In the 1980s, the troubled supercar maker Lamborghini was taken over by the French Mimran brothers. Patrick Mimran discovered he could sell engines to powerboat makers, so he decided to try his luck further—and put Kawasaki engines into Lamborghini-branded motorbikes. The result was the Lamborghini Design of 1986. Designed by Thierry Henriette of top French racebike specialist Boxer Bike (now Boxer Design), it had a frame conceived by the legendary Claude Fior—creator of the Fior 500. The Lamborghini Design was a technological tour de force, from the aluminum frame to the cadmium-plated brake callipers, and used one of two Kawasaki engines: first the 900 cc (from the ZX) and then the 1000 cc (from the RX). Most sources say that only five or six Lamborghini motorcycles were made, but the true figure is just under 40. French photographer Thierry Vincent has shot a machine labelled #009 for a magazine retrospective, and we’ll let you know when this is available.
