The Lamborghini 350 GTV was the prototype

Prototype

A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...

 and forerunner of the later 350 GT

Lamborghini 350GT

The Lamborghini 350 GT was the first production vehicle produced by Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. Production started in May 1964, after its well-received debut at the March 1964 Geneva auto show...

 - Lamborghini

Lamborghini

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...

's first production model. The car was presented to the public on the 1963 Turin Auto Show

Turin Auto Show

The Turin Auto Show is an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, moving to Turin in later years....

.

Rejection for production and preparation for show

The 350 GTV featured a controversial semi-fastback body designed by Franco Scaglione

Franco Scaglione

Franco Scaglione was an automobile coachwork designer.-Biography:Franco Scaglione was born in Florence to Vittorio Scaglione, a chief army doctor, and to Giovanna Fabbri, captain of the Italian Red Cross service. His was a well-to-do family of noble ancestry...

 and built by Carrozzeria Sargiotto in Turin. Giorgio Neri and Luciano Bonacini built the tube frame chassis

Chassis

A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

 in Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

. Giotto Bizzarrini

Giotto Bizzarrini

Giotto Bizzarrini is an Italian automobile engineer active from the 1950s through 1970s....

 developed a 3.5 litre

Litre

pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...

 dry sump

Dry sump

A dry sump is a lubricating motor oil management method for four-stroke and large two-stroke piston internal combustion engines that uses external pumps and a secondary external reservoir for oil, as compared to a conventional wet sump system....

 racing-specification V12 engine

Lamborghini V12

The Lamborghini V12 is a sixty degree V12 petrol engine designed by Lamborghini, and was the first internal combustion engine ever produced by the firm....

, with an output of 255 kW at 8,000 rpm, and torque

Torque

Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....

 of 326 newton metres (240 ft·lbf), using the DIN

Deutsches Institut für Normung

is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...

 measurement standard, for use in the car.

Ferruccio Lamborghini

Ferruccio Lamborghini

Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini was an Italian industrialist. Born to grape farmers from the comune of Renazzo di Cento in the Emilia-Romagna region, his mechanical know-how led him to enter the business of tractor manufacturing in 1948, when he founded Lamborghini Trattori, which quickly became...

 was dissatisfied with several design features of the 350 GTV, and with the state of tune of the engine. He commissioned Carrozzeria Touring

Carrozzeria Touring

Carrozzeria Touring is an automobile coachbuilder established on March 25, 1926 in Milan, Italy by Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Gaetano Ponzoni...

to redesign the car to be more practical and had the engine detuned to 270 bhp at 6,500 rpm for use in the production car. The new body and retuned engine resulted in the first production Lamborghini, the 350 GT.

Lamborghini continued with the 350 GTV as a show-only car. Upon assembling the car, however, the workforce discovered that the body panels would not fit around the engine. Since he had no further plans for the 350 GTV beyond being a show car, Lamboghini had the engine bay ballasted with bricks and kept the bonnet shut throughout the Turin Auto Show. The incomplete show car also had no brake calipers, foot pedals, or windshield wipers.

After the show

The show car was then stored by Lamborghini, remaining in storage until the mid-1980s, when car dealer Romano Bernandoni and his cousin, Lamborghini expert Stefano Pasini, convinced the management to sell it to them. Bernandoni and Pasini did not receive the gauges and steering wheel with the car. They did, however, receive several proposals made to modify the car into running condition; these were used to do so. The colour was changed from its original pale blue to metallic green at the new owner's request.

The car was then sold to a Japanese collector, who placed the car in the Noritake Collection. Several years later, the car was on display at the museum at Lamborghini's factory.

Sources