Espada The Recently Remembered Super saloon!
Discussion
[quote=snapper seven]So here are a few snaps of the Espada my friend had. When he first turned up at my home in it (about 1987) it was owned by a friend of his, who he then persuaded to sell it to him. It was a fairly tatty car it has to be said so it went off to Colin Clarke for a full restoration - body and engine. At this time it was repainted the metallic blue.
After he sold I lost track of it until it appeared at the Silverstone events in the late noughties, now resprayed black and living up in the north of England. Still has the same dark blue interior.
Hi David, see you've been posting photos of the Espada I used to own! KBD 824N, though that wasn't its original number. I'm sad to see it black though. As you say, it started life white from the factory but it wasn't Colin Clarke Engineering who changed the colour. I stripped it myself to a bodyshell, had it stripped to bare metal at a bodyshop in Braintree, who resprayed it the wrong shade of Vauxhall blue and delivered it back to me. A long court battle later ensued, which I won. I rebuilt the car myself. It later went to Colin Clarke for an engine rebuild. I'd love to see her again, if I haven't offended the owner by disliking the colour!
After he sold I lost track of it until it appeared at the Silverstone events in the late noughties, now resprayed black and living up in the north of England. Still has the same dark blue interior.
Hi David, see you've been posting photos of the Espada I used to own! KBD 824N, though that wasn't its original number. I'm sad to see it black though. As you say, it started life white from the factory but it wasn't Colin Clarke Engineering who changed the colour. I stripped it myself to a bodyshell, had it stripped to bare metal at a bodyshop in Braintree, who resprayed it the wrong shade of Vauxhall blue and delivered it back to me. A long court battle later ensued, which I won. I rebuilt the car myself. It later went to Colin Clarke for an engine rebuild. I'd love to see her again, if I haven't offended the owner by disliking the colour!
Hi Andrew!
Only just seen your post but what a pleasant surprise! Great to see you pop up on here.
I have sent you a PH Mail - if you don't receive it check your profile as there is a tick box to receive emails, I may need to re-send.
Apologies for not fully crediting you with much of the work done on the car.
Cheers
SS
Only just seen your post but what a pleasant surprise! Great to see you pop up on here.
I have sent you a PH Mail - if you don't receive it check your profile as there is a tick box to receive emails, I may need to re-send.
Apologies for not fully crediting you with much of the work done on the car.
Cheers
SS
I have been using my Espada as my daily driver for the past couple of weeks. What a difference it makes to the car to be used that way. Starts first turn of the key; Everything just feels 'normal'; the car behaves much better in general driving; and it seems to run better. I took it up country on tuesday night to a remote area and gave it a good drive home as the traffic was light on the way back. It still needs a bit of fettling with the distributors to get it perfect, but they do move. I don't think i have been overtaken by anything in the past two weeks!
Yesterday, I stopped off at the local shop for milk etc on the way home from the office.. A VW beetle owner quizzed me as to if 'I kept my car in storage all the time'. I explained, it was just a car and I drove all my cars a lot and used them normally. It was if I had just confessed to shagging his wife for the past three years! He was utterly bewildered and confused! He drives his car no more than 400 miles a year and keeps it in a heated garage! Each to their own. Most people don't know what it is. When I drove into the city at lunch time and stopped at lights, a guy sitting outside a bar, shouted "Lamborghini Espada'. Young guy and nice to know some people know what it is.
Sadly my work commute is only about 3-4 miles and when I get the chance it is full throttle everywhere, so the fuel economy is crap just now! My guess is about 12mpg. I wish I was as rich as those who originally bought them!
I hope you are all out there using yours
Paul
Yesterday, I stopped off at the local shop for milk etc on the way home from the office.. A VW beetle owner quizzed me as to if 'I kept my car in storage all the time'. I explained, it was just a car and I drove all my cars a lot and used them normally. It was if I had just confessed to shagging his wife for the past three years! He was utterly bewildered and confused! He drives his car no more than 400 miles a year and keeps it in a heated garage! Each to their own. Most people don't know what it is. When I drove into the city at lunch time and stopped at lights, a guy sitting outside a bar, shouted "Lamborghini Espada'. Young guy and nice to know some people know what it is.
Sadly my work commute is only about 3-4 miles and when I get the chance it is full throttle everywhere, so the fuel economy is crap just now! My guess is about 12mpg. I wish I was as rich as those who originally bought them!
