Picture of Valentino driving us to the train station
Gallardo driving passed us
This is my day at Lamborghini.
My friends and I took a trip from Rome where we’re studying to see Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Pagani. I’m going to start my story from the bus station.
We were staying in Modena at a great hostile from Thursday night to Sunday morning and somehow we were going to try to fit all three of these automakers into the 2 days that we had to spend. We decide that we were going to go to Lamborghini in the morning and to Pagani in the afternoon. But as we get to the bus station I called Pagani and found out that they we not going to be open after noon; but we had already bought bus tickets to go Nonavona (that may or may not be the correct name). Little did we know that the best way to get to Lamborghini’s factory was to go to Bologna and rent a car. So we took the bus to Nonavona and decided we would come back early and try to make it to Pagani, but Nonavona is 5 miles away from Lamborghini and Nonavona has no such things as taxis or buses that keep going on to Santa Agata (Lamborghini). So we walked 5 miles along a country highway looking at the beautiful scenery while also trying not to get hit by any cars or trucks. Finally we made it to the outskirts of Santa Agata and as passes the first major cross street we saw a Yellow Gallardo drive past us, and then turn around. (this is how they test of course) Then when it turned around it turned its turn signal on to turn left at the cross street we had just past, but we tried to wave at it to pass us up again and then we see the turn signal go off and it went through first gear in front of us. This was the start of the best day that anyone could have at Lamborghini.
We then walked to the front and into the museum. The museum is simple but gorgeous, several cars to touch and gawk at. We walked around for 25-30 minutes taking pictures, and decided to look at the rest of the place. We saw some vending machines since we were a little hungry, but we didn’t get anything. We then start walking into this area between where the factory doors, vending machines and museum. Then….the door to the factory opens, and I get stunned…stunned to the point of speechlessness. Out of that door walked Valentino Balboni. The friends I was with did not know who he was, and when I saw him I drew a blank and couldn’t remember his name. Valentino seeing my stunned face says “Tu parle…?”, and I answer “anglais.” Then he tells us we shouldn’t be walking on the road like we did, but we told him we just walked from Nonavona, and then he looked stunned. Then we chatted about why we had to walk from Nonavona. Then we asked him if there was anywhere to eat around there and his response baffled me, “Ummm…..meet me back here around 1-1:30, and just keep looking around the museum” We of course said okay. Then since I couldn’t remember his name (I am ashamed) I called my mom at 6 AM Chicago time to look up the chief test driver. She called me back extremely excited and told me Valentino Balboni.
We then waited around for about 20 minutes and the woman at the desk in the museum came up to me and asked me if I worked there. I told I didn’t and that Valentino told us to wait for him. So she picks up her phone and calls him, talks to him in Italian, and hangs. She then tells us to follow her. She walks us through the door that Valentino walked out of and we made a left. We were following her and three other gentlemen who looked like they were purchasing a Lamborghini, but we never really found out. We follow her into the Lamborghini cafeteria, and then we follow her behind a screened off room where 4 tables are set up. We all sit down at one table, leaving a space for Valentino. We start talking to each other waiting for Valentino to arrive, and then a feast begins. They gave us the best proscuito and cheese I’ve ever had, endless pasta, endless pizza, any drinks we wanted, and ham with a gravy sauce. If we were in a restaurant with that it would have put us back 40-50 euro. Then Valentino walks in with his own pasta and we start having little chats here and there, (he says the Nurburgring is very challenging, kind of expected). Then we get desert and coffee and the three men leave and we walk out with Valentino. We walk back out by the museum and tells us to have Christina to call him (the clerk at the museum) when we get done with the factory tour.
After about a half hour of waiting and watching a few Gallardo’s get test driven, we finally get to go on the factory tour. It was an amazing process to watch, and there were little facts that I didn’t know about Lamborghini’s cars.
1: The Murcialago’s V-12 is machines in house, while the Gallardo’s is not
2: The left intake on the Murcialago is bigger then the right because the oil reservoir is on the left side of the car.
3: The floor of the factory has not been changed since the beginning.
There’s more but I find it out later.
Near the end of the tour Christine gets a call on her cell phone and its Valentino telling her that he’s waiting. So we get told we have to hurry by Christine and as we walk out we see Valentino sitting in a beige A4, and offers us a ride into Bologna so we can rent a car. So we all get in and tell him if the train is okay since we really cannot afford a car and it may have no use for the next day; he was much obliged since it wasn’t our of the way for him. So of course we start chatting with him.
We ask how he got the job, he said he started as a mechanic and around 20-21 he started driving testing for Lamborghini and the first car he drove was the Miura which is the reason that’s his favorite, it left the biggest impression on him.
He talked about how he has to fight everyday to keep the factory open to tours, he lost the battle to allow people to take pictures on tours. He doesn’t understand why they won’t let people take pictures since we don’t see the R&D facility.
I asked him about all the changes in management that Lamborghini has had and how they’ve impacted them. He told us how he is annoyed how Audi is so worried about warranty and quality where he doesn’t care about that since it’s a sports car. It’s just made to be driven. But he loves Audi’s, he loves the quality of the interiors which he pointed out to us. I think he just doesn’t like the Audi’s influence in the interiors of Lambo’s. It was hard to tell.
He told us about the first time he met Jeremy Clarkson and how they got into a fight. Apparently Jeremy had just got done driving the Countach and was complaining about the heavy steering, clutch, and gear change and how horrible it was to drive. And Valentino took offense to it and went up to him yelling and defending the car. So that’s how they met, but they became great friends after that.
We were talking about Pagani, and he went on to telling me how he invented the use of carbon fiber on cars, he replaced the bonnet and hood on the Countach. I’m not sure if he meant only for Lamborghini or for all cars.
Then he went on to tell us about how he lived across the street from Pagani and every morning at 7 AM they would meet up, and Pagani would come out with new drawing of certain parts of the car he was developing. This was all while he was still working at Lamborghini. Valentino would joke with Pagani telling him he should stop drawing pictures of a car and should be in bed with his wife, and how is sick of seeing his pictures.
I also asked him about how Lambo’s have become easier to drive, and he would say how owners never would complain about the heavy clutch or heavy steering in the Diablo, but he definitely welcomes technology for the sake of safeness. Then I got on the subject of the cars getting heavier and Lotus’s ideology of lightness. He said that Elise and Exige are amazing cars to drive, especially for having very little power. He went to say how the LP640’s acceleration greatly amazes him.
He’s also never driven a McLaren F1.
He then dropped us off at the train station where I thanked him a thousand times. I never took pictures with him since I didn’t want it to be awkward to the extent of feeling like a tourist but my friends did take pics from the back of the car, and I got a video of him driving by us. Well we think it was him driving the car but we freeze framed it and it looks like the other test driver we saw. So we’re not sure how he knew we were walking along the road, but I don’t really care.
Sorry for the long read.
My day at Lamborghin with Valentino Balboni
Threaded Mode
