January 19, 2010Sighting: The Rambo Lambo

Winter’s three-day weekends are for skiing, fire lighting, and runs to the general store to pick up provisions.  This past MLK weekend was no exception, except that Friday’s typical Seven Eleven stop in Stratton, VT resulted in much more than the usual gasoline, Clif Bars, and beer.  Walking out of the store, toting my recently purchased breakfast items, my ears became overwhelmed by the sound of a booming 12-cyllinder engine.  Over the automotive music came the familiar voice of my friend, Eric, who motioned for me to turn around and said “Rach, check it out…a Lambo truck.”  It was that moment that set off an education when I immediately whipped out my cell phone to do some research on the Lamborghini LM002.

The LM002 is, by all accounts, ugly.  But then again, I’ve never found Lamborghinis to be particularly stylish or aesthetically pleasing.  Lamborghinis are rarely sexy.  Ominous and imposing are adjectives better suited to describing these Italian exotics.  The LM002 is thoroughly menacing and not in the slightest bit polished.  But the foreboding LM002 was originally conceived as an army vehicle, so its harsh and boxy architecture is not surprising.

Lamborghini’s departure from sportscars was well received and the LM002 became a big success among the public.  Civilian models were outfitted with luxury accouterments.  Military models were equipped with machine gun mounting points and other army-amenable features.  Though, only 301 of the brute vehicles were produced between 1986 and 1993, the car was popular in Saudi Arabia.  The civilian model was marketed toward wealthy Saudis as the car and its Pirelli Scorpion tires offered superior performance in the desert.  Saudi Arabia and Libya ordered several of the LM002 for use in the countries respective armies.

photo available here