Spotted: Lamborghini Espada S3
So what if a Ferrari FF can actually get you to the ski slopes..?
A look at the values of Espadas suggests that they've appreciated considerably in recent years. It doesn't seem so long ago that if you had a budget of twenty grand that you'd be able to take your pick of some decent examples, and C&SC magazine was valuing show-stoppers at £35k only a couple of years ago. Not so any more it seems...
This one was up for £47,995, a price which the vendor described as 'market leading' (love it, will have to remember that one...), and is an original UK car which has had a quality paint job and considerable mechanical restoration.
The interior, which combines elegant seating with fascia switches which wouldn't look out of place in an earth-mover, would benefit from some work to bring it up to the standard of the paintwork, but a brief run of the engine revealed the major appeal of this car. With just a couple of pumps of the throttle the six-carb' V12 started surprisingly quickly and soon settled down to en even idle. Oh the sound.
But despite this car still needing a little attention to get it bang-on and the 'market leading' price, there's no doubt that the Espada is no longer under-the-radar. Will it be long before Lamborghinis like this one creep out of the reach of many enthusiasts?
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Lamborghini used to have the knack of producing a car that looked like no other and they had the guts to build them, (Miura & Countach) while I still love Lambos I can't help thinking they're not as 'bonkers' as they once where.
Possibly one of the greatest GTs of all time; surprisingly wieldy too.
I've heard horror stories about running costs, spares availability and maintenance etc - but are they really any worse than any other 70's Italian Supercars?
Where they 'let themselves down' is arguably in detail production finish but the engineering is excellent. These days, most have been restored which is to their benefit, provided it's been done properly. Build quality of a restored car is typically far better than original. I met a guy at SpaItalia last month who had the 7th production Espada. He had a great expression for the build quality: "you can smell the panic". Apparently Bertone was originally asked to make just 50 examples but orders were so strong that this changed overnight to "make 500". In the process of restoring his interior, the chap in Belgium said he'd found staples, bits of cardboard and all manner of bodges hidden in it. If you extrapolate this approach throughout the car, it's easier to understand why in period - when their reputation for fragility was formed - people had trouble with them.
It is worth remembering that, like Peter Monterverdi and others, Ferruccio Lamborghini set out to do things a whole lot better than Enzo Ferrari. In design and engineering terms this is very apparent. Series production is a different challenge though, one that's much better understood by manufacturers today. Take the time to put an Espada together properly - or buy one that someone else did - and it's a hell of a car, much closer I suspect to what Lamborghini 'designed' than what often rolled out of Sant'Agata's production hall.
Pre-Countach, the Espada was the most successful Lamborghini (by volume). They were anything but rare in Lamborghini terms which, along with their 'Marmite' looks and reputation for fragility, conspired to depress values well below the cost of restoration. As a consequence, they fell victim to powerboat racers who pinched the engines and scrapped the remains. This unfortunate conspiracy of circumstances has now made them rare. So, today, one of the all time great GTs, and without question the most practical Lamborghini ever built, is seeing demand exceed supply.
On the other hand, in the last few years I've heard of a few people who have just bitten the bullet and spent huge sums on restoring an Espada.
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