lambo and maserati found deep in spain and brought to deutschland in a HOT truck

[deQuincey]

not my favourite lambo (love the Miura, not the rest), this is a Espada.

someone made a better shape with the khamsin

but the story is cool....

 

[deQuincey]

Hallazgo: Aparecen dos Lamborghini Espada con matrícula nacional en Extremadura que llevaban años parados
Estas dos unidades han permanecido durante más de dos décadas como mínimo a la espera de alguien que acudiera a su rescate.
21 diciembre 2023

Increíble, pero cierto, de nuevo hemos vuelto a toparnos con una de esas historias que parecen sacadas de un programa de televisión americano. Ya en febrero descubrimos un Iso Rivolta con matrícula de Madrid, pero el nuevo hallazgo es aún de más entidad. En este caso, se trata de dos Lamborghini Espada con matrículas españolas que llevaban décadas guardados. Han sido encontrados en una finca en Extremadura de cuya localización no podemos dar más datos.
Recordemos que el Lamborghini Espada fue un gran turismo en configuración 2+2 que se fabricó en Sant’Agata Bolognese entre 1968 y 1978. Equipaba un motor V12 de 4 litros de cubicaje que, inicialmente, rendía 325 CV. Fue diseñado por Marcello Gandini, quien se inspiró en el Lamborghini Marzal y el Bertone Pirana. A lo largo de su vida comercial contó con tres series conocidas como S1 (1968-1970), S2 (1970-1972) y S3 (1972-1978). En las dos últimas, el motor ya alcanzaba los 350 CV.

Entre 1968 y 1978 se produjeron un total de 1.217 unidades, lo que le convirtió en el Lamborghini más vendido hasta el momento. La gran mayoría de ellos equiparon la caja de cambios manual de 5 velocidades, pero también hubo unos pocos que montaron uno automático. Se trataba de la caja Chrysler Torqueflite de tres relaciones, que sólo llevaron 55 ejemplares, todos de la Serie 3.
LOS DOS LAMBORGHINI ESPADA CON MATRÍCULA NACIONAL
Se calcula que estas dos unidades han permanecido allí por lo menos 10 o 15 años, aunque a buen seguro que llevan parados varias décadas, dado el estado en el que se encontraban. No hemos podido descubrir donde estuvieron con anterioridad. Además, ambos lucen placa nacional, uno de Barcelona (B-0030-AU) y otro de Madrid (M 852476).
Empezando por el más antiguo, el de la capital, fue matriculado el 8 de julio de 1970, por lo que se trataría ya de un segunda serie. Su número de chasis es 7704. Su estado es, aparentemente, bastante mejor que el de su compañero, al menos exteriormente. Desde luego, parece completo al menos. La segunda unidad, con chasis 9226, se matriculó en Barcelona el 2 de noviembre de 1974, es decir, pertenece a la tercera serie del modelo. En este caso, le faltan algunos elementos de carrocería, como paragolpes, pilotos o luneta. En todo caso, la chapa parece en buen estado.

Lamentablemente, ninguno de los dos ejemplares está en orden de marcha. De hecho, ambos tienen el motor fuera y uno de ellos incluso la caja de cambios. Eso sí, están guardados con los coches, así que se pueden recuperar en una futura restauración. Se desmontaron en su momento precisamente para restaurarlos, pero en aquel momento eran coches poco valorados, porque lo que el proceso no se completó.
UNA SORPRESA FINAL
Si el hallazgo de dos Lamborghini Espada con matrícula nacional no fuese suficientemente llamativo, junto a ellos se encontró también un Maserati Mistral. En este caso, la placa es B 701399 y se trata de un 4 litros de 1969 que llevaba más de diez años parado. Por fortuna, estaba mecánicamente completo y luce tan bien en las fotos porque se lavó antes de cargarlo al camión. Como curiosidad, en su momento perteneció a Auto París, en Barcelona.

Los tres coches ya se encuentran fuera de España para ser restaurados, aunque es complicado pensar que vayan a volver a nuestro país donde apenas hay mercado para este tipo de automóviles. En todo caso, sólo cabe felicitarnos porque estas tres estupendas piezas vayan a tener una nueva vida. Y no son las únicas… Seguiremos informando.

 

[deQuincey]

it is extraordinary to find these, back in the day, expensive cars with their original plates from the sixties-seventies, as it was almost impossible (megarich&politicaly specific) to buy these cars under the dictatorship (1936-1975) due to super restrictive import meassures

 

[Arde]

Love the Maserati, and looks ready to use...
Abandoned in Extremadura? Perhaps they were left with some Italian mechanic there and the guy promised to call back when the job was finished. Somebody at work had a 70s Ferrari in the UK, and a non-dependable Italian mechanic as his only option. The car went unused for many years. Owners hold on to the cars knowing they are valuable.

Who was the owner? Politician? Military? Foreign Oligarch? Somebody with some access but not enough to send the car to Italy for work...Soccer players were not that rich in the 70s. Julio Iglesias? He owned mostly German cars.

 

[deQuincey]

Love the Maserati, and looks ready to use...
Abandoned in Extremadura? Perhaps they were left with some Italian mechanic there and the guy promised to call back when the job was finished. Somebody at work had a 70s Ferrari in the UK, and a non-dependable Italian mechanic as his only option. The car went unused for many years. Owners hold on to the cars knowing they are valuable.

Who was the owner? Politician? Military? Foreign Oligarch? Somebody with some access but not enough to send the car to Italy for work...Soccer players were not that rich in the 70s. Julio Iglesias? He owned mostly German cars.

i will make up this, just my ideas, the cars were individually bought by well connected people to the regime in the sixties, then, in the nineties, this guy in extremadura bought one espada cheap, tried to use it, but had problems, and found parts missing, so he bought another one hoping to be able to build one good out of two bad, finally gave up and bought the maserati, which was the one he drove regularly, then the guy died in 2020, and the family had no idea of what to do with the cars, in august a friend moved the pictures at auto.de and similar pages, this rang a bell in germany, and...

 

[Arde]

i will make up this, just my ideas, the cars were individually bought by well connected people to the regime in the sixties, then, in the nineties, this guy in extremadura bought one espada cheap, tried to use it, but had problems, and found parts missing, so he bought another one hoping to be able to build one good out of two bad, finally gave up and bought the maserati, which was the one he drove regularly, then the guy died in 2020, and the family had no idea of what to do with the cars, in august a friend moved the pictures at auto.de and similar pages, this rang a bell in germany, and...

I buy that story. The Extremadura guy had a mid-life crisis in the 90s, so he was 40 then, and 70 when Covid hit in 2020.
The second Espada was a donor. To prove all this there has to be tools in the barn...

 

[coupedegrace]

Love the Maserati, and looks ready to use...
Abandoned in Extremadura? Perhaps they were left with some Italian mechanic there and the guy promised to call back when the job was finished. Somebody at work had a 70s Ferrari in the UK, and a non-dependable Italian mechanic as his only option. The car went unused for many years. Owners hold on to the cars knowing they are valuable.

Who was the owner? Politician? Military? Foreign Oligarch? Somebody with some access but not enough to send the car to Italy for work...Soccer players were not that rich in the 70s. Julio Iglesias? He owned mostly German cars.

I thought with the Italian mechanic that you were about to imply that Sergio Leone left them behind after a movie shoot...

 

[Krzysztof]

Very interesting!

 

[Gary Knox]

Watched a ~90 minute movie last night on Amazon Prime, titled 'Maserati'. Quite interesting travail that company has gone through over the past century+ period of time.