Valentino Balboni, High Fidelity

Forty years devoted to a brand representing Italian excellence in the sports car world. The stories of Valentino Balboni and Lamborghini have been entwined for a long time, in an extraordinary succession of coincidences and events

Words Alessandro Giudice

Photography Alessandro Barteletti

Video Andrea Ruggeri

Archive Courtesy of Valentino Balboni Archive

Even if you live in the countryside, where perhaps doing the shopping, going to school or clearing snow from the road are more complicated, where when it rains everything floods and when it’s hot the air is filled with mosquitoes, not everything has to be troublesome. So, when Valentino Balboni – class of 1949, born and raised in Casumaro, a small farming town in the Po Plain just a stone’s throw from Cento, nestling in the Ferrara-Modena-Bologna triangle – finished technical school, the first thing he did was look for a job near home. No specific interests, no particular attraction for a given industrial sector, just a job that, in those days, meant that he could bring a bit of money home, contributing to the tight family budget.

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  When he heard that the car factory, set up by the tractor firm Lamborghini, was looking for staff, he turned up: not because he loved cars, not because he dreamed of becoming a mechanic, but simply because it was close to home and therefore convenient. But then for those who live in the countryside, convenience has a wholly different meaning: the 20 miles or so to Sant’Agata Bolognese didn’t seem far, even there and back on a bicycle or his father’s yellow Vespa, at dawn, in the spring sunshine or the winter frosts, in the fog and even the pouring rain. Anyway, he applied and they hired him. When do I start? Straight away!

And on 21 April 1968, his life changed radically. The department manager was explaining to him and another new colleague how the factory worked: “At one point, this very agitated guy comes into the office and starts shouting at the boss: “Get these young guys to work, stop wasting time.” “Why?” “Because we need people who work, not people who chat!”

It was Ferruccio Lamborghini and, far from daunted, the nineteen-year-old Valentino was charmed by the man’s force and determination, and this made him instantly feel an important part of this new company. A dynamic environment, squashed in the area between two legends, Ferrari and Maserati, yet full of the punch and vitality of its founder. And that’s how Balboni began, with a mechanic’s apprenticeship and the small tasks assigned to the new hires. Meanwhile, he, who didn't have a driving licence (“Doing the course was expensive and our family couldn’t afford it”) began to drive in the factory courtyard, in the only car available, used by the “experience” department to test new components. “I learned driving round the two sheds at the factory at the wheel of a Miura. Thinking back, it makes me shiver, but at the time there was nothing else and it was quite normal.”

The days passed, at the wheel he crunched the gears less and less and his driving became smoother. Also thanks to the advice of an exceptional tutor like Bob Wallace, the New Zealand engineer, tester and designer who had already worked with Maserati and Ferrari (he had been Phil Hill's chief mechanic in 1960, when the American driver won the F1 World Championship in the Ferrari single-seater) and who at the time was a key figure at Lamborghini.

In the meantime, Valentino Balboni became a mechanic, learning to work on all the car parts, from the engine to the transmission to the gearbox, following Wallace's guidance.

And one day, on 5 September 1973, over five years after starting work, he was considered good enough to test the cars on the road, and for the first time, he left the factory at the wheel of a Lamborghini.

“It was a black Miura SV, a masterpiece. I drove up to the entrance barrier, where the porter’s lodge was, and the porter, who years earlier had helped me to write my application, smiled at me. I was really, really scared. I thought I wouldn’t be able to hold the bends, or that I would go too fast, and in fact I drove really slowly for the first few miles. It was really embarrassing, and very tough. But then I fell in step with the Miura, and thankfully everything went fine, it was a thrill I will never forget.”

This marked the start of a new era in Valentino’s professional history, joining that exclusive club of the world’s most sought-after testers: “When I went out on a test drive, I often met colleagues from Maserati, Ferrari, De Tomaso. Near Sant’Agata, there was a place, an abandoned house with a huge tree in front that offered some lovely shade. Often, when I drove past, if a tester had parked there to check the vehicle, I would stop, and all the others did too. We would chat in the shade, and then set off again. Sometimes, out of curiosity, we would switch cars for the next three or four miles, and then of course everyone went back in their own car.”

As the brand grew in popularity, Lamborghini caught the eye of some rich and even some rather eccentric customers. “I still remember the man with a white Diablo with white seats and steering wheel: he came to Sant’Agata dressed all in white, socks and shoes included, with a tamed parrot - white, of course - on his shoulder.” And then, those who wanted to show him how well they drove - “A few scares, but luckily we never had an accident,” - and those who, on the other hand, could drive really well, like Renè Arnoux, who had a beautiful Miura, or Nelson Piquet. “He wanted to buy a Countach, and took it for a test drive on the motorway, at a speed that I didn’t think possible.”

