- 62
- The Tri-State Area
Once upon a time a tractor manufacturer decided to make supercars. Then, because that wasn't quite enough madness for it, the company tried to make one of its supercars into an off-road, mil-spec monster.
The third, or possibly fourth, model in Lamborghini's "Militaria" line of vehicles, the LM002 just about came out of nowhere - or at least nobody was expecting Lamborghini to actually make one.
It has its roots in the Lamborghini Cheetah, a car designed by Rodney Pharis for the Italian brand in competition for a US military contract to design an offroad small personnel carrier and reconnaissance vehicle. That project, with a mid-mounted Chrysler V8, ultimately didn't come to fruition - with the contract awarded to GM for the HMMWV a couple of years later - but it did light a spark.
The Cheetah evolved into the LM001, with pretty similar looks (this time with doors!) but the sole prototype which now sported an AMC V8 in the same place proved to be uncooperative to drive. This, it was determined, was due to the engine placement, so Lamborghini's new, young CEO went back to the drawing board.
That resulted in the LMA002, designed by that CEO - Patrick Mimran - himself, with an entirely reworked chassis to account for the Countach-sourced V12 under the nose, and this would become the full production LM002 in 1986.
Unlike the military models that had gone before it, the LM002 was intended as a car for public sale and was appointed accordingly. There was no longer any need to carry six infantrymen (plus any hanging on the pickup bed) so it had four pretty roomy seats and the cabin was dripping in as much leather and wood as any other car from 1980s' Sant'Agata.
Despite the bodywork largely consisting of aluminium and glassfibre, the LM002 - nicknamed the Rambo Lambo - came in at a hefty 2.7 tonnes. The 5.2-litre V12 produced close to 450hp (customers could also order the car with a 7.2-litre marine version, intended for Class 1 offshore powerboats, at 600hp+), giving it Countach-rivalling performance. Four-wheel drive was standard, allowing the LM002 to climb a 120% gradient (50°, or 5:4).
Lamborghini made 301 examples of the LM002, one of which was famously blown up by the US military (closing that loop quite nicely) in a "car bomb test" having been confiscated from the then-deceased Uday Hussein (yep, son of Saddam) in 2003. A further example was converted to an estate for the Sultan of Brunei. Two cars were stripped back and turned into rally-ready "Evoluzione" race cars for the 1988 Paris-Dakar, but never got the chance to compete - though they did run at least one preliminary rally.
Further attempts to develop the LM002 were made but didn't survive, with the poisoned chalice of Megatech ownership making a brief attempt in the late 1990s before Lamborghini was sold on to Volkswagen. At least the brand survived, unlike others.
Fun fact: Big though the LM002 seems, it's smaller and lighter than any full-size Range Rover made since 2001...
