Lamborghini's Legendary V12 Once Powered Racing Boats

Lamborghini’s V12 legacy isn’t just about cars—its engines also powered championship offshore racing boats for decades. Ferruccio Lamborghini began adapting V12 engines for marine use shortly after the road-car brand launched. In 1967, four years after debuting the Lamborghini lineup, his namesake Riva Super Aquarama received a pair of V12s based on the 350 GT engine, initially displacing 3.5 liters, later updated through the years until production ended with later V12 generations. By 1982, Lamborghini introduced an 8.0-liter marine V12 making up to 720 hp. Two such engines drove a 38-foot monohull to the first of many titles in 1984. Racing-spec V12s like the L804 (880 hp) and L900 (770 hp) followed, with later success into the early 2000s and a 2020 yacht collaboration using MAN-supplied V12s.