Álvaro Koke

Lamborghini/Bertone Genesis: the eighties capsule for the whole family (rich)

A prototype of a luxury minivan with a Countach V12 engine

At the end of the eighties Lamborghini had gone through a difficult period. Like many other sports and supercar brands before them (Ferrari and Porsche included) they suffered financial complications despite having launched truly legendary cars and, therefore, cars that had been well received by the public, such as the Countach that was in production. for more than a decade through several evolutions that exemplified the very evolution of supercars with increasingly more aerodynamics. But Lamborghini, in addition to less ambitious sports cars like the Urraco or the Jalpa or Gran Turismo cars like the Espada or the Estoque, also did other things. One of them is the almost unknown Lamborghini Genesis, already created in the Chrysler era.

We can speak almost interchangeably about the Lamborghini Genesis and the Bertone Genesis given that this car was created by the Bertone studio, the same Turin studio that produced the legendary Lamborghini Miura and other ‘bulls’ such as the Espada, Marzal, Countach or Magpie. From the brush of Bertone, where the recently deceased Marcello Gandini worked, also came the Lancia Stratos Zero and the Stratos that swept the early years of the World Rally Championship, the extravagant Fiat X1/9 and Alfa Romeo Carabo, the Fiat 850 Spider, the Ferrari 208 GT4, the Maserati Khamsin and Quattroporte as well as simpler cars such as the Fiat Ritmo, the Simca 1000, the Citroën BX (with its curious semi-faired rear wheels and hydropneumatic suspension), the convertible version of the Opel Kadett or the Skoda Favorit, a utility vehicle. small car that also had moderate success in the WRC.

Lamborghini and Bertone had already collaborated together on another prototype that appeared in the early eighties, the Athon with futuristic lines in its cabin and a V8 engine that in theory made it reach 260 kilometers per hour. Now, at that time Lamborghini was going through financial difficulties and this car was never planned to become a series production model. The same would happen with the Lamborghini Genesis, which had been presented after the LM002 all-terrain vehicle had been launched – in fact, for the presentation of the Genesis at the 1988 Turin Motor Show, the LM002 (which even ran at the Paris -Original Dakar) had already stopped being produced.

This story is that of a somewhat extreme minivan that never came to exist as such, outside of the conceptual phase. But it can be considered one of those what ifs? curious and less known of the Sant’Agata Bolognese brand. To consider it as the predecessor of the Lamborghini Urus would be to mark a triple lord, taking into account the enormous differences in both its concept and its intentionality. Furthermore, seeing these types of lines in a brand like Lamborghini, more rounded instead of sharper, wedge-shaped strokes as seen on the Athon or another prototype, the 1974 Bravo, is quite differentiating.

Lamborghini Genesis mechanics

This minivan, minivan or family vehicle, whatever you want to call it, had a well-known engine hidden under the body. The engine it used was the V12 5.2 that was already used by the Countach Quattrovalvole, known as LP5000 or 5000QV, as well as the one used in the 25th anniversary Countach (with a redesign by another industry great, Horacio Pagani), which gave 455 horsepower. . Obviously, enormous power for a ‘normal’ looking minivan to transport a large family or a lot of cargo, apart from the fact that diesel engines were usually used for vehicles of this type.

About the doors of the Lamborghini Genesis, they also give something to talk about. To access the driver and passenger seats, two gull-wing doors open, large doors with a much simpler and curved design than the one the Countach had. It should be noted that these gull-wing doors rest on the front axle (extending the wheelbase to 2.65 meters), which is placed far forward, which reduces the visual weight of the doors themselves. Instead of having normal doors for the back seats, Bertone opted for sliding doors, something that over time became common in vans and delivery vehicles with similar dimensions (4.48 long, 1.52 high and no less than two meters wide) than the Genesis would have had if it had been brought into production.

Inside it is very spacious, especially in terms of headroom and visibility to the outside, something that was greatly enhanced almost thirty years later in normal vehicles (unless they do not have a hidden V12) for the whole family. Measuring two meters wide, due in large part to having to house the Countach’s engine, it gave it a large space for passenger seats. With this, Bertone managed to mix the comfort of minivans (at a time when Chrysler was enjoying very positive sales volume with the Voyager) with the sportiness of Lamborghini.

Would it have been a fast car? Well, no. Engineers coupled the V12 engine to the Chrysler TorqueFlite gearbox, a three-speed automatic gearbox instead of the five-speed manual that the Countach had, which made power delivery much slower with lower ratios. very long ones that made you wait before the engine delivered all its power at the top of the rev counter – yes, calmer and more comfortable for long family trips.

Nor was it planned to be an agile car, since the Genesis weighed 1,800 kilograms empty, which would have penalized both the behavior of the suspension (as happens today with the tuning of vehicles that weigh around two tons) and the breaks. It was, in short, a minivan that would have been oriented towards the luxury segment, a car for upper-class families like many vehicles that we can see today. Perhaps, if the Urus or the trend that has made it possible did not exist, a concept like the Lamborghini Genesis would, at the very least, be poseable to the brand’s leadership today. Of course, surely making it more striking or dynamic on a visual level.

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