Project Petrolhead

Before VW took the reins in the early 00s, it took a special kind of person to drive a Lamborghini hard. Their enormous engines, pillbox visibility and heavy controls meant that most big Lambos spent their lives at slower, less threatening speeds. Imagine if you will then, the size of the plums on the chap tasked with pushing them to their absolute limits. 

In 1968, Lamborghini took on a new apprentice mechanic by the name of Valentino Balboni. Assisting in the ongoing development of the world-beating Miura, Balboni developed a friendship with New Zealand-born racing driver and engineer Bob Wallace, the man whose job occasionally involved running the Miura at high speeds to test new parts and setups. Wallace was a bit of a character himself and was good friends with Ferrari and Maserati’s test drivers, with the three of them even having a personal wager as to who could set the fastest time across the 105-mile stretch of Italian autostrada between the Milan and Modena tollbooths. During testing for the Miura’s new even faster version – the Super Veloce or SV – Ferruccio Lamborghini himself asked for the young Balboni to tag along with Wallace on one of his test drives, so the Italian could better understand what the Kiwi was looking for. 

By the time Wallace left Lamborghini in 1975, it was obvious that his protégé Balboni would be the perfect candidate for his replacement, and the 26-year-old was promoted to Lamborghini’s Chief Test Driver. Back in those days, road testing was a bit more gung-ho, and unlike Ferrari with their newly minted Fiorano test circuit, Lamborghini didn’t have access to a racetrack to test their cars. No matter, this is Italy we’re talking about. One call to the local constabulary (and presumably a hearty and expensive spaghetti lunch meeting) later, and Balboni was presented with a special licence, meaning he could max out Lamborghini’s newest dream machines on public roads with the police turning a blind eye. Not that this always worked out perfectly, of course. In May 1978, Balboni was testing the fire-spitting Countach at 112mph when a truck pulled out of a side road into his path. The Countach rolled, eventually landing on its roof which, thanks to the Countach’s scissor doors, effectively trapped him inside until he was able to kick through the side window. 

Responsible for test driving the Countach, the Diablo and latterly the Murciélago, Balboni became the face of Lamborghini, with customers usually requesting him by name to talk them through their newest purchase, with Balboni telling Road&Track magazine in 2009; “This is what makes test drivers different. They know the product and are trained to represent the product. We really don’t want to impress people, but it’s nice when you can show the customers the potential of the car.” Balboni was even part of the aftersales process as well, sometimes even being dispatched to customers who had reported faults with their cars, often to reassure newer unfamiliar owners that the car was, in fact, supposed to feel like that. 

When Balboni retired from Lamborghini in 2009, the company decided to give him a proper send-off. Knowing that he preferred a more thrilling drive than the Audi-derived, four-wheel-drive posers that they were building at the time, the team took a 550 horsepower V10 Gallardo, lightened it by 30kg and removed the front driveshafts, transforming it into a lighter, sharper rear-wheel-drive adrenaline rush, free of modern annoyances like adaptive dampers, adjustable driver aids and endless ‘modes’, the Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni was a plain and simple driver’s car, with EVO magazine’s Ollie Marriage lauding its new uncorrupted feel. 

“Within a few miles the LP550’s ability to captivate the driver has won me over completely. The steering, free from drivetrain corruption, has a new lease of life […] It makes the LP550 a livelier car, helps you to judge the precise moment you can start to oh-so-gently feed the power back in, adjusting the cornering angle for a maximum-attack exit.” 

And clearly Valentino approved, as he still owns and drives his Gallardo to this day. 

Of course, high speed road tests and hardcore Gallardos aren’t the most important thing about Valentino Balboni. That is, in fact, his patented way of properly reversing a Countach.