Even though the previously made Lamborghini Cheetah was a failure, Lamborghini still wanted to make an off-road military vehicle. The Cheetah concept was redesigned into the LM001. Unlike the Cheetah's Chrysler engine, the LM001 prototype had a 134 kW 5.9-litre AMC-built V8. The V12 from the Countach was supposed to be used for production models.