The Raging Bull should pull the cart, not push it.

Keith Adams (@aronline_uk) recently tweeted his excitement at his planned trip to the Lamborghini factory in a Countach. A trans-continental dash in arguably the seminal supercar is the sort of think to make many a petrolhead green with envy, but not me. You may find this surprising for someone who writes a blog entitled 'Grand Touring', but it has nothing to do with the trip and rather more more to do with the car. It's not that I don't like the Countach, but rather the more prosaic reason that I cannot fit inside one comfortably.

I've only ever sat in one once, an early Periscopo example. At 6ft 2" I'm not freakishly tall but even so, my head was pushed up against the roof and more worryingly when I had squeezed my legs under the steering wheel, I found it would be impossible to depress the clutch without catching my leg on the bottom of the wheel. I'm sure I probably could drive one for a short trip on a Sunday morning but a 1,000 mile trip would be a no-no and that's even before I get to the lack of luggage space.

For such a trip I would most likely retreat to the Daytona (and its suprisingly ample legroom) and as a result, I doubt too many will feel sorry for me. However, if the trip required the use of a Lamborghini there are a surprisingly large number of choices, since in the sixties and seventies there was an interesting line of front-engined GT cars all using the same V12 engines as their more famous mid-engined brothers.

Ferruccio Lamborghini began making a car to rival the V12 GTs from Maranello after an alleged argument between him and Enzo Ferrari. The actual reasons for the argument - if it even took place at all - are unclear, but most versions seem to involve Lamborghini's dissatisfaction with his Ferrari road car. As a result Lamborghini (a successful tractor manufacturer) set out to build car products that were better than those from Maranello, launching the initial 350GT in 1964 with a 270bhp 3.5 litre V12. Amazingly, the basic design of this engine is still used in today's 6.5 litre 661bhp Murcielago! Rather than building race-inspired road cars, Lamborghini wanted to build true Grand Tourers - cars capable of travelling at high speed for long distances while providing a degree of luxury for captains of industry such as himself. He often used one of his own personal Lamborghini as a high speed commuting car between his five factories around Italy.

On a technical level Lamborghini achieved some success, since right from the start their V12 engines featured 4 cams before the Ferrari engines did (on their road cars at least), but in sales terms they were never able to match the equivalent cars with the prancing horse on the nose. Despite being overshadowed by the arrival of the mid-engined Lamborghini in 1966 in the shapely form of the Miura, there was quite a list of front-engined Lambo GTs. The 350 was followed by the similarly styled 400GT which also gained 2+2 seating. The 400 was reskinned to make my personal favourite front-engined Lambo, the Islero, which was launched alongside the larger Espada - almost a full four seater, with styling that would not be out of place in some of the science fiction movies of the time. The Islero was replaced by the Jarama, which used a shorterned Espada chassis and was styled by Marcello Gandini, and is also somewhat similar to an early Volkswagen Passat - although the Lambo definitely came first!

Only the Espada achieved any serious production numbers, being produced in three separate versions from 1968 through to 1978, while the others all seemed to have been made in series of 100-200 units over a couple of years each.

Today only the early 350 and 400s can command money comparable to their rivals from Ferrari, and both are still some way short of the prices that Miuras are now commanding. The Jarama and Espada in particular are relative bargains, with the usual caveat that just because they are cheap to buy doesn't mean they are cheap to run. At around £50,000 the few Jaramas for sale on the web command less than half the money you will need to buy the best examples of its chief rival, the Ferrari 365GTC/4.

The relatively sober designs (Espada apart) have probably held these cars back in the marketplace, since Lamborghini as a brand has become associated with mid-engined avant garde shapes, something which ironically Ferruccio Lamborghini didn't care for (it is said that, like me, his favourite Lamborghini was the Islero). However, this subtleness is part of the appeal. Having a car that, while stylish, doesn't shout to the world what it is and is only appreciated by connoisseurs, is perhaps the definition of motoring cool.

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