Lamborghini Urraco

Here is a quick story of Ferruccio Lamborghini in creating his Lamborghini Urraco P250.

At the turn of the decade, Ferruccio Lamborgihini wanted to create a new kind of car-different than the Miura and Espada. He needed a less expensive and smaller version
than before, so that he would be able to keep up the the Porsche 911 and the Ferrari Dino 246. This new car would be more powerful by installing a V-8 engine and he decided to use a one of a kind design by Marcello Gandini. Although, it was still in the early development stages and would be at least two years before it could be available to the public, Ferrucio unveiled the Lamborghini Urraco at the 1970 Turin Auto Show.
The Urraco's looks were very well received with newly restyled pop up headlamps and a steeply raked windshield. Unfortunately, a long time had passed from the first viewing of the car to customers actually getting them, so many orders had been cancelled. The interior and exterior of the P250 left much to be desired which didn't help the situation or the future of the Lamborghini car company. By 1972 to 1973 however, improvements were being made such as the interior was upgraded to leather, all the windows were now electric and customers could order special metallic paint. The Lamborghini Urraco now used larger rims and tires. They also changed the thin silver bumpers to big, black ones on the front and rear of the car. After Ferruccio Lamborgihini figured out the imperfections, he now had a much better car than he started out with. The last stage of this car was known as Tipo III and was designed with the US market in mind. Changes had to be made because of U.S. anti-pollution regulations, which made the car underpowered going from 220 bhp to 180 bhp. These modifications added extra weight to the P250, and affected its handling capabilities. As a result, sales were not up to expectations and the Urraco P300 was soon to be born.

This mid engine, rear wheel drive car, was very powerful for this era. It had a V8 that measured 2463 cc's. Some of the things that made this engine great was that it had a light alloy and aluminium block, overhead camshaft with a cog-belt drive and two valves per cylinder. The P250 had a 10.5:1 compression ratio with a max 220 bhp and max torque of 166 lbs.ft. The Tipo III had a 10.4:1 compression ratio with 180 bhp and max torque of 144 lbs.ft. The fuel consumption was about 13 mpg. Remember, these stats were considered high for the 1970's.

Lamborghin P250 had a top speed of 240 Km/h (149 Mph.)

The US version, Tipo III had a top speed of 225 Km/h (139 Mph.)

These stats are for the P250

0 - 100 Km/h : 6.9 sec
0 - 100 Mph : 26.5 sec
Standing Km. : 26.8 sec
Standing 1/4 mi : 17.9 sec reaching a speed of 83.0 Mph

It took some time for the Lamborghini Urraco P250 to be available on the market, so the competition had a head start. The Ferrari Dino 246 GT was one of them. Other sports cars, such as the Lancia Stratos HF, Alfa Romeo Montreal, Maserati Merak and Porsche 911 S were all in the same category. It was because of this great competition, Ferruccio Lamborghini's vision would have no limits.