The Lamborghini Espada Is the Weirdest Lamborghini Ever Made

miura countach diablo aventador these are the names you think of when you think of lamborghini today i'm not bringing you any of those instead i'm bringing you this a 1973 lamborghini espada yes the lamborghini espada in the world of v12 lamborghinis this is the one you forgot about actually it's the one you never knew existed in the first place but over the next few minutes you're going to learn everything you need to know about one of the strangest lamborghinis ever made before we go any further i should mention that i'm driving this espada in dubai in the united arab emirates courtesy of tamini classics which is an exotic car dealer here with an amazing inventory and some wonderful people now the inventory is so amazing that it was incredibly hard to choose what car to film i spent hours trying to design and i passed up some true classics so i could bring you the tale of one of the strangest lamborghinis in the world so let's discuss it the espada was made from 1968 to 1978 came out just two years after the mura but while the mural was getting all the glamour as the v12 sports car the espada also had a v12 except it had four seats and the engine was in the front think of this as the ferrari ff while the mirror was more like the aventador or the 488. lamborghini made about 1200 espadas over the time period that it was built and this one had all of 321 horsepower when it was new 44 years ago so today i'm going to show you around the espada and i'm going to show you all of the unusual quarks and weird features of a very unusual quirky and weird car then i'm going to get behind the wheel and i'm going to take the weirdest lamborghini out for a drive and then i'm going to give it a dug score and for more of my thoughts on the espada experience go to autotrader.com oversteer by clicking the link below now i'm going to start back here with my favorite part about the espada and that is the fact that this isn't just a lamborghini it's also a hatchback yes that's right the rear glass opens up this car doesn't have a trunk it really is a hatchback to open it you pull a little lever inside next to the driver's seat a little bit behind it and then it pops open and you can open it right up the rear glass is really heavy but it stands in place without a prop if your espada is well maintained and the struts are working now interestingly the fact that this car is a hatchback isn't the most interesting thing about the rear of this car no no there are two far more interesting things to me one of which is that there is additional glass down here in other words there's a steeply raked glass that you can lift up in the back of the car and then there's another basically vertical glass below it does that remind you of anything how about the toyota prius you thought the toyota prius pioneered that maybe the pontiac aztec no no it was in the lamborghini espada first your visibility is bisected by this giant thing here and you look out the mirror and you see this glass and the secondary glass now this glass down here doesn't actually open unlike in the prius where the entire thing lifts up it's fixed in place the other interesting thing about the rear of this car that would be the fact that it has a cargo cover folks this is a lamborghini with four seats a hatchback and a cargo cover if you needed any other proof that the 70s were weird here it is now the interesting thing about the cargo cover in this car is not only does it retract like a cargo cover and i don't know a volkswagen golf but it buttons into place if you want to close it you just pull it and then you just button it and then it's stuck there and it won't move and no one can see what you're transporting in your espada next up before i move inside there are a couple of other interesting quirks on the outside of this car starting with the name now lamborghini is always naming its cars after bowls and bull fighting and bull fighting terms and this one is no different espada is spanish for sword as in the sword the matador would use during a bull fight that's not all that interesting usually i don't care that much about car names but check this out look at that badge on the rear fender back there you'll notice it says espada and it's also a sword it's kind of cool i really like how that looks and now you know why it's like that another interesting exterior quirk this car has two fuel doors two gas caps on the outside of the car except where are they i'll give you a minute to look around see if you can figure it out [Music] ah no i'm sorry you couldn't figure it out and in fact no one can because they're hidden inside this little thing that looks like a vent you pull up the front half and it's actually a fuel door the rear half is just fake it's basically just there for style and to contain the fuel door and the crazy thing is of course that there is one on both sides i already showed you the driver's side fuel door here is the passenger side fuel door you can fill this car up on either side so when you're driving on a spada you don't have to worry about which side the fuel door is on when you're pulling up to a gas station now there are two fuel tanks but the tanks are connected so you don't have to worry about filling up one side of the car and later filling up another side of the car one tank going dead having to switch to another tank it's actually not that difficult next up a few corks in the front now the hood and the engine they're not all that quirky the hood is front hinged when you open it up you get to see the gorgeous lamborghini engine there's nothing especially weird about it but i'll give you a second to gawk at the best italy had to offer in the 1970s or at least one of the best also interesting up front is this antenna not hidden or placed to the side but mounted right in the middle of the car's roof sort of screwing up the car's lines imagine if