Bob Wallace

Auckland-born Lamborghini test driver who developed the Miura and Countach on the road after work as a race mechanic for Ferrari and Maserati. He built the 1970 Miura Jota, left Sant'Agata in 1975, and ran a specialist shop in Phoenix until his death in 2013.

Wallace was born in Auckland on 4 October 1938. As a teenager he worked with racing teams visiting New Zealand. At 21 he left for Italy after a Maserati factory job that did not materialise. He became a race mechanic, including for Camoradi USA on the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage cars that won the Nürburgring 1000 km in 1960 and 1961, and for Ferrari and Maserati teams.

After the 1963 season he joined Lamborghini's new Sant'Agata factory as a mechanic and, in his words, a trouble-shooter. His first assignment was the 350 GT. He became the company's first test driver. Most work was on public roads at night, often at 170 mph on the autostrada, then a debrief with the design office.

Lamborghini's 50th-anniversary press material credits him with the Miura's entire development process. He worked with Dallara and Stanzani and later said they only got the car right at the end of the series. His Miura Jota was a one-off completed in 1970 on chassis 5084, sold on 8 February 1972 and destroyed that year. Lamborghini still identifies it as the basis for factory SVJ conversions.

He tested the Countach most extensively. After Geneva 1971 he and Stanzani took the prototype onto Targa Florio roads and judged it had more potential than the Miura. With apprentice Valentino Balboni he spent two years on that programme before 1974 production. He left in 1975 after Ferruccio sold the company; Balboni succeeded him.

He and his wife spent three months in New Zealand, then opened Bob Wallace Cars in Phoenix, restoring Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Hemmings found him still working alone near Sky Harbor in 2008. He died at his United States home on 19 September 2013, aged 75. In October 2015 Sant'Agata dedicated a roundabout to him; Stanzani cut the ribbon.