Look past the Countach, ignore the Miura and avoid the distraction of the Diablo and you'll spot it in Lamborghini's museum. A panelling hammer. The handle is worn smooth through years of use, the head crudely stamped with its owner's name, Rovatti. It sits alongside a set of Contax scales, beneath a black and white photo of Ferruccio Lamborghini himself, back arched, sweat beading on his brow as he works a file against some recalcitrant bodywork. Museum pieces.

The red terracotta tiles of the factory floor are an enduring fixture but otherwise it's doubtful Signor Rovatti would recognise much at Sant'Agata these days. We're shown into the Master Body Centre, where Quality Director Holger Weichhaus and his lieutenants treat us to death by Powerpoint, slide after slide explaining the quality process each new Lamborghini now undergoes.


We learn that each headlamp for the new Aventador contains 160 separate parts from 14 different suppliers and requires 19 injection-moulding tools to be built. The light units went through six design stages as part of a 24-week optimisation cycle and if a single LED is misaligned by one millimetre it's obvious to the naked eye.

I'm having trouble devoting my full attention to this dizzying detail because sitting right next to us is the original body buck for the Aventador in all its nakedness. With pencil marks on the bodywork, stickers indicating panel fits and whole sections milled from aluminium billet to validate the initial CAD outputs, it almost feels like sneaking a glimpse at something you shouldn't be seeing. Presentation over, the floor is open for questions. An awkward silence at first before one wag asks, "Are you all German?".



The flowcharts, the lean production model and the almost fanatical attention to detail when it comes to panel alignment couldn't have happened without the German involvement. Entire testing regimes have been lifted wholesale from Audi. Seating materials are tested for traction by a machine which drags hooks across them while passenger airbag sensors are calibrated by a SORION unit which plonks a plastic bum up and down all day, both units familiar from Ingolstadt visits.

Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann explains the scope of the task at hand. "We have more than a thousand suppliers for just two models. Much of this is due to a high level of individualisation, but it's easy to get better at the things you did before. We need to take risks." The Aventador, with its all-new engine, gearbox, suspension and carbon-fibre tub chassis couldn't be a much bigger risk and getting it right first time is a massive challenge. The quality has to be right first time. "We break Lamborghini product quality down into three key steps; research and development, supplier selection and production. After that, more than 120 dealers need to get on board with quality management," he notes, identifying innovation and tradition as the foundations that underpin this philosophy.



"It's an easier car to build than a Murcielago." Industrial Director Ranieri Niccoli injects a welcome dose of Italian optimism. "Quality improvement has been the biggest change with this vehicle. We needed to retrain all 150 workers on this car for two months for this car and it was as big a change as when the Gallardo line was introduced" he explains. He walks us through the Aventador line, showing us leather trims that have been rejected due to mosquito bites and proudly demonstrates the touch-screen displays that act as online checklists for the two hours that the Aventador spends at each workstation.

Every part arrives in a separate felt-lined slot on a trolley specific to one car. The parts are picked, the database updated and each has a time slot to the minute at which it should be fitted to the car. Parts are picked from the trolley from right to left, and each drawer in turn. Call it obsessive compulsive order if you will, this Kanban system lifted from Toyota. Everywhere you look are the mantras of modern production. Without standards, there is no improvement! Everything that does not contribute to create value is waste! Visual management creates transparency!



Signor Rovatti would doubtless stare in befuddlement at this intrusion of management into the craft of the artisan. Part of me feels that some of the Lamborghini magic has been forever lost in the translation. Then I drove the Aventador and realised that the Germans build better Italians products than the Italians. It's a form line that Rolls-Royce, MINI and Bentley buyers will doubtless recognise and one that has helped Sant'Agata through the tough times, as evidenced by the strands of grey now shot through Winkelmann's coif. He's lost for a moment, staring out of the window at the first batch of customer cars being given a test shakedown. A cluster of Aventadors head up the road on the test loop around Crevalcore and he returns to the conversation. I try to read his expression. Let's call it pride.