Lamborghini built its first military vehicle, a prototype vehicle codenamed "
Cheetah", in 1977. Lamborghini had designed the vehicle with hopes of selling it to companies in the
oil exploration and production industry. The original Cheetah prototype had a rear-mounted
Chrysler V8 engine. The only finished prototype was never tested by the U.S. military, only demonstrated to them by its designer, Rodney Pharis. It was later sold to Teledyne Continental Motors by MTI and is apparently still in the U.S. This led Lamborghini to develop the
LM001, which was very similar to the Cheetah, but had an
AMC V8 engine. It was finally determined that the engine being mounted in the rear caused too many unfavourable handling characteristics in an offroad vehicle, and the
LMA002 was built with an entirely new chassis, moving the engine (now the V12 out of the
Lamborghini Countach) to the front. After much testing and altering of the prototype, it was finally given a serial number and became the first LM002. The production model was unveiled at the
Brussels Auto Show in 1986. It was dubbed the "Rambo-Lambo". Civilian models were outfitted with a full luxury package, including full leather trim, tinted power windows,
air conditioning, and a premium stereo mounted in a roof console. In order to meet the vehicle's tire needs, Lamborghini commissioned
Pirelli to create the Pirelli Scorpion tires with custom, run-flat tread designs. These were made specifically for the LM and were offered in two different tread designs, one for mixed use and the other for sand use only. These tires could be run virtually flat without risk and could handle the desert heat, the loading, and the speeds of the LM. The LM002 was fitted with a fuel tank.
In the market A total of 301 examples were built. LM002 —made for
Hassanal Bolkiah, the
Sultan of Brunei Near the end of the LM002's production, Turin-based autoshop owner
Salvatore Diomante created a one-off "
estate" version for the
Sultan of Brunei by enclosing the back area and raising the roof. This added significant interior capacity.
Uday Hussein owned a LM002; it was blown up in 2004 by US military for an ostensible car bomb test. After the
fall of Ba'athist Syria, footage emerged of a massive car collection belonging to former dictator
Bashar al-Assad, stored within the
Presidential Palace in
Damascus; a red LM002 was briefly shown in the recording, in addition to other luxury cars such as the
Ferrari F50. An LM002 was featured in the films
No Holds Barred (1989),
Toys (1992) and
Fast & Furious (2009), as well as the video games
Stunts (1990) and Forza Horizon 4 (2018). ==Motorsport==