Valentino Balboni: First Ambassador of MyClassic, his story, how he was able to obtain “the best job in the world”, and what he is doing now.
Most car enthusiasts will instantly recognize the name, Valentino Balboni, as the legendary chief-test driver for Automobili Lamborghini SpA for 40 years, his name among the marque aficionados, has risen to cult status. Balboni worked at the company from 1968 until 2008 and has been one of the leading figures of the brand and one of the few people who got to experience the company grow from its earliest years to the modern company that is it now. In the 1980s, Balboni was the only test driver who was simultaneously employed in prototype development, production, and customer service at Lamborghini. He later became the face of the brand and an ambassador for Lamborghini where he often appeared at different Lamborghini events, such as the unveiling of the latest models.
So how did he end up taking the best job in the world? In this article we will explore his life and how this memorable career came to fruit and how his passion for cars never faded, leading him ultimately to join MyClassic as a brand ambassador for classic cars.
Valentino Balboni was born in 1949 and even when going to school his young self would ride his bicycle along the factory to admire the amazing cars parked outside. Valentino Balboni said that the first car that got him excited about cars was a silver Bizzarrini GT 500 that he saw at the Turin car show in 1966. Finally, a few years later, he started working as an apprentice in the assembly department, starting at the very bottom. After graduating he would become a mechanic in 1971, before his passion for driving meant that, even though he didn’t have a driving license, he would still ‘test’ customers’ repaired cars and drive them around the factory unnecessarily. This led to Ferruccio Lamborghini offering him the position of test-driver under Bob Wallace to put his passion to good use and avoid driving around the factory unnecessarily. Two years later, he achieved his goal when technical director Paolo Stanzani arranged for him to have a license that enabled him to test-drive the cars alone, on public roads.
With his new license in hand, Valentino Balboni was able to head to the customer service department and select his first car, which was a Miura SV (which still today remains one of his favorite cars), to test drive along the route he would end up following for the next 35 years, where he tested almost all the company’s prototypes and 80% of all Lamborghinis built. As test-driver Balboni’s task was to coordinate the testing of each freshly assembled sports car to assure quality and performance before it got to the client. Balboni’s evening test drives were always heard as he made sure everything was in order: all the gears, and a short time at full revs, if the car passed this test then Lamborghini knew that everything was all right and that the car could be packed and readied for delivery.
In 2008 he had to retire, due to Italian Government work regulations, after completing 40 years at Automobili Lamborghini SpA. This, however, was not the end of his career in the automotive business as one year later, in 2009, to pay tribute to him in the occasion of his retirement, Lamborghini had labeled a 2009 edition to the 250 Gallardo, the LP550–2 Valentino Balboni which featured a rear-wheel-drive following Balboni’s preference for the thrill of cornering a rear-wheel driven vehicle.
In 2010 Balboni signed a renewable contract as a consultant for the brand and still is considered as a key figure of the history of the brand, as a witness to both the founding era of Ferruccio Lamborghini and the age of carbon fiber.
Today, he is a key figure of classic Lamborghinis where he deals with restoration and maintenance of the classic cars that he watched from development until now. His latest endeavor is a partnership with MyClassic, an innovative technology company based in Italy, that offers a way to collect data throughout the restoration process, creating additional value for the classic car over time.
