It was a confrontation the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Italy since the spectacles of the Roman Colosseum—Enzo Ferrari and Ferrucio Lamborghini actually met…and it wasn’t a very pleasant encounter.

According to Lamborghini’s son, the elder Lamborghini (who owned a successful tractor factory) went to Ferrari’s factory to complain about a faulty clutch in his Ferrari 250 GT. Ferrari didn’t appreciate the criticism and kicked Lamborghini out of the factory, telling him to stick to tractors because he obviously couldn’t drive cars. Those crazy Italians. You can already imagine what happened next. No! Lambo didn’t go back and shoot up the factory…he went back to his own factory to dismantle the Ferrari clutch and found that it was from the same manufacturer of clutches used in his tractors, so he installed a stronger clutch from his warehouse and fixed the problem. Then, Lamborghini set out to outdo Ferrari and, with the help of former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini (who designed a new V12 engine) and Franco Scaglione (who designed the body), produced the Lamborghini 350GTV prototype, which preceded the more practical production 350GT. Others took the bull by the horns and came up with their own ultimate Lamborghinis…

edo Competition
[www.edo-competition.de]

Murciélago LP640

With the LP640, edo isn’t concerned so much with improving aesthetics as it is about squeezing more power out of the 6.5-liter V12, which already doles out a hefty 631 horsepower and 487 lb.-ft. of torque, and goes from 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds with an official top speed of 211 mph. The focus is mostly on the engine, recalibrating the ECU while adding special high-flow air filters, newly designed high-performance catalytic converters, a driver-controlled exhaust volume switch, new high-flow muffler and new stainless steel exhaust tip. The result is an impressive 663 horsepower and 498 lb.-ft. of torque, pushing the official top speed to 216 mph. Nonetheless, edo throws in a few extras to their package, sprucing up the LP640 ever so slightly with a specially designed rear wing with adjustable lip, wheels painted on request, rear view camera, tire pressure
monitoring system and carbon fiber interior trim.

Gallardo

Straight from the factory, the exotic/daily driver Gallardo comes equipped with a 520-horsepower V10 with 376 lb.-ft. of torque. After the edo makeover—through a 100-cell sports catalytic converter, carbon fiber air box and electronic tuning—the Gallardo bristles with 30 extra horses and 398 lb.-ft. of torque. Of course, edo added a few other goodies such as color-matching the rear diffuser, tire pressure monitoring system, custom 19-inch edo wheels and a driver-controlled exhaust volume switch.

IMSA
[www.imsa-tuning.de]

Gallardo “GTV”

Amazing as it seems, IMSA was able to extract and extra 90 horsepower from the Gallardo’s 5.0L V10 for a total of 610 horsepower. Damn, that’s a huge increase. Because the Gallardo is essentially a daily-driver, IMSA wanted to maintain that aspect of its tuned GTV, so they adjusted the car’s four-wheel drive (among other things) to maintain its terrific stability and driving control, even under adverse weather conditions. The GTV is equipped with new front and rear aprons, modest rear spoiler, flared wheel arches, exclusive IMSA spoke wheels with central locking, and high-performance brake system. The interior is decked out in luscious leather and Alcantara, with aluminum and carbon fiber accents. It’s one helluva car. And, yes, all this applies to the Gallardo Spyder as well.