Kiwi Bob Wallace was the chief test driver for Lamborghini for 12 years, from 1964 to 1975, and his competence and passion strongly supported the rapid growth of the company founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, in the 1930s, he moved to Italy at the tender age of 21 where he worked for racing teams such as Ferrari (where he was Phil Hill’s Chief Mechanic during his championship-winning 1961 season) and Maserati.
Following on from his stint in motor sports, he moved to Automobili Lamborghini where he served as a mechanic and test driver who played a pivotal role in developing Lamborghini’s V12 engine.
Before long, Wallace was road testing Lamborghini’s developmental prototypes under the cover of night, where he’d frequently run the cars up to 170 mph on the Autostrada. However, Wallace’s influence at Lamborghini went much deeper than simply testing each car to roll off the production line, he also helped develop the Lamborghini Miura, which many
consider to be the world’s first supercar.
Stephan Winkelmann, President & CEO of Automobili Lamborghini commented, “The news received today of the death of Bob Wallace hit me and all of us at Lamborghini, and leaves us with a great sorrow. As the first test driver of the company, Wallace has played a key role in the early years of Lamborghini and strongly contributed to the birth of the myth of the Bull. We were sorry that he could not accept our invitation and come to celebrate the 50th anniversary at our factory in May due to health reasons, but his words in a video message impressed all of the thousand guests. Automobili Lamborghini is close to his relatives and friends, and will honor his memory.”
