The 10 best V12 Lamborghinis

Lamborghini 350 GT

We begin where Lamborghini began, with the 350 GT. Because no, the Bull was not always raging, as Lamborghini was not always a proprietor of loud, brash in-your-face supercars. The company was actually born out of founder Ferucio Lamborghini’s desire for a powerful, fast, elegant GT. He had that in a Ferrari during his days as CEO of his tractor manufacturing company, but he found it to be unreliable. Enzo Ferrari ignored his complaints and so he was probed into action. He set about building a rival to the Ferrari GTs. The Lamborghini 350 GT was it, packing Giotto Bizzarrini’s near race-spec quad-cam V12 design that would live on in various iterations for almost five decades. 

Lamborghini Miura

Including this, what is arguably the first ever supercar and almost certainly one of the world’s most beautiful cars of all time. It is of course, the Miura, which joins our list of the greatest Lamborghini V12s in its earliest, purest form, complete with those iconic eyelashes, born from the after-hours graft and imagination of Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace. First they convinced Lamborghini himself and then the Gandini-designed Miura convinced the world, as jaws dropped on the P400 prototype’s debut at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. The demand was there and production was a go, with the team getting only a year to make the V12 fit transversely. It had its flaws and it evolved into the SV and eventually the incredible Jota but there’s nothing quite like a pure, original Miura.

Lamborghini Espada

True to Ferruccio Lamborghini’s initial desires for his company is the Lamborghini Espada, an all-out four-seater GT car. Another revolutionary Gandini design packed 4.0-litre V12 power and an indulgent, luxurious cabin. The consummate cruiser with the heart of a supercar was a success for the fledgling marque, with near-on 1,300 of them being delivered over the course of a decade. Each of the three series has its advantages, though Series 2 retains much of the classic look while adding power and featuring power steering as an option.

Lamborghini Countach LP400

We may court controversy with this one. You knew a Countach was going to be on this list but our pick may not be the one everyone remembers. To many, the Countach is all about big wings, arches, aggression and noise but we much prefer the cleaner, more elegant earlier car that traded purely on that iconic wedge shape. We love all Countachs but the LP400, the one most faithful to Gandini’s original LP500 prototype design, is the one for us, in purple, preferably. Regardless, the Countach in general – indiscriminate of version – may be in the running for the title of greatest Lamborghini of all time and the title of ultimate pin-up supercar. It’s still so extreme, so eye-catching and so out-of-this-world 50 years on from its debut.

Lamborghini LM002

Today, supercar manufacturers making SUVs is blasphemous, but when Lamborghini did it first, it was cool. Terrible, but cool. How else to describe what is effectively an Italian Hummer, powered by a Countach V12? Unsurprising really that it started life as a military vehicle and ended up as the truck of choice for the kind of clientele that more often has an oil reserve in their backyard than a garden shed. 

Lamborghini Diablo SE30 Jota

Now we’re getting into *my* era of Lamborghini V12s and let’s just say, there are going to be some opinions. The Diablo is a Lamborghini of many variants. The 6.0 was originally my favourite and is probably objectively the best, the original rear-drive pre-VT car was something of an underdog, and the SV and GT were probably the ultimate poster Diablos. However, it’s the SE30 that gets my vote. Built as Lamborghini’s interpretation of the Ferrari F40 methodology, this celebration of 30 years of Lamborghini was a hardcore driver’s Diablo, with more power and seriously revised dynamics. Word is it’s the best Diablo and with the mythical 600PS ‘Jota’ kit, it’s also by far the most powerful. In all of Lamborghini-dom, I just want to shout out the Diablo as my personal favourite too – the one that sparked my interest in cars.

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

When it comes to Murcielagos, we really don’t think there’s a bad one. Is it the ultimate modern Lambo? It certainly blends the effervescence of that Bizzarrini V12 with a timeless look and a splash of VW group reliability and quality – characterful, yet usable. The original 6.2 has an elegance and clean-cut look not seen since the original Countach and that’s so emblematic of its era. The LP640 really brought the V12 to life with a wail and massaged some measured aggression into the looks, but the SV is simply the ultimate poster Murcielago. Our pick? The 640. Its looks, its sounds, its performance: simply sensational.

Lamborghini Reventon

Of course, it was around 2008 that Lamborghini got into the limited-run specials and, by our count, these peaked with the first. The Reventon simultaneously previewed the Aventador that would succeed the Murcielago, and took direct inspiration from fighter jets in its design, even down to the instrumentation of the rev counter and speedo. Yet somehow it didn’t look totally ridiculous and doesn’t today. The ones that followed, based on the Aventador? No thanks.

Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae

Truthfully, the Aventador slightly fell short in our eyes as a successor to the Murcielago. The Bizzarrini V12 was gone, with a cleaner, different-sounding engine in its place. It was over-styled and slightly odd in its proportions. We will admit all Aventadors sport an absolutely magnificent silhouette. As is the way with these cars sometimes however, it got better with age and successive iterations. The SV was great, the S tidied up the looks, but it was with the Ultimae that I finally found my connection with the Aventador. Moving the exhausts up as circular items really made it (I personally hated the hanging blob item of the original). The Ultimae really is the Aventador on song and is also the most powerful, with a full 780PS (574kW) on tap. Woof!

Lamborghini Countach LPI800

This will be a controversial one but no matter. I love the new Countach and you should too, not necessarily as a direct successor to the original, but certainly as something spiritually related to the Murcielago. This is the clean-cut, wedge look we were so missing when the Murci departed, and next to the likes of the Veneno, Centenario and Sian? It’s positively gorgeous.

So that’s our list of our favourite V12 Lamborghinis. Are there any we should have included? Have we spouted absolute rot? Be sure to make your opinions known…