History 1971s - 1986s

1971–1972

As a world financial crisis began to take hold, Ferruccio Lamborghini's companies began to run into financial difficulties. In 1971, Lamborghini's tractor company, which exported around half of its production, ran into difficulties. Cento, Trattori's South African importer, cancelled all its orders. After staging a successful coup d'état, the new military government of Bolivia cancelled a large order of tractors that was partially ready to ship from Genoa. Trattori's employees, like Automobili's, were unionized and could not be laid off. In 1972, Lamborghini sold his entire holding in Trattori to SAME, another tractor builder.

The entire Lamborghini group was now finding itself in financial troubles. Development at the automaker slowed; the production version of the LP500 missed the 1972 Geneva Show, and only the P400 GTS version of the Jarama was on display. Faced with a need to cut costs, Paulo Stanzani set aside the LP500's powerplant, slating a smaller, 4-litre engine for production. Ferruccio Lamborghini began courting buyers for Automobili and Trattori; he entered negotiations with Georges-Henri Rossetti, a wealthy Swiss businessman and friend of Ferruccio's, as well as being the owner of an Islero and an Espada. Ferruccio sold Rossetti 51% of the company for US$600,000, thereby relinquishing control of the automaker he had founded. He continued to work at the Sant'Agata factory; Rossetti rarely involved himself in Automobili's affairs.

Lamborghini 1971

1973–1977

The 1973 oil crisis plagued the sales of high performance cars from manufacturers around the world; the rising price of oil caused governments to mandate new fuel economy laws, and consumers to seek smaller, more practical modes of transportation. Sales of Lamborghini's exotic sports cars, propelled by high-powered engines with high fuel consumption, suffered (the 1986 Countach, powered by a 5.2-litre evolution of the V12 engine, had a 6 mpg-US (39 L/100 km; 7.2 mpg-imp) city and 10 mpg-US (24 L/100 km; 12 mpg-imp) highway United States Environmental Protection Agency rating.

The Countach, then the most popular and successful Lamborghini in history, was in production from 1974 to 1988.

In 1974, Ferruccio Lamborghini sold his remaining 49% stake in the company to René Leimer, a friend of Georges-Henri Rossetti. Having severed all connections with the cars that bore his name, he retired to an estate on the shores of Lake Trasimeno, in the frazione of Panicarola in Castiglione del Lago, a town in the province of Perugia in the Umbria region of central Italy, where he would remain until his last days.

The car shown as the LP500 in 1971 entered production in 1974 as the Countach LP400, powered by a smaller, 4.0-litre V12. The first production model was delivered in 1974. In 1976, the Urraco P300 was revamped into the Silhouette, featuring a Targa top and a 3-litre V8. Its poor build quality, reliability, and ergonomics all worked against it, as did the fact that it could only be imported into the U.S. via the "grey market". Only 54 were produced. The Countach was also hampered by its lack of direct participation in the American market until the LP500 version, released in 1982.

In the 1977 Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini unveiled its first prototype military vehicle, the "Cheetah", a rear-mounted Chrysler V8 engine. However, the only prototype was destroyed during testing by the U.S. military, causing the company to lose that contract, which ultimately led to the cancellation of a contract from BMW to develop the M1 sports car.