Lamborghini Islero Lamborghini Islero The Lamborghini Islero is a grand tourer produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1968 and 1969. It was the replacement for the 400GT and featured the Lamborghini V12 engine. The car debuted at the 1968 Geneva Auto Show. The Islero (, ) was named after a Miura bull that killed matador Manuel Rodriguez "Manolete" on August 28, 1947 (Lamborghini also produced a car named the Miura, from 1966 to 1973). Since Carrozzeria Touring, the company that designed Lamborghini's chassis, was bankrupt, Carrozzeria Marazzi was the next logical choice as it was funded by Carlo Marazzi, an old employee
V12 engine the advantages of lower centers of gravity and improved pilot visibility for single-engined designs. Only the pre-war origin BMW VI V12 of Germany was an "upright" engine. The United States had the experimental Continental IV-1430 inverted V12 engine under development, with a higher power-to-weight ratio than any of the initial versions of the German WW II inverted V12s, but was never developed to production status, with only 23 examples of the Continental inverted V12 ever being built. The only American-design inverted V12 engine of any type to see even limited service in World War II was the air-cooled Ranger V-770,