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I must admit that as a child, I was a car lover. And then one fine day in 1987 at a local fair, a friend of my parents showed it to us – a motorcycle with a proud and muscular Italian bull, with the words Lamborghini Design running over the tank. I didn’t know it then, but I was staring at one of the rarest bikes in the world.
The Boxer-Lamborghini-Design motorcycle was designed by Thierry Henriette, founder of Boxer-Design. But is this bike a real Lamborghini? Or is it just wearing some show-off stickers? Well, if I believe the manufacturer’s plate riveted to the frame and the registration card, she is an official Lamborghini product! How?
Well, in the early 1980s, Lamborghini was ear-deep in financial difficulties. Ferruccio had long retired and the company had already gone through several hands before ending up with two French entrepreneurs, brothers Jean-Claude and Patrick Mimran. It is within this context in 1986, that Thierry Henriette received the permission to make a Lamborghini motorcycle. The one and only condition imposed by the Italian marque was that he could not use the name Lamborghini alone, but should include the word ‘design’ – a very fashionable word in the mid 80s – with it.
Thus the Boxer-Lamborghini-Design was born and like its prestigious name suggests, it was a superlative motorcycle. Made around an all-aluminum chassis engineered by Fior, Fournales rear suspension, Brembo Gold Series brakes, Ceriani adjustable front fork, custom-made Gotti wheels and a wind tunnel-tested fully enclosed fairing, the motorcycle was a race track beast wearing a haute-couture evening dress. Ironically, the 900cc and 1000cc motors were Kawasaki units. In 1986, the Boxer-Lamborghini-Design outperformed all of its rivals. It was much lighter, agile and powerful and with 125 bhp propelling 185 kg, it was easily capable of a 250 kph top whack. To put things into perspective, average sportsbike riders had to wait until 1993 and the Honda CBR900RR to see a street-legal machine go below the 200 kg mark.
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