Now this is the kind of stuff we dream of! An Italian supercar that was parked in a barn, complete with hay and dust, and forgotten. This Lamborghini Urraco might not be the most sought after or most powerful Lambo, but these are becoming sought after exotics. Since being found, it has been pulled from the barn, cleaned up and moved into safer storage. It still needs work to be a driver, it was found in a barn after all, but looks solid. Sadly for those of us on this side of the pond, it is located in England. If you’re near King’s Lynn, Norfolk on April 9th, I’d recommend stopping by the auction to have a look. You can find more info about the event here at Anglia Car Auctions.
The Urraco isn’t exactly a supercar, in that it wasn’t built to be the fastest and most expensive car around. It was meant to be a more affordable option for potential Lamborghini buyers. Rather than having a big V12, it came with a small V8 crammed between the rear wheels and the back seat. Yes I know, it can’t be a supercar if it has a back seat! Actually, these were quite fast for the time and offered near supercar speed in a more affordable and functional package. While zero to sixty in 6.9 seconds might not seem fast by today’s standards, back in 1972 that was pretty quick for a car that could carry 4!
A Lamborghini just isn’t a Lambo without a V12, but the V8 in the Urraco is actually impressive for the size. This car is a P250, which means it came with the 2.5 liter engine and 217 horsepower. You could also get 2 or 3 liter versions, depending on your budget and performance needs. The V8 lacks the incredible noise of the V12, but it still is a fantastic sounding thing! Restoring any Lambo is a costly undertaking, so hopefully the engine is complete and in good condition. Many of these cars were parked because their owners couldn’t afford their upkeep. So things like timing belts went unchanged, which often lead to catastrophic results. Hopefully this car was parked before something failed and not after!
As already stated, these cars aren’t cheap to restore. Interior parts are hard to come by and when you do find them, they are usually quite expensive. There is only one photo of the interior and all that you can really can discern is that the car is right hand drive and complete. With any luck the interior is intact and solid enough to be refurbished. I can’t even imagine what items like carpets and dashes run for these, but I’m sure they aren’t cheap.
I know, this Lambo isn’t a Miura, Countach or Diablo, but it’s still a Lamborghini! I’m a bit nervous about what it will cost to get it back on the road, as I doubt many Lambo collectors are interested in a budget model. That being said, I’m sure there are quite a few gearheads out there that would love to have this Urraco! If it were left hand drive, I know I would love to have it. The question is, do one of you guys want this little Lambo barn find?
I would drive it any day
When I was at a track event back when these were nearly new there was a Urraco on the track. The driver wasn’t very skilled, but even so it was clear that the car wasn’t a very impressive performer. It looked terrific just standing still, tho.
With only a bit more than 200 HP from 2.5 liters in a relatively heavy 2+2 you couldn’t expect it to perform as well as some of the other cars that were on the track. With a V8 with only 2.5 liters it had lots of friction losses with all those little pistons—not a good design. Nowadays no engineer would want a design like that. Better to have a compact 4-cylinder fed by a high pressure turbo.
But that was then….and no Lambo could have just 4-cylinders
Smaller pistons=less reciprical mass and therfore faster piston accelerations in response to mixture charge changes. I have built small displacement, short stroke engines that would snap the fillings from your teeth. Sure you can get more HP and especially torque when you increase the throw of the crank and rods, but thats not everything in response and feel when driving. A vintage BMW v12 pulls like a train with little tiny pistons and very small displacement per cylinder. A skilled driver who can keep this motor in the powerband and keep it planted on the ground… will keep up with anything. I like it. A lot…
HP is ahh, ok… torque is power! V8’s can twist just fine.
cavileer, yes piston acceleration can be fast with smaller, lighter pistons and the short stroke in small engines. But other things follow too, like less ability to take advantage of better breathing with a 4-valve head because of less room for more than 2 decent size valves. And it’s the car’s weight that you want to accelerate on the road, not just pistons revving up and down.
Relatively small engines like the Urraco’s can have an OK horsepower number because engine HP is a calculation based on torque X RPMs. With 7500 RPMs the HP number that is calculated can be respectable, but it’s torque, not horsepower, that actually turns the wheels, and with only 166 pound ft in a Urraco even a V8 doesn’t turn the wheels of a 2+2 Lamborghini nearly as well as ‘supercar’ fans expect. That 6.9 sec 0-60 number can be beat by a lot of little econoboxes these days.
And with a stroke of less than 2.1 inches there was never going to be much torque even if it did have 8 cylinders. The result was that Lamborghini only made a little over 500 of them even though the body design looked terrific.
These are probably one of the best looking 2+2s ever made, but I think they have about the lowest value among Lamborghinis and other vintage Italian supercars. But I can’t put a number to that right now because the SCM Guide doesn’t even list the Urraco, the desirability among collectors is so low.
I think a large part of that is the disappointing performance compared to what you expect from a Lamborghini. That Urraco I saw was definitely the underperformer that day on the track. OTOH, they should be relatively cheap to buy for a Lamborghini.
All I would care about would be, are the tires balanced, the brakes work and the tank is full.
Turn up the Doobie Brothers and go Rockin Down the Highway.