Gallery: the best and worst of Lamborghini

No car company on the planet has been consistently braver or bolder than Lamborghini. Ever since its inception in 1963, the firm has taken more risks, turned more heads and generated more headlines than any other car company. Sometimes the risks have paid off, creating unforgettable machines that have become wheeled icons. And sometimes they haven't. Either way, the existence of Lamborghini has brightened up the automotive industry for the past 50-odd years. Here's a guide to the rights and very wrongs of the world's foremost purveyor of automotive exotica.

Pictures: Joe Windsor-Williams/Rowan Horncastle/manufacturer

Has there ever been a more supercary supercar than the Murciélago SV? Will there ever be? The Aventador, mad though it is, contains detectable hints of Audi influence and pales alongside the gloriously unhinged, riotously noisy and utterly uncompromising flagship of the Murciélago range. To flatten the throttle on this spectacular 6.5-litre V12 was to sample everything that makes Lamborghinis great: the drama, the extravagance, the sound, the fury, the glory of it all. We've said it before, but it's worth saying again: there will never be another supercar like this. The SV was the zenith.

Not the prettiest car in the Lambo pantheon - definitely not, given the existence of the Miura - but this was number one, the first production car. With Ferruccio in charge and clearly excited by moving beyond tractors and aircon units, it carried all the hallmarks of scrupulous attention to detail.

People talk in whispers of the SV version but it doesn't matter which Miura you're addressing - all were stunning and also revolutionary, boasting a transversely mounted mid-engined V12. Arguably the first ever supercar.

The Lamborghini that wasn't named after a bull, but instead an expression most commonly uttered by men when seeing a stunning woman. Only Lamborghini etc... The Countach, designed by Marcello Gandini when he was young and uncompromising, and powered by Lambo's own 370bhp 4.0-litre V12, quickly become the most iconic supercar of the era and a favourite on the bedroom walls of young boys across the globe.

If we're being kind, we'd say that there's a rugged charm to the LM002 that the Urus SUV will never match. But, honestly, this one should never have left the drawing board. Conceived for military use, then produced largely under Chrysler's stewardship and originally powered by one of its V8s - although this became Lambo's own 5.2 V12 for production versions - the ‘Rambo Lambo' only really found favour in the Middle East. Uday Hussein had one...

The trouble for the Countach is that it hung around for too long. And things that do that tend to get a bit... smelly. Right at the end of its life, Lamborghini unveiled the 25th anniversary model. The company had not only thrown the kitchen sink at it, but the whole plumbing system. Including the slats from the drain cover outside, by the looks of it.

The Lamborghini Silhouette was a pretty thing, but in its three years (1976-9) on sale, not enough people bought it. Lambo believed that taking it off sale for a couple of years and giving it a clumsy makeover would rectify this. And it was right. Over 400 Jalpas were shifted - largely, it's thought, because it was so much easier to drive than the Countach. But with black plastic bumpers and overblown skirts and sills, it was a long way from Lambo's finest hour.