Car review on LAMBORGHINI LM002

When you look at the back catalogue of Lamborghini cars, you will find only high-performance super cars: names like Miura, Countach, Espada, Diablo. There is one name that sticks out in this sleek, knee-high company: what on earth is an LM?

To realize why Lamborghini produced the equivalent of Mad Max, you have to understand why most European farmers are also familiar with the Lamborghini name: its other main business is making agricultural tractors. The LM002 was the perfect, if audacious, synthesis of these two sides of Lamborghini’s business — a foul-wheel-drive monsters with a V-twelve Countach engine!

Its story actually begins with a request to produce a military vehicle for: the US, in conjunction with Chrysler. This resulted in the Cheetah of 1977, a massive doorless all-terrain buggy with a mid-mounted Chrysler V-eight engine.

The tail-heavy weight distribution under which this layout suffered led the American government elsewhere (the US-built Hummvee, or Hummer, got the deal in the end), Lamborghini pressed ahead with its own interpretation of the ultimate off- roader. Its production LM002 was shown for the first time in autumn 1985 with a Lamborghini Countach V-twelve engine up front. Everything about it was bigger and better than any other car.

The LM was immense. At over 16ft (495cm) long, it was about the same length as a Jaguar XJ, and it was over6ft Gin (200cm) wide, 73in (185cm) high and weighed nearly 3 tones (2.95 tons). It could seat four people inside, two on each side of the largest central tunnel ever seen in a car and four-to-six more passengers could perch in the pick-up rear. The enormous 345 x 17 tires were specially made by Pirelli. That giant Countach engine meant the LM was the fastest off-roader in the world: it could lug the LM up to a top speed of 126 mph (201 kph), while its0-60 mph (0-96 kph) time of 8.5 seconds could embarrass quite a few sport scars. The trade-off was fuel consumption in the region of 7mpg (11.2kpg) — you really needed the 70-gallon (318 liter) fuel tank. Off-road ability was deeply impressive thanks to the all-independent suspension and massive ground clearance.

If you were used to the utility treatment in your off-roader, the LM packed a few surprises. Here was a tough brute with all the fancy trimmings of a limousine: leather upholstery, air-conditioning, lots of electric gadgets, a wood dashboard and deep-pile carpeting.

The LM's natural habitat was the Middle East, where the military and the oil barons lapped it up, and that's just as well because the LM cost even more than the Countach and you really needed your own oil well to run one.