by "Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
Published 03/15/2017 at 18:20
by "Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
Published 03/15/2017 at 18:20
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STARS: 2
If you haven’t seen Doug Demuro’s review of the Lamborghini LM002 stop reading and watch it now . Back to the topic. Why does the LM002 exist and why particularly do people feel inclined to include the 00's when saying the name. Well, that should obviously tell you that the 2 in 002 means it’s the second of something, but what. Well, let’s find out.
We’ll have to go back to the Vietnam war when the US military was looking for a modern replacement for the aging Jeep CJ’s.
Historically, we all know that the military ended up picking the AM Generals HMMWV... erm Humvee.
But who would pick one of those over a Lamborghini? Well, it’s not that easy and The LM001 as cool as it was wasn’t ideal. The late seventies saw AM General and Lamborghini put forth vehicles for potential deployment in Vietnam. Lamborghini developed three different vehicles for potential deployment. The Us government only saw two in the flesh, the LM-001, and the LM-002. This vehicle in true Lamborghini fashion was powered by an AMC V8, placed in the rear of the truck. That setup caused some issues.
The LM-001's rear engine caused instability during off-road testing resulting in Lamborgini completely redesigning the chassis of the LM from a rear engined frame to a traditional front-engined design.
The LM-001 was powered by an 180 HP AMC V8, but when they redesigned it into the Front engined spectacle it is today it had the V12 from the Countach. and I think it’s not hard to say that the government probably saw that as another expense when it came to picking a suitor. thus they ended up picking the Humvee.
Personally, I find it weird when people call it the LM oh-oh two. when in retrospect it’s just the LM-2. That’s about it. Lamborghini didn’t give up on the LM project because they put the sucker into production and took it racing. It’s a happy story regardless because people still ended up buying them for the duration of their production. Not as much as an allotted annual government contract would have been, but that’s ok.
I’m posting this link to another article I wrote for a class assignment because I paraphrased this article from it.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
03/15/2017 at 18:26, STARS: 2
Because Libyan blood money has to go somewhere
"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
03/15/2017 at 18:27, STARS: 0
Well, there’s that too.
"MrDakka" (mrdakka)
03/15/2017 at 18:30, STARS: 1
Simple, rich people needed a lambo to snort crack in while offroading, but trailering a lambo in off road environments, simply to snort crack in, is really annoying. So lambo obliged their request for an off road lambo.
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
03/15/2017 at 18:38, STARS: 0
Yes, and the LM001 bears an uncanny ressemblance to the much earlier FMC XR311... which had a rear-mounted Chrysler V8.
Lamborghini was so obsessed with getting their military vehicle programme going that they spent on it all the money that BMW had given them to build the M1, which ended up being assembled by Baur. (It seems Lamborghini did manage to do all or at least most of the chassis design though.)
By the way, I have just noticed that you mention Lamborghini and AM General submitting vehicles for deployment in Vietnam in the late 70s... really? Check your dates and you’ll realise that is just not possible.
The XR311 may have been the programme you are talking about, with running prototypes around 1971.
"CaptDale - is secretly British" (captdale)
03/15/2017 at 18:42, STARS: 0
I thought this was common knowledge. Though I was surprised he didn’t mention why they made the Lm002
"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
03/15/2017 at 19:02, STARS: 1
Who, Doug or me. I didn’t know much about it until I had to do a paper on the humvee last year.
"CaptDale - is secretly British" (captdale)
03/15/2017 at 19:12, STARS: 0
Doug. I don’t believe he mentioned it at all.
Really? I thought people just knew about the LM002. I remember learning about it as a kid.
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
03/15/2017 at 19:45, STARS: 1
It has taken me some time to find the webpage of a brave soul who found and restored one of the FMC prototypes! The link is mentioned in the XR311 Wikipedia entry (also worth a look):
https://web.archive.org/web/20090221045229/http://meisterburg.com/xr311/pages/default.htm
FourWheeler has an interesting feature on the XR311. Unfortunately towards the end they fail to mention that the MTI/Lamborghini proposal had been cribbed from the earlier FMC one.
http://www.fourwheeler.com/features/129-1302-february-2013-backward-glances/
"nafsucof" (galinskiomatic)
03/15/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 0
wasn’t it nicknamed the cheetah?
"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
03/15/2017 at 22:33, STARS: 1
That was the one that the US government never saw I believe. the LM001 was the one after that.
"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
03/15/2017 at 22:33, STARS: 0
will check again