With spring now on the horizon within the Northern Hemisphere, we’re looking forward to a different big yr of Speedhunting, which suggests loads of fresh automobile features in between event coverage, shop tours, project automobile updates and more. In the subsequent few days, Dino will likely be bringing us his story on one of the vital talked about cars at this yr’s Tokyo Auto Salon – Liberty Walk’s extra-wide Countach. That got us occupied with one other Lamborghini feature automobile…
Well, type of. You’re Oemmedì Meccanica’s Fiat 500, which not only looks nuts due to custom bodywork that makes it almost as wide because it is long, nevertheless it goes nuts too due to its retrofitted underpinnings – a complete Lamborghini V12 powertrain scavenged from a Murciélago. It’s not hard to see why this tradition creation from Italy ranked as our biggest feature automobile story of 2014, and now that 10 years have passed, we thought it was one price revisiting.
2014 Feature
The automobile is outrageous, the execution flawless and the motive good. So to try to make sense of all of it, I’ll cope with those points in that order. The primary being entirely justified by the incontrovertible fact that that is in essence, a Lamborghini Murciélago. That’s right, a correct, bonafide, kick ass supercar from a thoroughbred Italian manufacturer. Apart from some handmade bodywork that hardly covers the mid mounted 6.2-litre V12 engine, this can be a Lamborghini. No really, it’s. With 580hp.
After I first showed this construct to a friend, he made noises of disbelief, saying it was probably not running a correct Lamborghini engine. Well, for some other naysayers on the market and for anybody else who has fuel pumping through their veins, click on the video and have a look. Then close your eyes. It’s incredible, huh?
So what kind of madmen would create such a thing? Oemmedì Meccanica, that’s who. They’re a family run general maintenance and restoration workshop in the course of Italy. It’s roughly an hour’s drive south to Rome from here and the encompassing countryside feels dry and clean.
The lazy late summer air is laden with warmth; my mouth is dry and my head feels somewhat slow and numb after travelling over 1,000 miles today to get here. But what I’ve found on this innocuous, hidden away industrial estate is sort of possibly genius and madness mixed in equal quantities. That is what snaps me back to #MaximumAttack mode.
I realise quickly that I’m just circling the Fiat probably not knowing where to begin. Seeing pictures is one thing but I’ll disappoint you now by saying it’s nothing in comparison with experiencing it within the metal. You don’t just determine to make use of some Lamborghini salvage at some point though; you don’t just wander right into a bull ring and pull out a red flag wondering what’s going to occur next. Oh no.
What you do is construct a complete line-up of street fighters before taking over the heavyweight title; so neatly lined up in a single corner of the expansive workshop are what got here before the Lamborghini-engined experiment. The red automobile is an Abarth: the factory/aftermarket tuner tackle things. Air-cooled and original save for just a few modifications, the five hundred is synonymous with Italy and it’s easy to see why it captured so many hearts during its production run. The silver automobile is step one on the mutant ladder though.
Underneath the 2 part electrically-operated deck lid is a Porsche flat-six. Here you’ll be able to see the additional girth beginning to kick in – wide arches on wide arches. Now the big air intakes on the vanguard of the wings make sense. That is just Oemmedì getting began though. You see the dark grey to the correct? That’s hiding a Ferrari V8, and yes I did shoot it for a feature so that you’ll see more of it in the long run. At once I would like to get back to the Lambofiat Murciéquento... Well, what would you call it?
Yes It Is
I can see why the Fiat appeals: its shape is just like the Mini and the Beetle – iconic and spanning all walks of life. Now I do know the history that lead thus far though, I would like to grasp more about just how Gianfranco Dini – the genuinely gentle man who’s answerable for the line-up – went about creating this thing.
First up was sourcing the bottom automobile. Between 2001 and 2010, just over 4,000 Murciélagos were built. These are supercars, so are cosseted, but I assume some find yourself getting damaged and that salvage has to go somewhere. Being within the automobile restoration and repair business means the Oemmedì team can source absolutely anything. Although the wheels aren’t sourced from a Murciélago – as an alternative I believe they’re from an earlier Diablo. The whole lot else has come from the later model.
Which implies all of the systems should work together, right? When you consider it logically, what the blokes have done is to strip the body away, use the most important organs and nervous system from the donor, lay all of it out after which construct a brand new structure to deal with all of it.
There are not any aftermarket ECUs here and even parts from a complete bunch of various manufacturers where you will have to mix wiring looms and fittings. The whole lot did must be made smaller though. So essentially what they did is bring the 4 corners closer together. Now there’s not much left of what Fiat originally produced.
