Lamborghini turned 50 in 2013, and the highlight of its birthday celebrations was the Grande Giro Cinquantesimo Anniversario – 50th anniversary grand tour (sounds a lot sexier in Italian). Held in the second week of May, the five-day event was like Lamborghini’s own Mille Miglia. It was truly an automotive “tour” de force.
The epic road trip kicked off in the fashion capital of Milan, headed to coastal Tuscany, proceeded inland to the historical city of Rome, continued northward to Bologna and finally ended in Lamborghini’s home town of Sant’Agata.
The tycoons checked out the Eurofighter Typhoons at the military airbase of Grosseto.
There were participants from 29 countries, and they incurred the equivalent of S$30-$40k in freight charges to ship each car to Italy, on top of the $9k-$15k entry fee (depending on the hotels chosen and the ground support), plus individual airfare. Probably small change for supercar owners, but it’s still a lot of money.
The biggest group came from the United Kingdom, which sent 71 cars, while Italy, Germany and Switzerland dispatched at least 30 cars each. Twenty-one Lambos came from the US, with another 17 from that massive “middle kingdom” of deluxe motoring, China.
The rest of the “United Nations” that took part were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Ukraine and, of course, Singapore. The youngest driver was a 22-year-old Kuwaiti and the oldest was a 75-year-old Frenchman.
Our flag was flown by three enthusiastic local Lambo owners, but because the shipping would be too expensive (even for them) and the customs procedures from Singapore to Europe and back were downright onerous, they chose to rent for the event – at $2000 per day.
These adventurous ladies and their wild pink Lamborghini Diablo travelled all the way from Tokyo to the Grande Giro.
Renting a Lambo was a smart decision, with the logistics leading up to the May 8 flag-off from Milan being organised chaos at best. Many participants who flew in the day before were surprised to find their precious cars drained completely of petrol (to comply with shipping regulations) and they were frantically scampering around in search of some fuel to get them to the nearest service station for a top-up.
Despite the logistical hiccups, the cavalcade formed up in Milan’s Piazza Castello and what a sight it was – 350 “raging bulls” representing the entire model history of Lamborghini, more candy colours than a bag of Skittles, and roughly 190,000bhp in total. If all the cars were parked in a single file, the line would stretch almost four kilometres.
The automaker provided 30 cars for its guests and invited journalists – I was given the keys to a pristine white LP550-2 Gallardo, with decal number 223, and my co-driver was Japanese journo Jun Nishikawa, who happens to own an Aventador and a Countach back home! He’s a brilliant driver and co-driver, by the way, and also a “better” writer than me since he has two Lambos to his name!
I spotted a car wearing decal number 353, so there might had been more than 350 Lambos involved. With two people in each vehicle, there were 700 registered participants, plus hundreds of family members and friends who tagged along on this wondrous journey through the heart of Italy.
The Italian highway patrol unit brought along its Lambo Gallardo flagship, of course.
Add the organisers, Lamborghini staffers and Polizia Stradale (highway patrol) outriders, and it was quite a “Roman motorcade”. Mechanics from the factory were also present to help the older Lambos complete the 1200km road trip.
Less than 10 percent of that was on the autostrade, so the long train of supercars past and present snaked through towns and villages for hours on end. Friendly rural folks brought out chairs and spent the day waving to the drivers, admiring their machines and listening to the powerful orchestra of engines.
Admiring the “greenery” and machinery – a beautiful Lamborghini Miura parked beside a forceful Aventador.
Countless streetside spectators and even the occasional octogenarians shouted “Gas! Gas!” as we drove past, hoping to be deafened by all those cylinders and experience a drive-by “shock wave”. Italians are indeed petrolheads by nature.
Even the Italian policemen were more understanding than usual – they let the Lambos cruise “just above” the posted speed limit and allowed the participants to play with a few hundred horses every now and then.
This Lamborghini Countach was unlucky, but accidents happen.
At one point, I had to stop for a refuel and lost sight of the police motorbikes, but I couldn’t let rip because of slow-moving traffic. The lazy Fiats, plodding tractors and ponderous buses made my progress painfully slow, and I failed to catch up with the front of the convoy where the cops stopped other vehicles and blocked road junctions to clear the way.
The average driving distance on the three main tour stages was between 300 and 400 kilometres, which sounded manageable until we started attacking the switchback roads with gusto. It was tiring, but thrilling. Being the co-driver wasn’t easy either, because one had to hold on tight while his driver did his level best to dodge obstacles and carve up corners at breakneck speeds.
These lucky kids got closer than ever to their favourite Italian supercars.
The “grand” part of the Grande Giro was also very good. It took in the panoramic Trebbia Valley, the relaxing seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi, the touristy Leaning Tower of Pisa, Rome’s expansive Piazza San Pietro, and even an operational Italian Air Force base.
The Lamborghini bosses probably pulled strings to arrange the special access. This epic road trip ended nicely on Lamborghini’s home turf of Sant’Agata Bolognese, with none of the organised chaos that marked the start of the Grand Tour a few days prior. In fact, everything at the end point went off like clockwork.
The factory, turned into a huge party venue and barely recognisable, easily accommodated the ensemble of 350 Lambos. The gala dinner was held in a massive, pillarless marquee large enough to fit a Boeing 777. And what’s a birthday bash without great presents?
So, the automaker brought to the stage its Veneno prototype from the Geneva Motor Show and the even more extreme (and unexpected) Egoista, a radical one-seater with a cockpit inspired by the Apache attack helicopter. The latter is a commemorative concept car designed personally by Walter De Silva, the chief designer of Volkswagen Group.
A spectacular, nearly half-hour fireworks display was the finale of Lamborghini’s Grande Giro Cinquantesimo Anniversario. Without a doubt, this 50th anniversary “cannonbull” run was a raging success for the Raging Bull marque, and I’m glad to have gone along for the ride.
This article was first published in the July 2013 issue of Torque.
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