I hope you are all out there using yours
Paul
neutral 3 said:
Great story well suited, keep the Espada info coming, il own one someday !!
When I bought KBD 824N the car ran on 10 cylinders, when you could get it started at all. I paid £9,000 for the car even in that state. The car had been in a very minor accident too, which had caused damage to the offside front corner, creasing the delicate aluminium bonnet and destroying the air con evaporator which sits in that corner. The bonnet frame was repaired and a completely new bonnet skin made at Dunmow by a lad who usually made panels for historic Rolls Royces. He fabricated it by hand without a former just copying the exact lines of the old bonnet and made it better than Lamborghini had.But the engine needed serious work. The only way to start it was either to spray !easy start" across the carbs or pump the accelerator 30-40 times. We traced the problem to what looked like sand in the float chambers, which had been drawn into the accelerator pumps blocking them almost completely. The engine has no choke and relies on you pumping the accelerator a "few" times to spray petrol in. We unblocked the jets, reinstalled them, and half blocked again. With the help of a mechanic who worked at Eurospares in Halstead, we removed the cylinder heads and found two of the inlet valves had holes in, where something had got inside the cylinder and been fired out through the valve. I installed new valves, rebuilt both heads, re-shimmed all the buckets and made the valve clearances perfect. We also rebuilt the bottom end. , so all the webers were then stripped completely and overhauled. This took me a few weeks as while I had them apart I had all the screws, rods, levers and bolts plated and put new seals throughout. I bought a Weber synchronometer (which I still have as a souvenir) to balance them all up. She's effectively got 12 carbs, and the 40DCOE Webers have separate jets for each cylinder, only sharing a float chamber. We timed up all the four cams, and adjusted the twin distributors on a friend's rig to get the triple spring points spot on, then used a strobe to get each distributor in exactly the right place. When we fired her up, she was the smoothest V12 I've driven. The chap at Omicron offered me £30,000 for her which I stupidly turned down. I'd have made a good profit if I'd accepted his offer. Sadly the new piston rings didn't bed in properly and to cut a very long sad story short, the engine was eventually rebuilt a second time, adding £15,000 to my outlay as the classic car market plummeted in the early 1990s.
In the end I'd spent over £23,000 on the car, in addition to her original cost, and she later sold for not much over £12,000. I put an album with the car when I sold her, with photos of the restoration work and all the bills. I'd even taken her to the NEC to try to sell her myself, but there were no takers. Richard Noble came over from the THRUST stand for a chat, and seemed quite interested. I'm glad I had the experience, despite the cost; better to live the dream if you can than forever wonder what it would have been like. But beware Espadas would be my advice. The parts are astronomically expensive, the bodies rot badly, you get 12-15mpg driving gently or 6-8mpg on a track and to be honest, she wasn't that fast, even after the second rebuild. Loads of power and a wonderful noise above 4,000rpm but she was very heavy. Drive her for a couple of hours and you'll get out tired hot and exhausted! I now have a BMW 850 V12, which I can drive that all day and still get out with a smile on my face.
snapper seven said:
Hi Andrew!
Only just seen your post but what a pleasant surprise! Great to see you pop up on here.
I have sent you a PH Mail - if you don't receive it check your profile as there is a tick box to receive emails, I may need to re-send.
Apologies for not fully crediting you with much of the work done on the car.
Cheers
SS
David - not got an email from you, but the box in my profile was already ticked. Try again? And treat me as a novice when it comes to how to retrieve messages! Posted a bit more about the car on the thread. I could write a book!Only just seen your post but what a pleasant surprise! Great to see you pop up on here.
I have sent you a PH Mail - if you don't receive it check your profile as there is a tick box to receive emails, I may need to re-send.
Apologies for not fully crediting you with much of the work done on the car.
Cheers
SS
Have a shuftie at this folks, a long forgotten bonkers Italian caper type film but with a superb choice in transport...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozm8AO3QwW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozm8AO3QwW4
Adam B said:
Sorry to disagree with the previous owner (and I do love all the period colours, Browns etc), (and I agree shame when cars aren't kept in their original colours) but that
Looks bloody gorgeous
HaHa.... That's ME... in the black top and blue cap, talking to the owner !! Oulton Park Gold Cup weekend. About 6 years ago !! Looks bloody gorgeous
dinkel said:
Ever had a seat in one sir?
I certainly did ( although static ).The kind owner had started the car and was about to disappear, when he spotted me sprinting towards him to take some snaps.
