More than a decade after the Lamborghini Countach forever altered the supercar landscape, engineers at the marque’s famous Sant’Agata headquarters set to work on its replacement. In its earliest form, the Diablo was codenamed “Project 132” and development began in earnest in June 1985. In April 1987, around halfway through the new supercar’s five-year gestation, Lamborghini was acquired by Chrysler. While this arrangement ensured that the boutique Italian concern would remain financially solvent, it also brought outside influence to bear on the design process.

The American automaker’s input would ultimately extend well beyond Lamborghini’s balance sheet, as Chrysler’s own design studio reportedly tweaked Marcello Gandini’s original design to improve the Countach successor. Named the Diablo in honour of a famously ferocious fighting bull, the devilishly exotic model was revealed to critical acclaim in 1990. The new Lamborghini was praised for its clean-yet-impactful shape and impressive performance, as well as a more accommodating interior (for which Chrysler was given substantial credit).

A new mid-mounted, 48-valve variant of Lamborghini’s dual-overhead-camshaft 5.7-litre V-12 engine with computer-controlled multi-point fuel injection developed 485 horsepower and 428 pounds-feet of torque—sufficient to catapult the rear-drive supercar to 100 km/h from a standstill in around four seconds, with a top speed over 320 km/h. The Diablo would carry Lamborghini into the new millennium, with production continuing until 2001 and encompassing several iterations, notably incorporating the addition of all-wheel drive—now a Lamborghini mainstay—in 1993.

The example offered here is an early production Diablo built for the 1991 model year. Believed to have been taken to Switzerland by the importer Codeco S.A., the Diablo was supplied to its first owner by the dealer OS Auto-Leasing AG, based in St Gallen. The Lamborghini’s first custodian was one Walter Rieder of Zizens, in the Landquart Region in the canton of the Grisons, having taken delivery of the car on 21 June 1991. The accompanying service book attests to servicing work carried out around Switzerland during the 1990s, and in November 2000 the car was noted to be offered for sale by Lamborghini Porrentruy in the north-western corner of the country.

Today, the Diablo is finished in its factory-correct colour combination of Rosso over a Nero leather interior and shows just 35,424 kilometres on its odometer at the time of cataloguing. This Diablo is presented with its Lamborghini books and manuals in addition to a leather tool roll.