So if that’s what they did, how they did it’s equally as ingenious. Here you’ll be able to see the front differential, because the unique 4WD system has been retained, which suggests two things: there’s more fabrication to accommodate within the initial construct, but all the pieces works because it should. Are you able to imagine if this thing was two-wheel drive? How wild would that be? Given how central all the pieces is, I’d be really intrigued to see just how good it might be on target.
As you saw above, the underneath is as well-finished because the bodywork, and for me it’s the general design that basically makes it. Let’s face it, the tip result may very well be loads less pleasing to the attention than it’s. Take a look at the best way the mesh runs into the rear wings; those last sections purely exist for aesthetics. The miniature rear diffuser could even be partly functional, although the Fiat has got enough power to bend physics, so it doesn’t really matter what the wind is doing anyway.
Like I said at the beginning, all the pieces about this construct is on the market. The additional wide arches curve away from the unique body lines easily and violently too; it’s part freak, part artwork.
Within the background you’ll be able to see the profile of an original unmolested 500. See where the arches are? The dimensions of metalwork that’s been custom made starts to change into more obvious now. What I actually admire is that Oemmedì have been in a position to use sharp lines in addition to the Fiat’s more organic curves. From this view you get to assume what it might appear like with the body lifted off, so you’ll be able to imagine the drivetrain layout. Because there’s a real V12 Lambo engine in there… I’m still not kidding.
That’s Never Coming Out
See the box behind the driving force and passenger? That’s the highest of the engine. A correct Lamborghini V12 hides inside.
Because where else is it going to go? The rear windows come out for maintenance checks, but whichever way you have a look at it, the Fiat really has been built across the running gear.
See how the rear suspension towers nestle in the combo too? The gearbox is somewhere near the underside with the split drive transfer box off to at least one side. My brain can soak up all the weather however the thought that will need to have gone in to constructing the framework to hold all of it on? Then the means of physically putting it together? Rattling.
As if incredible running gear and fantastical bodywork isn’t enough, there are lovely details just like the electrically operated deck lid and the high level spoiler that sits above it complete with brake light. No bad wiring hanging down or messing up the lines. Remember all the pieces you’re on this picture, other than the rear window, has been custom made.
The OMP seats have had their frames modified to make them more vertical. That alone will need to have taken hours after which the seats needed retrimming, but however it was price it only for those extra inches of leg room.
Similar to the outside, the inside has been handcrafted, and similar to the running gear, it continues the theme of using all Lamborghini hardware. So those dials, switches and steering column are all used to working together.
The one feature of the inside that immediately grabbed me was the centrally mounted rev counter within the steering wheel. Not only is it fully functioning however the wheel rotates around it, because the counter stays stationary. How cool is that? I assume after the remaining of the fabrication work, that was a fast job while the coffee machine warmed up within the morning.
It’s all thoroughly talking about how amazing it’s, but there’s really just one option to experience it. From inside. I don’t speak any Italian and Gianfranco doesn’t speak any English, but when the top nods within the direction of the passenger seat and eyebrows raise in a questioning way, I completely understand what’s being asked.
And so it was that here I’m being driven through the Italian countryside, the sun blazing and breaking through the trees, on this demonic creation. If I could pat myself on the back, I might also give you the chance to achieve one bank of cylinders. That is incredible.
The very first thing that strikes me is it’s not as loud as I expected. I can’t even work out why that’s. Perhaps it’s because I just got out of the Ferrari V8-engined Fiat 500 I’ll show you one other time, but this one appears to be a wall of sound. A solid chunk of noise that carries across the landscape, fairly than a peaky, screaming sound, it’s there like a mountain.
A few times the throttle is mashed and the speed gains so quickly, like an on/off switch. As if there’s no acceleration, just slow and hyper fast. We see other traffic on the road they usually stare as they pass, with good reason. You won’t ever see anything like this anywhere else on the earth. Fact.
So am I justified in claiming that that is the wildest feature automobile I’ve ever seen? I believe so. Hardware created from Lamborghini unobtanium, amazingly skillful body mods, tastefully executed to the best of standards using an iconic and emotive base model.
Technology, passion, speed… I could go on. Where others couldn’t imagine such a thing being done, Oemmedì Meccanica did. When those others said it couldn’t be done, Oemmedì Meccanica did it.
Bryn Musselwhite
Instagram: brynmusselwhite
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