In the meantime, Wallace confirmed how precious his advice and working method were (he drove from 5.30 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, and then reported back to the mechanics), and handed it all on to Balboni, passing him the baton.

“Bob had incredible mechanical sensitivity and knowledge, a natural flair for understanding cars, ‘feeling’ them. In practice he passed that all on to me, and helped me develop this sensitivity.”

“And what’s more, I was a mechanic, and the combination of the two things – mechanic and tester – gave me a huge advantage, immediately testing any changes and their impact on the car’s performance and behaviour.” And this is why, when Bob Wallace left Lamborghini to return to New Zealand, and from there on to Phoenix in the United States, Valentino Balboni became chief tester at Sant’Agata, a role he covered for forty more years, even during the most complex periods of the company history, which he also got through thanks to the awareness of the role he had acquired, having worked directly with the founder.

Ferruccio always being there was a thrill, even if at times it was like a roller coaster, so many new ideas, sales strategies, mood swings that were sometimes tough to follow. A pragmatic, farming mentality, with his feet on the ground and full attention to the customer’s needs. Balboni tells, “I remember that Lamborghini often delivered cars to customers who came to collect them in Sant’Agata personally. While I did the final checks before getting the car on the road, he entertained the guests and, when they left the factory, we would accompany them all as far as the gate, which was (and still is) on a very long straight road: turn left for Modena, right for Bologna. The customer would drive off, and you could hear the engine roaring miles away".

“Ferruccio Lamborghini counted the gear changes on his fingers, and when he heard fifth gear, he would say, ‘OK guys, we can go home now, it’s not going to break!’ He was an incredible character.”

Balboni's alarm went off at 6.30 every morning, he would get to work early and his day began at 8. He and the other two testers waited for the cars to come off the assembly line, and personally oversaw the first checks, the set-up, the tyre pressure, topping up the oil, water and fuel before setting off on a road test. “The route was always the same, from Sant’Agata Bolognese to Altedo, at the motorway exit, and then back again, a 70-mile round trip, ideal for running in the brakes and checking the noise levels and vibrations, as well as any leaks.”

Compared to today, when simulations with virtual tests speed up the validation process, then there was a huge difference between testing and development, the former merely checking that everything on the car to be delivered was OK, while the latter was part of the design, the only way to check the actual product against what had been designed on paper. “It was great explaining the sensations and performance to the engineers. We didn't always agree, and I must say that often they were right, and all these situations helped me to grow and improve every day,” Valentino Balboni says today.

The Sant’Agata models still have that spirit that drove Ferruccio to challenge the world of sports car manufacturers, first and foremost Enzo Ferrari, who had the nerve to treat him with disdain during their first and only meeting, when Lamborghini, already a wealthy industrialist thanks to his tractors, was a mere customer of Maranello (he and his wife had two Ferrari 250 Coupé Pininfarinas, one each).

Would Ferruccio like today’s Lamborghinis? “I think so. In my opinion, they still embody his spirit, his idea. Today, though, things have changed. In my day, people who drove this type of car had to develop a certain kind of sensitivity, but today electronics control their behaviour and reactions, so anyone who drives a Lamborghini can focus more on enjoying its performance, without so much manual effort.” In all these years, were you ever tempted to switch sides? “In the early ’70s I had some high-level contacts with our cousins on the other side of the river (Balboni never mentions Ferrari by name, but alludes to the river Panaro, which separates Sant’Agata Bolognese from Maranello), but I got the impression that rather than wanting me with them, they were more interested in stealing me from the other team, and at that time we were developing the Countach. So I decided to stay where I was, and I stayed there my whole life, the best decision I ever made.”

Lamborghini repaid this loyalty in its own way. “One day, the technical director Maurizio Reggiani called me and told me I had six months, an engineer and three mechanics to develop a Gallardo with rear drive rather than four-wheel drive and a manual gearbox. I tried to tell him I didn’t agree, that it was a step back compared to our exceptional four-wheel drive and very sophisticated technology, but he wouldn't budge.

Then, in 2009, they asked me to do a few signatures, and they would choose the best one. ‘But why?’ I asked, and they replied: ‘To put on the Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni Limited Edition’. I was gob-smacked, amazed, and it’s hard to believe still today.”

Hundreds of thousands of miles at the wheel of dream cars, an infinite number of contacts with customers and enthusiasts around the world who called him for advice, events and restorations have not changed Valentino Balboni, who still lives in Casumaro, in the Po Plain where he was born, with all the habits and rhythms of the farming world. Regrets? “None, I would do it all over again, perhaps correcting just a few details.” But then he stops for a moment, and adds: “In fact, with hindsight, I should have bought a Miura, perhaps with a few knocks and scratches, to keep in the garage and do up at leisure.”