car with these features at the Villa d'Este, which wasn't considered to be very fair. The two cars were exhibited by Touring in 1931, an Alfa Romeo 1750 based car and the first Flying Star which was built on the chassis of an Isotta-Fraschini 8B. The latter was a spider two-seater with flowing wings and painted white. This theme was also adopted for a subsequent Alfa Romeo 6C-1750 and 175OGTC, OM 665, Fiat 522C, Lancia Dilambda and an Astura; all under the Flying Star formula. There may have been more models under 'Flying Star I' as described in Carlo Anderioni's book "Carrozzeria Touring" (Autoctitica).

The story now shifts to the 1960s and Ferruccio Lamborghini, after allegedly being ignored at the Ferrari factory by Enzo, swears to build a far superior car to beat the Prancing Horse at its own game. The result of this was the Lamborghini 35OGT, the first production car to come out of Sant'Agata, utilising a 3.5-litre V12. Ferruccio was not entirely satisfied however, as he had set his sights on a 2+2 configuration, hence the next offering which was the 40OGT and 2+2 of which some 260 examples were built, the bodies being constructed by Carrozzeria Touring. By 1966, it had been decided to revive the name 'Flying Star' for the car and so the bodywork we see here was designed and built on a short-chassis Lamborghini 40OGT. In fact Touring hoped it would lead to a new production car, but this was not to be as the Islero was chosen instead, thus pointing the way to the demise of the famous coachbuilder.

When the Lamborghini Flying Star II appeared at the 1966 Turin motor show, John Bolster was prompted to say in his Autosport show report that, "the razor edge is back", and that the style, "....runs riot on the front, sides and roof of the car". He also reckoned that it was, "an enormous machine for two people and their luggage".

Flying Star II was then acquired by Jacques Quoirez, the brother French writer Francoise Sagan of 'Bonjour Tristesse' fame, and indeed the car did move to Paris for some years and still retains the original French registration plates from that period.

With the Flying Star parked amongst other cars indoors, there are aspects of the design which look slightly ponderous, such as the 'roof to waist height' compared to I the waist to ground height', somehow the window height seems on first impression to be too low, but move the car out into more open surroundings and it all begins to make sense, in a '60s context. It is important to realise that the concept of a hatchback was 'new' as seen on cars like the Aston-Martin DB2/4 Mklll and to some extent, the Austin A40 and Hillman Imp. The hatch itself is just that, so low is it that the rearview mirror in the car is mounted on the dashboard. It is when the engine is fired up and the car is on the move that a complete transformation takes place.

The 4-litre V12, which is actually numbered 301, putting it amongst the 3.5-litre series of engines, with four camshafts and six Weber 4ODCOEs - a classical Italian set-up for the period - sounds superb and pulls smoothly and strongly. Steering is by worm and roller, but is firm and accurate. The most striking aspect of the car is what it hasn't got - squeaks and rattles. Here we have a one-off supercar from the 1960s, which, when let out on to the streets of South West London is as taut as a contemporary vehicle and hardly more demanding, although the temptation to use the engine and gearbox and revel in the sensation they provide is enough to bring out a little of the wicked in any of us.

Ciclet, the French Lamborghini importer, was responsible for much work being done on the car during its life, this included some rebuilding and a new interior.

Sadly, as related earlier, Touring's hopes of Lamborghini taking the design up came to nothing and it remains an extremely interesting, if somewhat unusual, prototype. If this had become the Islero, where would the razor-edge revival have led?

Text and photos courtesy of