What's The Worst Car Lamborghini Ever Made?
If you heard someone say they owned a Lamborghini — even an Urus — you couldn't help but perceive them a little differently. That's the effect Lamborghini has on people; it's a brand that has stood out as one of power and the epitome of high-performance sports car engineering. Therefore, saying there's a "bad" Lamborghini is a bit of a stretch, as most Lamborghinis weren't built to be reliable, practical daily drivers.
However, when a brand deviates from its fundamental identity by creating a car that doesn't look like the rest of its lineup, the effect is always a hit or a miss. Just like when Porsche introduced the Cayenne. Porsche, a true sports car brand, selling a mainstream SUV — it was unheard of. But it has since become Porsche's flagship car and was the most popular Porsche model in 2022.
Lamborghini didn't quite hit that same mark with the LM 002. Nicknamed the "Rambo Lambo," this rugged luxury off-road short-bed pickup truck came decades too early and didn't do well in its six years of production (1986 to 1992). This commercial failure and its gimmicky, impractical disposition are why we are naming this SUV the worst car Lamborghini ever made. Of course, that depends on who you ask.
Did you just say Lamborghini had an offroad pickup truck in the '80s?
Indeed, the LM 002 isn't the most popular Lamborghini out there. It doesn't come close in sales to its spiritual successor, the Lamborgini Urus. If anything, the truck is now something of a collector's item and almost forgotten by the company that built it in the first place.
The truck's sharp edges and aggressive look aren't completely for fashion; the LM 002 was raised from the foundation of a prototype for a military vehicle. In the late 1970s, the United States military was looking for a replacement for the Jeep, and Mobility Technology International (MTI) contracted Lamborghini to make one for them. They came up with the Cheetah, a doorless, four-seater, two-ton, war utility vehicle with a mid-mounted 183-horsepower 5.9-liter V8 Chrysler engine. It looked exactly like Ford's XR-311 (and used the same engine), resulting in legal action from Ford Motor Company (FMC). They also didn't get the contract, and Lamborghini, in a bad financial position, was sold to Patrick and Jean-Claude Mimran for £1.25 million.
The new owners, working with what they had, decided to do something about all the money the company had spent creating the Cheetah. This was the birth of the LM 001 (Lamborghini Militaria 001) and its later prototype, LMA 002, which had the engine now in the front. Lamborghini fitted the Countach LP 500's 5.2-liter V-12, giving the truck 455 horsepower and 368 lb-ft of torque.
Why, then, is the LM 002 the worst car Lamborghini ever made?
It's a military car that never made it to the military. It doesn't make sense for the civilians it was made for. While the Countach's powerful engine makes it quite powerful, you might as well get an actual Countach and enjoy all the performance, lightweight handling, and respect you can get from a proper supercar.
Another problem with the outlandish style is that it doesn't follow up with the newer technology you would find in modern, similarly outlandish offroaders, like the Tesla Cybertruck. The SUV is old and now a relic of the past, fit for a museum rather than the streets today. In fact, the LM 002 Car and Driver tested against the 2023 Lamborghini Urus Performante couldn't even muster up a working AC.
While this enormous Lamborghini fairs decently well on off-road trails, its weight, and poor visibility make it difficult to handle curves on asphalt. Even with its V12 engine, it does poorly against almost all SUVs with its price tag in the acceleration department — 7.7 seconds from zero to 60 was great in 1980, but not today.
With fuel-guzzling impracticality and an exorbitant base price tag of $120,000, this LM sold only 328 units. Tina Turner bought one of these Lamborghini LM 002s and still had to modify it heavily so she could drive it. The LM 002 may have been ahead of its time, but even now that it is time, it's still not useful.