Lamborghini LM001 1981

The Lamborghini LM001 had quite a long gestation starting with the Lamborghini Cheetah which was Lamborghini's first attempt at an off-road vehicle. The Cheetah was built on contract from Mobility Technology International (MTI), which in turn was contracted by the US military to design and build a new all-terrain vehicle. The basis of the design came from MTI, and was largely a copy of FMC's XR311 prototype developed for the military in 1970. This resulted in legal action from FMC against MTI and Lamborghini in 1977 when the Cheetah was presented at the Geneva Motor Show.

The Cheetah was built in San Jose, California,  after which the prototype was sent to Sant'Agata so Lamborghini could put on the finishing touches. They decided to go with a waterproofed 180 hp 5.9L Chrysler engine mounted in the rear with a 3 speed automatic transmission. The body was fiberglass, and inside there was enough room for four fully equipped soldiers as well as the driver.
The mounting of the engine in the rear gave the Cheetah very poor handling characteristics, and the engine choice was not powerful enough for a vehicle that weighed 2,042 kilograms (4,502 lb) and so the overall performance was poor. The only finished prototype was never tested by the US military^.
In the end, the military contract was awarded to AM General and their similar looking Humvee.

After the Cheetah was sent back to the United States in late 1977 the option of adding an off-road model to the lineup at Lamborghini kept lurking in the back of their heads, and three years later, in 1981 the Geneva Auto Show was the scene for an evolution of the idea in the shape of the LM001 or Lamborghini Militare number 1 according to some sources, while other sources mentioned Lamborghini Mimram as the meaning of the abbreviation as the Swiss based Mimran family had just bought into the company.

The injection of fresh funds from the Mimrans came at just the right timing, and an expansion of the lineup was desperately needed in the early Eighties, the Countach was still around, and in the same year the V8 Jalpa was shown in Geneva, next to the big LM001.

This first LM001 prototype had a 5896cc AMC engine installed, but later on the option of putting in a Countach sourced V12, 4754cc unit was taken into consideration … the latter would put 375 hp to all four wheels. The LM001 did however suffer from the same issue that plagued the Cheetah three years earlier, with the engine in this position the front to rear weight balance was less than perfect. The AMC V8 engine offered ‘only’ 180hp, but this still allowed the LM001 to reach a top speed of 160 Km/h.

But straight line speed wouldn’t be the issue on the LM001, cornering and outright maneuverability were negatively influenced from being tail heavy, some further development and testing was put into the LM001 before Lamborghini decided to turn around the entire concept and put the engine in the front … which lead to the LM002 prototype.

Up front a pair of rectangular headlights replaced the quartet of round units seen on the Cheetah, while the four doors on the LM001 were meant to stay in place, unlike on the Cheetah which was seen without doors in most photos, still the roof was able to open up, a large canvas section could be moved backwards allowing a machine gun turret to be used.

It would take a radical change to the initial design of the LM001 to make it viable for sale, and the third attempt was a giant leap forward, the LM002 was developed with the massive V12 engine between the front wheels … this concept would eventually lead to the actual production version LM002 that would impress the world as a real Lamborghini.

XR-311 Concept

 Cheetah Concept

 LM001

 

Bill Thomas Cheetah 1965

…damn that’s a lot of curves!

In the late 50's, Thomas had tremendous success racing Corvettes and he gained the attention of influential men within GM. By 1960, Thomas had started his own company and he continued his chain of successes by making other GM products such as the Corvair and Chevy II run circles around the competition. In 1963, Thomas used his connections to gain covert support from GM (through the head of its Performance Product Group, Vince Piggins) to develop a concept vehicle. The prototype was designed jointly by Thomas and his lead fabricator at the time, Don Edmunds. Edmunds is also credited with the bulk of the construction of the car. Financing for the project came from private investors including Thomas himself and John Grow, a Rialto, California Chevrolet dealer. In fact, the first car belonged to John Grow. Using his racing connections, Thomas arranged for material assistance from Chevrolet for the major components - specifically, the Corvette engine, transmission and rear-end assemblies. Whats amazing is that the chassis was basically designed and build by laying the drivetrain components on the floor and drawing a chassis outline around them on the floor with chalk!

There's quite a lot more to the story so I'll include the Wikipedia link.Sadly the company that bought the rights to build continuation copies has gone bankrupt and put all their assets up for sale...so far there have been no buyers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Thomas_Cheetah