Some cars leave a paper trail; the Lambo 291 left a name and a place in Lamborghini's list. What follows is what can be said with a source behind it. Mauro Forghieri (Technical Director) / Mario Tollentino (Chief Designer) / Peter Wyss (Head of Design) drew it.
The story
The Lambo 291 was a Formula One car designed by Mauro Forghieri for use by the Modena team during the 1991 Formula One season. Its best finish was at the United States Grand Prix when Nicola Larini drove it to seventh place. Forghieri managed to get a car ready by the end of 1990, after which it was tested at Imola by Mauro Baldi. It appeared in a distinctive dark blue livery, featuring triangular side pods and slanted radiators.
The car proved reasonable and surprisingly recorded its best result at the first race it entered. After Larini qualified it in 17th place, the car held together and finished in 7th place, albeit 5 laps behind winner Ayrton Senna in a McLaren MP4/6. The team came close to a points finish, notably at Imola where van de Poele was 5th in the final corner before fuel pressure problems dropped him back to 9th. Apart from those two highlights, the team did not come close to points and usually failed to get through pre-qualifying until the 1991 British Grand Prix after which the team were promoted to the "prequalified" group (together with Jordan and Scuderia Italia/Dallara who had proven too fast for the Lambo 291 most of the time whilst AGS, Footwork and Brabham were forced to pre-qualify after the 1991 British Grand Prix). However, the failures to pre-qualify were now mostly replaced by failures to get through the "regular" qualifying sessions, and only Larini would give the car four more starts (Germany, Hungary, Australia, and in the home grand prix at Monza).
Its place in the line
Nearby in the Lamborghini catalogue sit the Lamborghini Calà and the Lamborghini Marco Polo.