Lamborghini. There is something about this hallowed marque that is guaranteed to send a shiver of excitement down the spine of any enthusiast worth their salt. It’s a name that inspires images of impossibly glamorous supercars as eye-catchingly radical in their styling as they are monstrously quick. Maybe you grew up with a poster of a Countach on your bedroom wall or dreamt about piloting a Miura through the Alps in an attempt to emulate Rossano Brazzi (preferably without the angry Caterpillar 944A). Or perhaps you just like the idea of Ferruccio sticking up two fingers at Enzo’s arrogance. Fact or fantasy, this is a manufacturer that causes us to slip into a world of reverie. As a car nut, you haven’t earnt your wings until you’ve driven one.
It may sound unlikely, but Drive-My’s chief photographer Tony Baker would not describe himself as a car enthusiast. Not even close. Our resident Action Man is far more interested in pedal power than horsepower. After 25 years on the magazine, he harbours a deep-seated mistrust of Italian cars, and Lamborghinis in particular. “They always break down,” is the standard response whenever he discovers that we will be encountering one, so it is with little joy that he receives the assignment to photograph the Urraco P250S that you see before you.
Such a scathing opinion is not based entirely upon prejudice – if they are not treated in the correct manner, old Lamborghinis can be highly strung – so it makes the subject of our story all the more fascinating. “I rebuilt it to be usable and reliable,” says the Urraco’s hands-on owner Tony Wates. “Life is too short to spend your time detailing cars for shows. It needs to work to drive it, and you need to drive it to make it work, so this is a machine that gets used.”
Wates’ rebuild of this Lambo began in 2007, but he first encountered KYP 936P several years before that. “It belonged to a mate of mine who is a painter and decorator,” he recalls today. “He had it standing in a shed and, having always dreamt of owning a Lamborghini, I told him that if he decided to sell it that I would be keen to take it off his hands. He wasn’t interested, but three years down the line circumstances changed. He offered me the Urraco for £8000, to which I replied that I’d give him £6000. He declined, but a couple of months after that came back to me and said he’d let me have it for £6k – at which point I replied that I only had five and a half. So that is what I ended up paying for it.”
Today, £5500 for a classic Lamborghini may sound like a steal, but remember that the world was a different place a decade ago – as indeed was this particular car: “The Urraco was an underrated model, and the market had yet to experience the massive growth in values, so it was a fair price – not least because it was in a pretty parlous state, mechanically at least.”
Thankfully the body was sound, with just a few odd dents and nicks but no major rust. “I don’t know where to start with bodywork,” says Wates, “so the fact that it was in great shape encouraged me to buy the car.” Even the paintwork was reasonable, a previous owner having had the Urraco resprayed during his custodianship, changing the colour from white to yellow – the third different hue to have graced the car since it left Sant’Agata in 1975 (it was originally red with a brown interior). Among the minor repairs that were necessary to the metalwork was the area under the rear seat, which had become corroded as a result of the damp shed: “Luckily the damage was largely superficial and it cleaned up nicely, because serious bodywork on one of these needs a specialist with genuine artistry.”
Although Wates was fortunate enough to avoid the complication and cost of restoring the car’s structure, mechanically it was a different matter. The Urraco’s slatted engine cover may be a wonderfully period style statement, but it does little to protect the transverse 2463cc V8 from the inclement British climate: “The engine was basically full of water and had eaten itself from the inside out. I’d hoped that I might get it running after just a thorough service, but at best it was firing on five cylinders. It took me three months just to rebuild the carbs.”
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