Following the success of the Countach, Italian luxury super car manufacturer, Lamborghini was ready to take the next steps. The goal was to exceed the Countach’s performance, which may have seemed impossible to the layperson—but not to Lamborghini. So Lamborghini set out to accomplish just that. The result was Project 132—started in 1985 with a goal of speeds up to 314 km/h. After almost 5 years and 6 billion Italian liras later, Project 132 was introduced to the world as the Lamborghini Diablo.
The Diablo, traditionally named after a ferocious bull by the 19th century Duke of Veragua, exceeded expectations to say the least. The high performance sports car is able to reach speeds of up to 320 km/h, an unprecedented achievement that no other car at the time could do. Limited production for the Lamborghini Diablo lasted for 11 years from 1990 to 2001, and there were only 2,884 of these super cars ever made. As visionary as the car was, not all luxury super car aficionados were satisfied with the make and design of the Diablo. One such person was Vittorio Strosek.
Vittorio Strosek
German auto tuner and designer Vittorio Strosek founded a tuning company just outside of Munich in 1982. Strosek studied under one of the 20th century’s most exceptional industrial designers, Luigi Colani. Colani’s vision of the world included a highly advanced infrastructure and futuristic cars. His designs have been a huge influence to Strosek’s work, but Strosek has his own style. Strosek’s work is basically 80s futurism at its finest. He’s considered to be one of the industry’s best tuners from the Radwood Era.
Strosek creates body kits for cars to augment the existing designs. The story goes that the designer wasn’t completely satisfied with the subtlety of the Lamborghini Diablo. Of course, every person’s preference is different. But when your customer base is mostly the extremely wealthy, there’s really not a lot of room for personal tastes. The Lamborghini Diablo was too simple for the likes of Strosek anyway, whose forward thinking always projects towards progressive designs. Strosek’s goal was to balance out the Diablo better, and the end result was definitely a car that’s ahead of its time.
Lamborghini Diablo Strosek
Starting with the bumpers, Strosek replaced both front and rear bumpers with his own kits. Strosek’s bumpers were much rounder than the original, and it produced an overall softer and more modern effect. The designer also removed the pop up headlights along with the replacing the front turn signals to give the front hood a more streamlined look. Two of the more unique features of Stosek’s Diablo design were the two exterior side rear view mirrors. They’re something we’ve never quite seen before. Instead of sitting by the bottom corners of the windshield, the altered rear view mirrors were installed on the top part of the doors. The mirrors became reminiscent of short antennas, and we’re quite curious to actually see how they work.
Strosek also changed the spoiler quite a bit. The original Diablo design featured a high wing rear spoiler, but Strosek designed the Diablo rear spoiler to be integrated into the trunk of the car. He also made them adjustable depending on down force needs. Strosek changed a lot of the rear designs, putting two big-bore exhaust pipes and a few other additions. The designer also removed the wheels and set his special-designed 18-inch magnesium wheels. If customers preferred chrome wheels, he put those on the Diablo instead. Strosek left much of the Lamborghini Diablo’s interior untouched except for a couple of minor details. When requested by a customer, Strosek changed the door panels and added bucket seats. Although it wasn’t clear whether Strosek made changes to the engine, it’s likely that he did. Strosek has been known to mess with the engine just a bit. However, Lamborghini’s engines are true works of art. We wouldn’t mind of Strosek let them be.
Banned supercars
Unfortunately, due to the power of the Lamborghini Diablo’s engine, the supercar can go up to speeds of more than 200mph. For this reason, the Diablo is illegal to drive on US roads. Even modified supercars such as the Diablo Strosek are still considered illegal. So even if Strosek added modifications to the Diablo in order to tame the beast a little bit, we still wouldn’t find it on the streets of the US. Fortunately, there’s a silver lining to it all. Apparently, the ban on supercars can be removed after 25 years has passed since its last production year. Since Lamborghini finished production of the Diablo in 2001, it’ll be just another 6 years before we can see the Diablo Strosek on the road again now that we’re in 2020. For now, any Strosek Diablos sitting in US garages won’t have long to wait until they hit open road.
Other Strosek designs
The Diablo Strosek isn’t the only luxury supercar modification on Vittorio Strosek’s resume. In fact, Strosek has an entire fleet of impressive redesigns. Strosek has worked on cars such as the McLaren7205, Ferrari F12, Rolls Royce Wraith Overdose, Porsche Panamera, and the Rolls Royce Ghost among many others. Strosek has also worked with other Lamborghini models such as the Huracán. A lot of Strosek’s most recent designs are ultra-futuristic, but many of them still evoke vibes from the 80s or even the 90s. In addition, Strosek doesn’t only work with luxury supercars. He’s also done work with midrange luxury cars from brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Range Rover, Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, and a few others. Strosek’s designs will continue to challenge the face of the industry and also inspire the next generation of progressive designers. When it comes to innovation, forward thinking sometimes happen with a little bit of historical inspiration. Strosek did that with Colani’s inspiration, and Strosek will in turn do that for whoever will take upon the automobile design mantle next.
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