MANNEY DRIVES A LAMBO

INDEED, UNLESS TRACTORS ARE COUNTED, Henry N. Manney III’s drive was of a first Lamborghini, the 350 GT. As Henry wrote in the car’s July 1965 R&T road test, “Engineers are rather like doctors in that they always think they know more than the next guy…. In this case it was Cav. Lamborghini, manufacturer of tractors and oil burners among other things, who thought that he could improve on an existing article and incidentally leave something besides agricultural implements to perpetuate his name.” 

Here are other tidbits of Manney wisdom gleaned from this road test performed in Europe only a couple years after the founding of this now legendary car company. 

One of the First 350 GTs. “This test,” Henry wrote, “had been floating around since last year some time, but one thing and another (like a 3-day dense fog, for instance) prevented its completion…. At any rate, we were supposed to have one of the latest coupes for Geneva but an imminent customs strike demanded its departure before schedule, so we had to manage with an old one which was a dealer’s demonstrator in for one of its periodic services. It was, in fact, one of the first cars delivered….”

“In the main, though,” Henry deduced, “it was a basic 12-cyl coupe with Touring body, and again unlike some makers, was certainly not a specially tweaked Press model.” 

Bob Wallace Tutorial. Lamborghini obligingly gave Henry its head tester Bob Wallace “to teach me the ropes…. Bob gave me heart failure for a while until I saw what he was about, hopping humpbacked bridges to show that it landed straight, clapping on the binders from full noise to burn in the new pads, and even breaking furiously in Ginther’s Corner near Nonantola to show how stable the car was even with everything locked up.” 

One day we’ll have to research what Southern California race driver Richie Ginther did to get his name attached to this particular Italian real estate.

An Autostrada Top-speed Run. “Eventually,” Henry said, “we got to the autostrada and, as he [Bob Wallace] was more experienced with the car, he did the performance figures, muttering the while about what an old pig it was and that 500 rpm were missing someplace. I didn’t mind, as the sight of Fiats approaching backward at an indicated 280 kph (174 mph) is absorbing enough.”

“Anyway,” said Henry, “the Lamborghini seemed quite steady even with a fair crosswind; barring the everpresent Fiats, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it myself.”

Henry and Pete Coltrin on their Own. Pete Coltrin was R&T’s guy in Italy at the time, and after getting the numbers, “Bob turned the car over to us, I drove off with the handbrake on, Pete and I repaired to Cantoni’s to see to our tums (in spite of a gentleman at the next table taking out his teeth and polishing them), and then we meandered out into the country for some pictures and whatnot.”

“Frankly,” Henry wrote, “I had forgotten what fun it was to drive a quickish well-balanced car as, while my Lancia is steady and all that, it could scarcely be construed as a contender for the Land Speed Record. After an initial awkward period… I found myself flitting along at a speed which felt comfortable to me but which caused poor Pete to mash his metatarsals on the floor carpet. This is a significant point, especially for me, as I am one of these people who take forever to settle into most cars and as for a few… never!”

Henry’s Summary: “Driving a car like the Lamborghini is very good for the ego…. It was easy to trundle along at low rpm in third, say, behind some mimser and then motor flexibly past to the rising murmur of many little diggadiggadiggas. Such swank.” 

Almost six decades later, I suspect his words resonate with other Lamborghini drivers and their passengers as well. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023