Polo Storico

As far as I know all work will be outsourced which is good in my opinion. Not many people are left at Lamborghini who worked on a Countach back in the 80ties and 90ties. Most of these mechanics are retired now or have left the factory to work somewhere else. Same is valid for the Diablo although this model is not that old.
As stated above some of these former Lamborghini employees work now at other shops and Polo Storico selects some of these companies to do the work. Polo Storico might tell you the names if you ask them.
Prices are higher at Polo Storico at first sight. You might get lower offers if you contact some of the domestic restoration shops directly. However you might end up paying 50 or even 100% more than offered at the beginning in the end. What will you do if they tell you that the restoration will cost more than expected and that you have to send an extra USD 50'000 for example? Will you go then and pick up your disassembled car? Will you go to court in such an event (forget it, your car might be seized and you will wait for it for the next 10 years until machinery of Italian bureaucracy will have decided). Or what will you do if such a local shop will default while your car is there?
The chances that something like that will happen with Polo Storico are much, much lower. Polo Storico will make you an offer and that's the price you will pay in the end. Just make sure that you agree in detail about the work which has to be performed. People from Polo Storico will also be happy to come and see your car and discuss the amount of work needed (at least in Europe).
Another big advantage in my opinion is the fact that Lamborghini is involved. You will get an official invoice of Polo Storico/Lamborghini. The credibility of Polo Storico will grow over time and if you ever should sell such a restored car you can inform the potential buyer that all the work was done by or with Polo Storico. On top of that Lamborghini will give you a warranty for the work performed.
Also a point of consideration is the amount of time you save if you use Polo Storico: They will supervise the restoration and do all the coordination. Something which can be very tricky if you are not a local guy who speaks Italian and knows the local habits etc.

 

Good points.

My view (even as someone who has my own local restoration resource where I can do restorations to a high standard) is, it's a good thing Lamborghini is offering this resource rather than doing nothing. It's a good beginning, a positive step, you have to start somewhere. It will get better, and, as with what Ferrari have done with Classiche restoration in Maranello, it conveys well to the owners of the classic cars, gives them confidence to invest in them, and shows that the current company cares about taking care of the marque's classic car owners. Again, as with what has happened with Maranello, perhaps the enterprise will truly grow to include remanufactured parts and vintage tires supplied. I think over time you'll see it help the values of classic Lamborghinis as well, as Polo Storico restorations will improve, and those who choose to do restorations outside Polo Storico will strive to ensure that their restorations are at least as good, if not better. Then we'll start to see that high-quality restorations which are correct for period will become the norm for classic Lamborghinis universally. One has to always think medium-to-long-term.

Of course the obvious proviso with my comments is that the Polo Storico program has to be run efficiently, and their restorations must gain a reputation as first-class projects done to correct-for-period specification.

 

Hopefully they use better materials, fit the body panels much better and do a proper job of rust protection this time around. But they probably are not going to do any mechanical upgrades to fix the well known foibles of the originals that those of us who used these cars in an original form had to deal with for many years. I can think of all sorts of electrical and fuel system upgrades which are crucial to being able to operate these vehicles reliably and safely. Does anyone really want a wimpy grossly underrated alternator? I've opted for points elimination in my distributor that doesn't show. I hope for the owner sakes that the fit & finish is more like those gorgeous Ferraris on display at the F70 area in Pebble beach this year which were anything but original. Wonderful but hardly original. They were all finish to top flight standards.

Does the factory even know about all of the fixes created for these car by the many craftsmen and hobbyists over the years? I don't know, but perhaps that's why it's best that they outsource to qualified restoration shops with extensive experience restoring and fixing products which were manufactured originally in far from perfect standards ... This isn't like manufacturing a new car with today's methodologies which is something Lamborghini certainly does know an awful lot about. Expecting a complete reengineering of all of the car's foibles is unrealistic. I seen plenty of people, including myself at times, try and fail at that quixotic task but

So I'd want a list of what upgrades they were going to include and which upgraded materials were going to be utilized.

I'd also want to be able to see the car at critical milestones with photographic and paperwork documentation so as to know what's been accomplished, review and approve of the work before the next steps are taken.

