The Portofino Concept Vehicle<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nNonetheless, by this point, the Countach was long-in-the-tooth, having debuted for 1974. Chrysler finances the development of its replacement, the Diablo. While the Countach\u2019s original designer, Marcello Gandidni, had penned the new car, Chrysler\u2019s Vice-President of Design, Tom Gale, softens its sharp lines, much to Gandini\u2019s chagrin. But power remains its strong point, with its 485-hp 5.7-liter V-12 able to run 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds, outrunning both the Bugatti EB110 and Jaguar XJ220. With a otp pseed of 202 mph, it is the fastest car in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once released in 1991, the Diablo earns a multi-million profit in 1991, the brand\u2019s highest to that point. But the onset of a recession the following year sees sales plummet. Chrysler adds power steering and all-wheel drive for 1993 in the 492-hp Diablo VT, or Visco Traction, which can send 15% of the engine\u2019s power to the front wheels. It helps, but it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detroit exits the picture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But by then, Lamborghini was draining money from Chrysler\u2019s coffers, and in 1994, the Italian sports car maker is sold to a Bermuda holding company named MegaTech, who pay $40 million for the automaker, which is barely able to break even. In 1998, Lamborghini is sold to Volkswagen Group for $110 million. Subsequently, the company enjoys massive growth under Audi\u2019s auspices, and its days of living hand-to-mouth are now in the distant past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, it was Chrysler Corp. that supported Lamborghini at a crucial point in its history this week in 1987, allowing it to survive and become the brand that it is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chrysler Corp. rescues Lamborghini at a crucial point in its history. TheDetroitBureau.com has the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13752,"featured_media":242202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[905,7,8,5,1608,1164,2648,1347,9],"tags":[1839,10716,10718,1516,10717],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242210"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242296,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242210\/revisions\/242296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242210"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=242210"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=242210"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=242210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}