Espada thread

Nope! I`ll be very busy there as I am chased by many Maserati-men. But I`ll try to get more infos.

Ciao!
Walter

 

Cool lookN cars !

 

Could the car in post 14 with Maryland plates be the ex Nick Cage car?

When I was at Motorcar Gallery a young man from the DC area who had never owned an exotic was interested in the car which was the at the aero toy store in ft lauderdale. He came to us for advice as they weren't exactly classic specialists there. He ended up buying it. It was in those general colors, though Cage had the rear windows tinted at the time: or privacy or...for privacy?!;-)

 

This is what it is all about!

Mirrirs: yes Espada man needs to keep his eyes on the horizon!

 

Hey just a minute! I better go check my storage locker. That's exactly my color car. Hmmmmm.
Oh wait, your interior is a different color. We have good taste. ;>)

 

Unfortunately yes.

 

Whaaaaaaaaat ????? Mr. chassis man and no chassis numbers!

Walter, I thought you could read these remotely. ;>))

 

At the French Lambo club in the early 80's there were 3 brothers from east of Paris.
They were nicknamed the Dalton brothers because like those in the Lucky Luke cowboy cartoon they resembkled each other a lot and had dark hair and mustaches!

They has a silver Espada in which they took junior club members on several wild rides: once in Paris around 11 at night deep in the 17th arrondissement (district) they gave me a ride where I saw 170kph for a second in a sleepy narrow cobblestoned street with cars parked on either side a foot or two away: the impression of speed and the sound was not bad

 

I recall that Cage once had a black car (circa 2000) with the right hand seat removed. It was converted for him into a sort-of "sports limo" by Denny Coughlin and included a desk area where the seat had been and a full-bar behind the back seat (where the VIP would sit). This car was for sale on Ebay several years ago, still missing the seat but without some of the upgrades.

 

The one I mention was definitely dark blue not black: he may well have had at least two.

 

Thanks!!

 

What color is that?

Awsome

 

If it's the same as mine it's called Verde Aqua. Sometimes monitors and cameras make things a bit off though.

Here's mine http://www.flickr.com/gp/13434495@N03/j3611X

Bob S.

 

Many thanks to the original poster of this thread. The Espada is one of my favorite Lamborghinis of all time. Nearly bought one about 4 years ago & seriously regret not doing so!

 

My Dad's mechanic here in NY used to have a medium metallic blue Espada with creme or brown interior, I haven't seen that car since it was sold 15-17 yrs ago, but man, what presence in person! Everyone laughed at me for digging that car......

 

Those are the "everyone" no one remembers and never let them dictate your choices in life.

 

That looks like the car! Bob White of White's automotive was the owner. He's a well known Lotus mechanic, and has always had something cool for me to gawk at anytime I've been to his shop. The Espada sounds MEAN in person. I've always been struck by how low slung it is in person.

As far as taste, I've never been one to run with the crowd, my favorite Ferrari's are the 246 Dino and 308 GT4, so what's that tell you.

As much as I would enjoy owning an Espada one day, I've never even had an opportunity to drive a standard shift car, and nerve damage in my left hand may prevent me from ever doing so. I'm not too confident that I could handle a car with heavy steering while trying to shift, but one of these days I'll rent an exotic just to see.

However, at only 32 yrs old, I have plenty of time to get a "dream" car, and I definitely want a four seater so I can take my wife and son. Some of my fonder memories were Ferrari shopping with my Dad as a young pup. We,,. I have a major move coming in a few months and need to start a new career, so it will be a while, but I've already started my slush fund for a car.

An auto Espada would be interesting, but I understand the autos are sluggish, plus I really can't imagine the maintenance costs on an Espada....

On a realistic note, I could see myself with a 2 seat Lancia for a "starter exotic", and eventually work my way up if the bug strikes.

For what it's worth, I appreciate everyone sharing their pictures, info, and encouragement. This is truly an awesome site.

 

Hello to all,

This is a nice Lamborghini Espada appreciation site. The pictures are great. I also would have liked to have one. It still reminds me of George Jetson's car, but it is a futuristic Bertone design.

Jay Leno, has one and has made a video of it. Here it is,

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=193318

Ciao...Paolo

 

Here are some more shots of "that car" I took when I was interested.

Bob S.
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Well now all of us who don't know the story of "that car" are dying to know?!

 

Well there are two parts that I know of. I'll briefly out line the original first portion.

It was custom ordered by a gentleman who was a distributor/promoter for Wynns automotive products.

There are copies of letters and newspaper articles floating around that outline the story somewhat but even some of those are wrong. In one document mention is made of the light weight alloy body and a total weight of 3,000 lbs for the car. I saw that and was intrigued. Turned out that was bull ****. It also was supposedly utilized at the Monte Carlo grand prix as a parade/lap car in which Princess Grace was a passenger. The original owner reportedly supplied the "special" paint and possibly the shag carpet. Yes it was finished at the factory with that rather coarse "Bass Boat" style metal flake paint job. The paint was in fantastic condition except that "someone" had recently left a tool on the engine and closed the hood. Ouch! That was going to be a tough repair becaus of trying to match the paint. Other than that it was unbelievably good for an original paint job. The same style and color paint was found inside of the doors. I didn't mind the strange paint job but I suspect many would. I would not have put back long blue shag carpet though. It looked awful.

The engine as you can see was a mess to look at. It did run well though except that the brake boosters were totally shot. The interior was totally shot as well. Actually condition (leak down and compression) was unknown at that time.

That glass roof had a rather funky finish around it on the inside like it wasn't quite done. It was held in place with some very small screws and a frame. On the glove box was a sign admonishing the driver not to open the windows in this car above 100 mph. I guess maybe the roof would fly out?

While pursuing purchase of this car I did have a chance to spend some time with Valentino and he reviewed the documentation and photos. At first he thought its was a fake. Later he confirmed that this was an authentic car and that it had been ordered this way and supposedly participated at Monte Carlo.

It was sold by the original owner to a local NYC attorney who died and left it to his granddaughter. They were way in over their heads and it eventually was made to sort of run again at such an enormous expense that they were financially underwater in the car.

My dealings with the seller and their agent was less than satisfactory to say the least. The agent claims it was all the seller's doing and it's impossible for me to know. I do know that after having a sales agreement they reneged and it went on Ebay. I moved on and ended up with a vastly nicer car though not as unique as this one.

Subsequently it eventually sold on Ebay and that purchaser contacted me because "he claimed" that once again they backed out of the sale and he claimed they held on to his money. He wanted to know where the hell was his car! That's a lot uglier "story" than mine and who knows if it's the truth but when you take both stories in combination you do have to wonder about these folks don't you ...

Last I heard it went to someone in Florida where hopefully it has a good owner (with a ton of cash) and a happier story can begin.

I would think that to have collector value you and given how much money this car will need it's a good idea, then probably you would need to have all of the ugly bits back on the car though. For me that would be hard to do. Shag ain't my thing.

P.S. I don't know about the originality of either the ignition boxes or the gold trim. The chrome air cleaner covers is something that Lamborghini did at that time.

Bob S.