Growing up isn’t necessarily a bad thing
TAKE ONE: the romantic in me deplored the VAG takeover of Lamborghini in 1999; it epitomised all that was wrong with the modern, increasingly globalised world. Round about then, a ‘new’ word had suddenly come back into vogue: homogenised, and that seemed to fit the inevitable but criminal blunting of Lamborghini with common sense just as much as it did the sight of a McDonald’s (or Starbucks; pick your own poison) on every street corner, the depressingly relentless gentrification of London’s Soho district, and all the other cases of character and personality being subsumed by the, er, homogeneous modern world.
Take two: the pragmatist in me adored the VAG takeover of Lamborghini just over two decades ago, it being a lifeline to a company simply too bonkers and too niche to survive in the wild. Thanks to the German intervention, Lamborghini, unlike countless other eulogised but long-gone outlier marques, would live on and, guided by a steady head and financial prudence, would probably do so less precariously than at any time in its 36-year existence up until then. Compromised? Indubitably, but I’d rather have 90% of something, and all that.
To encapsulate all those contrary emotions in one company may not be all that unusual, but to do so in one model of car, well…
In this month’s Diablo feature, two cultures clash as testament to this tumultuous period in Lamborghini’s history. We have in our early car every reason that made the car company wantonly sexy and every reason why it was more than likely doomed on its own; while in the later model we can see the evolution that helped it adapt to the mores of the modern world, to survive and even to thrive, while retaining pretty much all of its character.
This is a great story played out against a spectacular Italian backdrop by the inimitable Massimo Delbò.
MY KIDS HAVE a teacher called Mr Virgo who resignedly introduces himself thus: ‘Hello, I’m Mr Virgo, and no I’m not.’ I can only imagine how tedious his life has been, so what about a Mr Bond who has owned an Aston Martin DB5 from new? Robert Coucher was the only person on the team with sufficient decorum to be sent to meet this fascinating gent and his car. It’s a super yarn.