He graciously stepped out of the Espada and engaged me in conversation. His wife also disembarked and I apologised for interrupting. She smiled and said " No problem, I'm used to it ! ".
The Gent also allowed me to take a seat and have a 'tickle' of the throttle...... Fantastic.
After we had had our chat and I thanked him, there was an even bigger crowd around the car.
What was supposed to be their quiet departure, turned into an extra 1/2 hr at Oulton Park !!
I was surprised that, being 6'2" and of broad beam, I felt that there was plenty of room for me.. Hopefully, one day, I will find out if I feel the same after a few hours on the road !!
Thank you to the gentleman owner who has allowed me to fill my mind with such memories.
I drove about 1000 miles in my Espada over the past few days.
Last Thursday I was through at the Local Lamborghini dealers Aventador SV launch; then on Friday a drive from Glasgow to Hemel Hempstead to stay with a mate. Saturday and Sunday at Silverstone for the Classic. Finally drove home on Sunday.
there were 3 other Espadas at Silverstone and quite a few other owners! It was great chatting to everyone and comparing notes. For such a limited production car, 1270, it is fascinating to see and hear about the differences in each model. They were build over 10 years and one would expect changes simply due to the passage of time.
One has to remember that the car came out in the late 60's and therefore a comparison to a modern car or luxury car is pointless in comfort or vibration and quietness terms. Despite that, it can easily hold its own in general driving. What it excels at, is being different. Like the countach it still looks like a modern design from many angles. It is striking and attracts massively more attention than say a Bentley GT etc.
Despite the distances driven, the terrible rain and heavy traffic, I got out of the car feeling ok. Not overly tired.
My wallet suffered a lot! Average 15mpg and always driving at a steady 70mph......honest officer!
Some cars have a speed at which they seem to settle down and be happiest for cruising. Sadly with the Espada it's 100mph plus!
I changed mine over from auto to manual but kept the same diff, as I had recently had it entirely rebuilt. Consequently rather than 21.6 for the manual in top it's about 24/25mph/000. I think the auto was closer to 20/21. It does make the car more relaxed to drive but you are further below peak torque at 5000rpm so less responsive. That's why it was always so alive about 100mph.
I re read the Motor Test report of 1972 when I came back up.
They weighed the car at 34.6cwt with a small amount of fuel. That is 1757kg! Wildly different from the 'dry' weight quoted in the handbooks and by the factory at the time! The auto would have been about 30kg heavier.
I hope some of you have had yours out over the 'summer' and some shared stories and experience's would be appreciated.
Paul
Last Thursday I was through at the Local Lamborghini dealers Aventador SV launch; then on Friday a drive from Glasgow to Hemel Hempstead to stay with a mate. Saturday and Sunday at Silverstone for the Classic. Finally drove home on Sunday.
there were 3 other Espadas at Silverstone and quite a few other owners! It was great chatting to everyone and comparing notes. For such a limited production car, 1270, it is fascinating to see and hear about the differences in each model. They were build over 10 years and one would expect changes simply due to the passage of time.
One has to remember that the car came out in the late 60's and therefore a comparison to a modern car or luxury car is pointless in comfort or vibration and quietness terms. Despite that, it can easily hold its own in general driving. What it excels at, is being different. Like the countach it still looks like a modern design from many angles. It is striking and attracts massively more attention than say a Bentley GT etc.
Despite the distances driven, the terrible rain and heavy traffic, I got out of the car feeling ok. Not overly tired.
My wallet suffered a lot! Average 15mpg and always driving at a steady 70mph......honest officer!
Some cars have a speed at which they seem to settle down and be happiest for cruising. Sadly with the Espada it's 100mph plus!
I changed mine over from auto to manual but kept the same diff, as I had recently had it entirely rebuilt. Consequently rather than 21.6 for the manual in top it's about 24/25mph/000. I think the auto was closer to 20/21. It does make the car more relaxed to drive but you are further below peak torque at 5000rpm so less responsive. That's why it was always so alive about 100mph.
I re read the Motor Test report of 1972 when I came back up.
They weighed the car at 34.6cwt with a small amount of fuel. That is 1757kg! Wildly different from the 'dry' weight quoted in the handbooks and by the factory at the time! The auto would have been about 30kg heavier.
I hope some of you have had yours out over the 'summer' and some shared stories and experience's would be appreciated.
Paul
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