they did that with the aventador but remember radio reception was important as this was the touring lamborghini and for more proof of that we go back to the cargo area something else interesting in the trunk besides just the cargo cover how about the fact that when you lift up the trunk mat there's a spare tire not just your typical crappy italian car spare tire but rather a full-size spare tire with an actual wheel so each car was delivered with five tires and five wheels when you really think about it that makes sense this is the four-seater lamborghini the touring car with the big trunk the hatchback and the cargo cover this is the car you were supposed to take on long trips and when you were on one of those trips if it got interrupted with a flat tire you weren't going to stop and wait for some weird italian car surface to come you were going to just change the tire and continue along your way now for proof that this was the touring car lamborghini designed for long trips all you have to do is get inside the interior where you will find some impressive luxury features and some rather odd ones starting with the passenger side footwell where there is a movable foot rest i don't think i've ever seen this in any car bentley rolls royce but here it is in a lamborghini you pop it down and then you can rest your feet there if you're on a road trip and they need a rest interestingly despite this car's luxury car status it only had a little bit of wood in the interior this is a surprise since wood was a big luxury car touch in the 1970s but in this car there's a little bit of wood on the gear lever which is a common spot for it more wood on the steering wheel also common and then there was a little bit of wood on the door panel it had no purpose there was no cargo area behind it it was just some wood they stuck there and that's basically all the wood in the entire cabin i don't know why they felt they had to put it there i don't know why they chose that spot or that shape but there's some wood there now you see right above the wood there's a little cutout even though this car has power windows that little cutout there is for manually rolling down the windows if the power windows fail apparently there was a tool that came with this car's tool kit you stick it in there and then you can crank the windows i find this kind of hilarious lamborghini knew their electronics in the 70s were so questionable that they included a fail safe for when the window switches failed and you could just roll down your window also interesting in the door panel which by the way is covered in leather and chrome like the luxury car that this is is the door handle itself it's not a traditional door handle instead it's this leather and chrome wrapped little piece on the armrest you pull it up and then the door opens and you can get out now a couple of other interesting items that made it very clear you were driving in a serious luxury car how about the fact that the steering wheel in this car tilts now i am saying that like i'm incredulous because i am if you've ever driven in any 70s italian car you know the driving position is always tremendously compromised the steering wheel doesn't move anywhere and if you're tall you're just kind of screwed but in this car the steering wheel tilts but the interesting thing about this is lamborghini didn't really know how to make a tilt steering wheel so they made it in the simplest and most bizarre way possible you know how to tilt the steering wheel in a lamborghini espada you just yank it really really hard and then it tilts down you want it to go up yank it really really hard and then it goes up [Music] but apparently it locks into place but then if you yank it it moves again i don't know i don't have a lot of confidence in this thing but it works and apparently it's how you're supposed to do it another unusual and amazing luxury feature you've heard of front floor mats of course and rear floor mats but this car has a side floor mat lamborghini wanted to conceal the unfinished nature of the floor so they actually have a side floor mat that velcros into place next to the seats in addition to the front and rear floor mats i've never seen this before in any other car but it is a nice little luxury touch and of course this car's grand touring capabilities would be nothing if there weren't back seats so you could take the whole family on a grand tour so of course there are and this will surprise you the back seats are actually pretty easy to get into and pretty roomy i've already moved the front seat forward watch this did you ever think it would be this easy to get into the back of a lamborghini did you ever think there would be a back of a lamborghini to get into but i'm here and if i put the seat back well it's a little tight in the sense that it won't actually clip into place but nonetheless it wasn't designed for someone who's six foot three i can get back here it's pretty impressive now climbing to the back of the espada and you'll find a couple of other cool luxury features back here for example how about the fact that there's an ashtray for the rear passengers yes there's an ashtray for the front passengers and an ashtray for the rear passengers and there's a cigarette lighter for both front and rear now as i mentioned this back seat wasn't really designed for adults so one wonders if lamborghini placed the ashtray and cigarette lighter back here for the kids you would be driving around that wouldn't have been completely out of the realm in italy in the 70s stardom smoking young a couple of other interesting luxury items in the back of the espada number one are the rear quarter windows they open but they don't roll down and they don't open with little clip in the corner of the window like in a minivan instead they open with this weird handle thing you sort of lift it and push and then the window is open this is a very odd design but if you're