I know, showing natural leather interiors. I just wander if painting and repainting a car with continuous dismounting and remounting (if want to do a perfect repainting job when repainting from red to white then to Red again, You must have a bare coachwork) make sense... I still consider the possibility of different prosecution of the life of the protoype and #40000.
At the time the two hand fabricated prototypes would be easier to repaint since the production cars were delayed or waiting to be delivered to waiting customers. That was the state of the company financially i gather. Unlike the countach which was mostly built inhouse, one of the reason the v8 platform cars were so difficult to build consistently was that many of the parts were outsourced with mass production in mind. Lambo being credit poor were at the mercy of the vendors when they got parts . The bravo was seriously looked at for production with apparently 30k road test miles or km. It was also repainted 4 times. It was originally tan then, green, gold and now white. Countach pre-production prototype was repaint from red to green also. if it wasnt for the financial problems, Ive always thought the stunning silhouette would have been an successful car especially in the usa. it could have possibly change Lamborghinis fortunes. By the time the jalpa came out it was passes and dated compared to its contemporaries. My 2cents
Thank You Hyenahf, for Your reply. Your considerations are right, even if there weren't too many differeces in manufacturing regular production cars, in comparison with the pre-production ones. Silhouette coachwork production has always been handcrafted and this is the meaning of the lateral stylized "B" over the badge "Bertone" in comparison to those cars which wear the "Disegno Bertone" badge, only (such as the last strange refurbishmet of #40002) . But I still consider Pasini's statement that there was 1 prototype (#40026) and 2 pre-production cars (#40000 and #40002). I think that if You match Your statement (<<hand fabricated prototypes would be easier to repaint [or to refurbish] since the delayed production cars>>) with Pasini's statement, they could have manufactured 3 pre-production cars, being #40026 the very first !
yes i reckon so, 40026 has many of the detailing that were on the rest of the production run leaving me to believe it was stamp rather than hand fabricated. side crease goes in to flares, rear flare mud flap area is drastically different. Instrument panel, vent controls etc were also not finalized etc. if i had sometime i would love to attend the auction to document your car before is sells and possibly be tuck away much like what happen to urraco bob best regards hf
The "b" badge has nothing to do with hand crafting. All Urracos and Silhouettes had them when new. Where does it say that 40026 was a prototype? The reference to "Urraco P118 40000" is a reference to the conformity. It does NOT mean that 40026 = 40000 = prototype! 40026 was never a prototype, nor was it the first car!
Stefano Pasini in "Rivista Lamborghini" #3 (and such a revue had the official approval by the Company) stated that the prototype was #40026. Nobody (including myself) have ever stated that #40026 = #40000. I just asked if there is any chance that the prototype could have been refurbished and modified later to become #400026. I had worked in Pinifarina, having very close relations with Bertone and Italdesign, and I can state that there were a shared badging code to identify at a glance a car produced by the coachwork manufacturer (Bertone, Pinifarina, Italdesign) or by the main Company (Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, FIAT,....). Talking about Lamborghini, the coachworks manufactured in Bertone's plant in Grugliasco or in his exeternal provider ("Silver Car" since Miura, which became "Golden Car" after moving to Cavallermaggiore) were badged "B"+"Bertone" (have You seen the green "Countach" prototype in Lamborghini's Museum?), while the coachwork produced in Sant'Agata (even those handcrafted like regular "Countach"es) were badged "disegno Bertone". I agree with You that I had better to say <<partially hand made>> because the Silhouette's metal sheets were printed, then the hand-made assembly process consisted in fixing, welding, sealing, trimming. All done by hand, and the very low rate production of the Silhouette led to extra handcraft care. But from this point of view, neither the prototype herself (and it doesn't matter which V.I.N. she is) was a full hand made car. It was a regular Urraco modified with "Countach S"-style aerodinamic add-on, modified front/rear lids and blind rear windows. And regular Urracoes printed metal sheets were used in #40000 and #40002 as well (with much more hand made modifications).
I recently did a photo shoot for a classic car magazine. I'm sworn to secrecy about which one, but it should be out in a couple of months or so. As part of the shoot we visited the location where the cover photo of the U.K. Lamborghini brochure was taken in the late 70s: Henley-on-Thames bridge (of rowing fame)... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow, this is really low, I should have bidden... #40018 was sold for nearly 200k Euros last year. I'd love to bring back #40040 back to Switzerland.
On the face of it maybe but 40002 really needs complete refurbishment bodily and mechanically and a great deal of money can be consumed in such a quest. So on balance a realistic price for an interesting car with potential, for someone prepared for the hassle and cost of restoring it... Btw 40040 was also featured at Monterey this weekend...but not for sale...
The question is always, do you want a driver or a perfectly restored collection car, I prefer the first. I know about 40040, it has shown on FB in the parking under one of the hotels, missing black applications on the front spoiler and the engine lid.
Busy couple of days for 40052: Friday was Concours of Elegance in Windsor Castle... Harry Metcalf judged the car for the Concours and while there was no way it would win (a prewar Aston won) Harry made a point of finding me after the competition to say how nice he thought the car was, which was very good of him. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Saturday was Salon Prive at Blenhiem Palace. Weather was a bit rubbish but the silhouette got wet in very good company. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well done Richard. 40006 hasn't been allowed out since Silverstone. Currently I am replacing the original tinted front spots with new clear 444 items plus new rear lenses as well...
I bought NOS rear lenses from a guy in Canada who had them shipped from Italy. They are shared with a fiat I think, but forget which one.
