Lamborghini Bravo: Bertone’s 1974 study for a smaller Lamborghini

The Lamborghini Bravo is a one-off concept car designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone and shown at the Turin motor show in 1974. Conceived as a possible replacement for the slow-selling Urraco, it was a fully working prototype rather than a show shell, and only one was ever built.

Lamborghini Bravo at a glance

There is no separate German article on the Bravo; the English and Italian pages are the sources, and the Italian page adds the bullfighting origin of the name.

History of the Lamborghini Bravo

A working prototype

Unlike most show cars, the Bravo had already covered a large mileage in the hands of Lamborghini test drivers before it reached Turin, and it went on to complete nearly 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of testing. Its purpose was to show what a smaller Lamborghini below the Countach could look like: it used a Urraco chassis shortened by 175 mm, into which Bertone fitted a 3.0-litre V8 rated at 300 hp and driving the rear wheels.

Style

Gandini gave the Bravo the angular language he had just used on the Countach, with louvred air vents cut across the bonnet and the rear deck, a large glazed area wrapping around the cabin, and the window arrangement later echoed on production Lamborghinis. The wheels were a design that would reappear on the Silhouette and on later production cars. The name follows the house tradition and comes from bullfighting, where a bravo is a breed of fighting bull.

Why it stayed a one-off

Lamborghini did not put the Bravo into production, and the Urraco it was meant to replace was itself withdrawn without a successor. The car went into Bertone’s private museum, and in 2011 the design house, under financial pressure, sold it at auction together with other prototypes such as the Marzal and the Stratos HF Zero. The Bravo fetched €588,000. Over the years it has been repainted several times — first pearlescent yellow, then green, champagne and finally white — which has led to speculation that more than one car existed; the official record is a single example.

Design and features

• Shortened Urraco chassis: the wheelbase lost 175 mm for a more compact shape.
• V8 power: a 3.0-litre unit with 300 hp, placed behind the cabin and driving the rear wheels.
• Louvred bodywork: rows of rectangular air vents across the front and rear decks.
• Glazed cabin: dark glass wrapping around the greenhouse, a Gandini signature of the period.

Lamborghini Bravo versions

• Bravo (1974): the only car built, shown at Turin and later kept in the Bertone museum.
• Repainted iterations: the same chassis appeared in yellow, green, champagne and white over the years.

The Bravo was meant to succeed the Urraco, shared its angular style with the Countach and its wheels with the Silhouette. More cars are in the Lamborghini collection.

Sources

• Lamborghini Bravo, English Wikipedia: design, chassis, testing, auction
• Lamborghini Urraco Bertone Bravo, Italian Wikipedia: context, styling details, name