In 1985 the engineers of Lamborghini started working on the successor of the Countach, this wasn't easy, times had changed and a new car had to be better in all aspects : faster, higher built-quality and safer. The safety- and emission rules made it difficult for a small company like Lamborghini. The staff ordered that every car should have the same power, no special U.S. or Italian-market cars this time, and should have a top speed of at least 315 Km/h. (Most U.S. cars had less power than the europeans, due to the U.S. emission regulation). Luigi Marmiroli (who had worked at Ferrari and Alfa Romeo) was contracted as Technical Director and he decided to ask Marcello Gandini to design the car. (He also had designed the Miura and the Countach). Gandini had his first model ready in may 1986 and Marmiroli loved it, there was one problem, again Lamborghini was in financial problems, and in april 1987 the company was taken over by the Chrysler concern. Chrysler got involved in the new project and they decided to let Gandini make a new design. (Gandini used the first design later for the Cizeta-Moroder, a V 16 car.) The americans weren't quite satisfied and, in cooperation with Gandini took the model to their wind tunnel and design-computers, it came out as we know it today. The space frame was made of square tubes, witch was easier to construct then the round- tube frame of the Countach. Many parts of the Diablo were made out of composite-material, much lighter than steel, but, more important, much stronger. The result was a car that is much stiffer than the Countach. The engine was almost completely changed, it's bore and stroke now were 87 x 80 mm., and the cilinder s got a Nikasil coating, compression was raised to 10:1 and an electronic sequential fuel injection system, specially designed for the car was added. With this new engine the Diablo was the most powerful road car with it's 485 Hp at 7000 Rpm. (Ferrari claimed 478 Hp for the F40). The built quality of the Diablo was much better than the Countach, due to new production methods they learned from Chrysler. The mission was completed: the Diablo was a fully fledged successor of the Countach.