Is that possible going the factory route or is this just a turnkey service?

Those things are far more important than just having a "reputation stamped" on the process at the tail end of the process. Anyone who's been involved in this hobby for a while knows of plenty of stories even from the very best shops as to why this is important.

 

This is exactly what I thought when I heard about Polo Storico the first time. If Lamborghini assigns enough budget and time to Polo Storico it will have a positive effect on the whole brand. Everybody who owns an older Lamborghini will benefit from this in the long run.
For the sake of competition I hope that there will be always other very good alternatives to Polo Storico as well. This will hopefully ensure top notch work.

 

Just saw a LM002 in Padova with a Polo Storco Certification. But in the certification it´s stated the wrong chassis number (JLA12135 instead of KLA12135) which is not that difficult to keep apart!! It´s an important sheet which costs quite a lot and its signed by 3 different people even by the chairman of Lamborghini himself.....

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I was checking the finish of this car in Padova and according to my opinion the paint job was far away from a top notch paint job. Quite nice but not top.

 

Same opinion!

 

Well then ... that would be more original ...

It is a 4WD truck after all ...

 

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I agree.

 

Where does it say that this LM was painted by Polo Storico?

 

If you had looked at the Vin you would see that Polo Storico were correct! [ILR image]

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I was understanding it this way. If the car was not painted / restored by a supplier of Polo Storico I am sorry, my comment was in this case off topic and misleading.

 

The certificate is issued against written application which includes images of the various plates. JLA12135 was built at the time that the year letter changed from J to K but it was not consigned until four months later which might account for the letter K on the windows.

 

Exactly.

 

Sure that this particular car is JLA12135? I think there must be a JLA12135 and a KLA12135 built.

 

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I didnt asked during the exhibition. But interesting, a guy from Rome contacted me about a red LM002 some weeks ago. I just compared the license plates, same car!

He stated following:
"Repainted 6 mounth ago from Lamborghini factory and new leather inside, certification Lamborghini Polo Storico, first model 1989 km21.000,service book original. Last service 09/2017 Red with cream inside.
Car is not for sell now because i want to see if change somethings after the Urus premiere, if i sell the car now i think around 380.000,00"

So the car is repainted by Polo Storico, fact! Furthermore he stated it´s a 1989, so than KLA should be correct. Cause JLA is 1988 production, KLA 1989, LLA 1990.

Also i have to add, i think it´s not painted by the factory itself but at Imperiale Srl, which do the paintjobs for Aventador and special colored Huracan as well.

 

My apologies I realize I have confused certification, where the vehicle does need to be present with the standard letter issued against written application, where it does not. Nevertheless 12135 is a sequential number and would not have been repeated until a further 1000 LMs had been produced.

 

I can see from this and other recent events that now Polo Sorico is up and running, the claim of "by the factory" should be confirmed and separately corroborated more than ever before!

 

Polo Storico has not instilled any confidence in me.... over the course of the last few months, I have sent them 3-4 seperate emails asking questions and have never heard 1 thing back. Seems to me they need to start working on communication with owners a bit better.

Mike

 

I can confirm that the response times are too long at the moment. However if you call them you will get the requested information. I hope they can hire more people in the future. At the moment there is more or less just one woman who is handling all the communication and many other things at the same time.

 

I agree. From what I have seen the standard of their restorations is excellent. The black LM at Neuchatel Concorso was restored by them. Yet I question whether they should undertake partial restorations such as the white Countach with the gold trim as they run the risk of being judged for work they did not do. Yes communication is an ongoing issue. Forget emails just ring them...

 

I must add, i would like to see that Polo Storico perform their restoration center as good as Ferrari classiche. I really would be happy!
It´s important for the brand itself to learn and keep maintain the classic cars cause the company/brand is just alive because of these piece of arts. These cars had so much magic that some people loved and believed in Lamborghini, also in very bad financial days...

Also i see no problem for Polo Storico to perform some works of the restoration in other companys like Interni Auto or Top Motors cause the old guys who worked for Lamborghini have their own workshops now. But as Polo Storico, i wouldn´t spread that it´s all done by factory because this is a lie..Imo it´s always better to play with open cards as to try to hide some stuff.. Just my 2 cents!