+1 Production figure I have usually heard for the Jalpa is 410, although I have seen one site that mentioned 416 were produced. Best regards, Dino
Was the Jalpa a business failure at only 416 units? You can't tell by the numbers alone. What was Lamborghini's target? What was their capability to build more? I don't know, but without knowing that you can't judge its success. Were there models sitting on the showroom floors waiting for customers for too many months? Big dealer discounts? For instance Tesla has sold 1000 of their roadsters and that is 100% (or more) of the cars they are able to produce. It has been a home run for them. But if GM sold 1000 of some model it would have been a total failure. Lamborghini was a lot smaller than Ferrari then, so producing a few hundred baby Lambos might have been exactly what they wanted. But I don't know squat a bout Lamborghini, a lot of people here do, though. Perhaps it wasn't their goal.
Hi Brian, Sorry to say but yes the Jalpa was a commercial failure. It was intended to be Lamborghini's volume car to compete with Ferrari's 3X8 and the Porsche 911. I remember my local Lamborghini dealer from 1986-1989, Modena Ltd (now long gone) had a small show room but always had 2 or 3 Jalpas sitting on their show room floor. These cars would sit there for long periods of time. There was no wait list, and they were not selling at over their list price. The dealership was quite nice and the owner was always very nice, chatty and let me sit in the cars even though I was only a teenager. Many people in the area wondered how the Lamborghini dealer stayed in business as it seemed like they sold very few cars (relative to the Ferrari and Porsche dealers in the area). My former local Ferrari dealer was selling his 328s at over the list price and there was a short waiting list. The Jalpas were an interesting alternative to Ferrari's 3X8, but they always lived in the shadow of the Countach. I always liked the look of the Jalpa but now looking back it really does not look as timeless as some of its contemporaries such as the 911 Turbo, Turbo Lotus Esprit, and Ferrari 308/328. Not to mention their interior which seemed cool to a teenager in the 80s, now looks pretty crude especially with the big plastic shoe box shaped part of the dashboard that held the auxiliary gauges. Chrysler which bought Lamborghini around 1986 terminated production of the Jalpa around 1988 because they were not selling in numbers large enough to be profitable. If you have more interest in the Jalpa check a few sites such as http://www.jalpa.ch/ Best regards, Dino
i prefer the silhouette over any jalpa.... boy racer LP400S/Dallara inspired vs the Mimram miami vice jalpa's too bad there are so few examples out there
God bless them for being forthcoming regarding Ferrari's power figure claims. They quoted 220bhp as being a realistic figure rather than Ferrari's claimed 255bph.
This is still really hard for me to read. I have been looking for this issue and article for years. Can someone post a better copy, even if it is in black and white. Please! thanks, George
Great articles. Thank you for posting. I really enjoyed the 328 Jalpa comparison. I love both and am a huge Ferrari guy but still love seeing a Jalpa from time to time although they are incredibly rare in the States.
great article, thanks for sharing. i have had the pleasure to own 2 Jalpas, 5 308's, 3 911's and a Lotus Esprit turbo SE among my cars over the past few years. the Jalpa's are fun, very different, but not the same as the other cars at all, as in a comparison is not really fair given the passage of time. 911's are great, and can be used daily. my Esprit was fun, but it was too fast for its brakes, and i did not like the creaky plastic " kit car" feel it had. carb 308's are very different from the Qv's, and that discussion alone could be and has been discussed in other threads. much like the GTB versus GTS debate, i am a GTB guy, and would love to have both my QV , and a carb car, even a GT4 to have the best of both . i dont care for the 328, but its a personal choice, and not the cars fault. get em while ya can fella's. life is short. i want to have good memories of all these damn cars if i live long enough to have memories of nostalgia .