stuck in the back of the spot you need a little airflow i guess that's better than nothing also worth noting that little handle well of course that's leather wrapped this is the beautiful luxury lambo and speaking of leather take a look at these rear seats these are the back seats in this car probably won't get used all that often and yet look how beautifully leather stuffed they are they even have this odd leather pattern on them which by the way continues back up front another nice luxury touch in the back seat there is a light specifically for the rear passengers unfortunately in this particular espada that light isn't working which is no surprise i strongly suspect the parts to replace the rear seat light for a 1973 lamborghini espada haven't been available since i don't know probably about 1976. but this car wasn't all beautiful well-appointed leather-lined luxury for grand touring at the end of the day this car is a lamborghini from the 70s so it's also filled with some weird crap starting with the control layout look at this thing it's like a honda s2000 it's tremendously driver focused everything is tilted selfishly towards the driver including the radio which is mounted on the left side of the steering wheel so the passenger has absolutely no access to the radio the volume anything that happens with the music now in this giant wall of driver-focused gauges and switches it's pretty much everything you'd expect the oil pressure the engine temperature this tachometer speedometer the battery volts fuel gauge there's a little area where all the warning lights are and then there are a couple of switches for the wipers for the headlights but there are a couple of unique and unusual things in here for example there's a light that allows you to turn off the instrument panel lights you know how in some cars you can dim it if you're trying to drive and it's dark and you don't want the lights on you well in this car you can just turn them off press that and they're gone i also like that there are different switches for every single windshield wiper function wipe intermittent wipe wash the windshield and they're right next to the switch for the headlights i can't imagine how many times someone going for the lights has accidentally turned on the wipers in this vehicle now beyond that there are a couple of other bizarre items throughout the interior in this car for example the center console the center console has two nice little storage areas strangely enough one of these storage areas is covered and the other one isn't i don't know why they didn't make the whole thing covered or the whole thing open but you can choose whether you want to hide stuff or whether you want to keep it out in the open also interesting the lever to open the hood is not underneath the dashboard like it is in most cars in the driver foot well instead it's just to the left of the dashboard within easy access which is probably good if you have a 1970s lamborghini you'll probably be getting under there occasionally other interesting quirks in this car maybe one of the strangest quirks in a car designed for luxury and easy rear seat access is the fact that simply accessing the rear seat by folding the front seat is rather difficult you don't just fold the front seat with a little latch on the side of the seat that's easy to reach instead for some reason they put the latch on the opposite side of the seat meaning that you have to reach all the way across the seat in order to fold the seat down which is very odd oddly they did this on both sides they should just switch the position of the seats in this car fortunately there is a benefit to the way the seats go down and that's the fact that they go down all the way you can basically fold them flat so theoretically you could have someone driving this car and someone else in the back on the passenger side with their feet out over the folded down passenger seat and then we must talk about the seat belts now a lot of cars from this era just had lap belts some cars from a little bit earlier than this car had no seat belts at all this car had shoulder belts and lap belts was pretty impressive but you had to put them together you took the shoulder belt you put it into the lap belt you married them together and then you moved them across your waist and put them in the buckle in other words buckling your seatbelt in this car was ultimately a two-step process you couldn't just get in and throw in the buckle and how about the reminder to fasten your seat belts instead of a little light in the gauge cluster it was this warning that angrily blinked at you until you buckled up another weird thing about this car something that was weird about basically every italian car from this era that would be the horn activate it by pressing the end of the turn signal stock and then oh that's that's really annoying so those are all the quirks of the espada and now it's time for the ultimate quark getting behind the wheel of the weird lamborghini with the strange rear end that resembles a prius all right driving the espada boy there's a lot of room in this cabin you know i've driven a couple of these vintage cars over the last few days these vintage italian exotics and there's no room in any of them this thing i got a ton of space i got no problem shifting i got no problems with my legs turning the wheel this is great it's actually surprisingly easy to get going pressing down on the clutch it's not all that hard which is which is surprising i would have expected it to be a little bit more difficult all right now we're letting it loose oh pretty quick wow it has that nice lamborghini sound i can just imagine grand touring through europe and this thing back in the day and you're on an on-ramp you've just stopped for fuel with your family in tow and then you just floor it and you get that noise that would be something special sitting at the stop light this one must be in pretty