What development codename was used for the Lamborghini Diablo?

The Lamborghini Diablo was developed under the codename Project 132. Lamborghini began work on the project in June 1985 as a replacement for the Countach, its flagship V12 sports car.

The development brief demanded a top speed of at least 315 km/h, reflecting Lamborghini’s ambition to move beyond the already dramatic Countach. Marcello Gandini, who had designed the Miura and Countach, was initially commissioned to style the new car. After Chrysler acquired Lamborghini in 1987, Chrysler’s design team substantially revised Gandini’s sharp-edged proposal, creating the smoother production shape associated with the Diablo.

The finished car kept the Countach’s basic formula: a longitudinally mounted V12 behind the cabin, rear-wheel drive in its original form, and the scissor-door silhouette that had become a Lamborghini signature. It was launched in 1990 and eventually gained variants including the all-wheel-drive Diablo VT, the lightweight SE30, the SV, and the open-top Roadster.

Project 132 is easy to confuse with other Lamborghini codes. LP112 is associated with the Countach project, while L539 identifies a later Lamborghini V12 engine family rather than the Diablo’s development program.