1972 LAMBORGHINI Jarama Rallye 4.0 V12

Vehicle Overview

Lamborghini introduced the Jarama in 1970 as its last front-engined vehicle until the 1985 LM002, and Bob Wallace thought that the Italian supercar could be a perfect rally car, so he made the Jarama Rallye.

Bob Wallace was a race driver from New Zeeland, and his talents were noticed by the Italian carmaker. Thus, he was hired after 1963 as a troubleshooter for Lamborghini. At first, his role was to assist in the production of the 350 GT, and later on, he became a road development engineer. In those years, Europe’s motorsports arena was dominated by rally racing, and Wallace thought that it might be an excellent idea to create a rally version from a Jarama. After all, it was a short enough vehicle and had enough power to dominate most of its competitors.

In 1972, Lamborghini was ready to introduce the upgraded version of the Jarama, the Jarama S. Wallace took the last chassis from the non-S version and started to work on it. He added more welding points onto the bare bodywork, strengthening it. Then, he replaced some of the steel body panels and replaced them with aluminum ones, which were lighter, and also installed aluminum doors. Moreover, he replaced the side windows with plastic ones and made a filler cap that went right through the rear right one. Thus he shaved a few hundred pounds from the base vehicle.

Moving onto the interior, Wallace installed a mandatory roll cage that offered protection in case of a crash. He stripped all the unnecessary features and installed low-back Miura seats. In addition, the dashboard was very simple, with only the mandatory dials and gauges mounted on it.

Under the hood, Wallace installed a 3.9-liter V12 powerplant. It is believed that the engine came from an Islero model, not from the regular Jarama. But after it went through some major changes and upgrades, the powerplant ended up developing 380 ponies. It was the only one Jarama Rally.