nice mechanical shape sitting into stop light there's no rumbling at all i'm really surprised by that italian carthage are always a little bit rumbly at stoplight it's always a little bit annoying but this car feels like the luxury car that it is in that respect it's quite impressive uh i don't feel any shakes or rattles or anything it's almost like the car is off it's it's it's really nice and i'm sitting here on this leather seat and there's no headrests in any of these old cars they didn't think about that whole whiplash thing they hadn't been thought of until the 80s but but sitting here on this leather seat the seat is nice it's nicely bolstered it's soft leather it feels good now we're on some like cobblestone type annoying little pavement here uh but the car is fine uh it does pretty well riding on this stuff which is impressive it feels like a luxury car boy but that sound is wonderful what a great sound it really does sound amazing it's so funny this does feel like the luxury touring car they were intending it to be it seriously does but then when you get up 4 000 rpm it sounds like a lamborghini from the 60s 70s that's exactly it i can't believe how roomy it is in here how nice it feels it feels luxurious let me give it some gas feel surprisingly stable in the corner more than the ferrari boxer i just drove oh yeah man i don't know it's limits i'm a little nervous but actually it feels really really stable this is 65 miles an hour in this i mean it's a sweeper but still you know i've never driven this car before and it's doing a great job and i don't feel like there's no body roll it feels very very good i don't feel like it's about to spin out or something's about to break and the whole car is going to fall apart i feel like i can do this i can't believe just driving at 60 here on a highway now all the roads in dubai are very nice there's not much weather to screw them up but driving at 60 here on the highway feels like a cruiser i mean i feel like i could get in this thing and and just kill miles in this car just hundreds and hundreds of miles all while getting seven and a half miles per gallon i wouldn't say this car is agile in the corners it's a pretty large vehicle i don't know the length but i'll look it up and so it doesn't feel agile it feels relatively heavy the steering is heavy however it feels very stable i've always kind of wondered who bought the espada you know what kind of crazy person was buying one of those uh but i could understand now i mean it's still a weird car and it's still a weird lamborghini and all that but i can just i can imagine being you know in the 70s and you want a lamborghini that doesn't draw the attention like the mirror but you still want something cool that sounds amazing this car is certainly that it's very special so that's the 1973 lamborghini espada it's not exactly what you think of when you think of lamborghini and that has kept values down while mirrors are now selling for a million dollars this would struggle to bring a quarter of that and yet this is the last word in lamborghini exclusivity everyone has a mirror go to a car show and they're wall-to-wall mirrors and everybody thinks the mura is cool but this is much rarer and nobody knows what this is nobody's ever seen one of these things it's so unusual and so bizarre plus all those mura people yeah they can't drive around with their spouse and their kids and their pets and with that in mind it's time to give this car a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling i'm not gonna lie here the espada is weird looking really weird looking it's an acquired taste and most car enthusiasts haven't acquired it and it gets a 4 out of 10. next up is acceleration they have spotted a 0-60 in 7.5 seconds not great by modern standards but acceptable in its day and it gets a 1 out of 10. handling is good way better than most cars from this era and it feels rock solid and stable at high speeds it gets a six out of ten cool factor is high it is after all a rare vintage lamborghini but it's prevented from reaching the very top scores because nobody really knows what it is still it gets an 8 out of 10. importance is a bit different it's an important car in the sense that it's a v12 classic lamborghini but most car people i talk to even knowledgeable ones have no real idea this thing even exists it's no mirror and it gets only a 6 out of 10. that brings the total weekend score to 25 out of 50. on to the daily categories and features the espada was well equipped for its time but obviously it's weak by modern standards and it gets a 2 out of 10. comfort is better than i expected with a roomy interior and well-equipped seats but it's no rolls-royce still it's better than any rival from this era and it gets a 6 out of 10. quality is a mixed bag interior quality is high but reliability well i wouldn't want to maintain this thing and it gets a 5 out of 10. practicality is surprisingly good it has four usable seats and a shockingly large cargo area it's held back only by poor gas mileage and questionable daily usability and it gets a 4 out of 10. finally value this is a manual transmission v12 vintage lamborghini that isn't absolutely insanely priced it's going to go up and it's a good car that's fun to drive it gets a 7 out of 10 bringing the total daily score to 24 out of 50. add it all up and the total dug score is 49 out of 100 which is weak but standard for a car from this time it comes just one point shy of the ferrari boxer which was a little better looking and more fun to drive but far less comfortable and usable

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,133,704

Keywords: lamborghini espada, vintage lamborghini, old lambo, vintage lambo, espada, lambo espada, lambo jarama, rare lambo, rare lamborghini, weird lamborghini, doug demuro, demuro

Id: 4T8gYlV8Am0

Length: 21min 28sec (1288 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2017