1969 Lamborghini Espada - Jay Leno's Garage

but you downshift, you step on the gas, it's like an Italian opera at 120 mph like this it's so perfect welcome to another episode of Jay lon's

garage

this is my

1969

Lamborghini asata uh this is one that we just finished restoring I bought this The car in 1986 was an interesting choice because I was looking at two cars, one car I looked at was a mid 60's Ferrari 330 GTC at the time in 1986 that was $28,500 and this car was $26,000 and I thought "hm, the Ferrari" . It's $2,500 more, this has more space, you can carry four people, more horsepower, V12, well, Al, a five-speed V12.

I always liked these and back in 1986, it was a lot of money, $2,500. I said, I'll buy the asata 20. years later, Ferrari was worth about a million dollars, uh, these didn't go up much, but now they're starting to appreciate, but look, it doesn't make any difference because if you like something, that's really the criterion, this was designed by Marcelo Gandini, who made the mura of course, and it was called the Italian Rolls-Royce at the time, it was a four-seater supercar and really a four-seater, it's still the only Italian car I don't own what to have having the seat all the way back to drive, in fact, moving it up a little bit because I mean, Kareem Abdul Jabar, anyone seven feet tall could drive this car, there's all kinds of room in it and it's just a road car marvelous.

You know, this is one of those polarizing vehicles, people either love them or they just hate them. I've come. I've had people come and go. Oh I love seeing this, oh my gosh how sexy and other people say it's the ugliest car I've ever seen. I've seen it, but you know that's what design should do, it should inspire some kind of passion. I mean how many cars do you see that are just boring SUVs, you drive by them, they are neither pretty nor bad, they just look, while you either love this or hate it and it turns out I love it it's 4 lers uh this was the one Most successful Lamborghini ever produced until the mid 70's uh they did what 1.21 of these things in the series series one series two Series 3, this is kind of a series two with something inside it still had the mirror wheels with the knockoffs .

I love this. About two years ago I noticed it was starting to rot a little in the quarter panels and you know the electricity was stinging, see I smell smoke, okay let's tear this thing down now. About 10 years ago we did a mechanical rebuild on it, so I didn't have to touch the engine or transmission. I just kept it in place. and we just did a full cosmetic restoration, we did the seats in the original leather style and we did the whole deal and it's just a wonderful car, well let me show you what you have to deal with when you take one of these things apart, okay, here this. an example of wiring, look at this, oh my god, I mean Italian wiring in the 1960s, it's really spaghetti bologan, that's all.

I mean, they're just wires going in different directions and the connections are red at the beginning and green at the end and someone spliced ​​together, I don't know where they came from from the factory, I don't know, I mean, but it was a nightmare trying to fix everything. When you have an exotic like this, you always want to have a battery disconnect switch because In many of these early Italian cars, especially in the mirror, the wires run along the frame of the car and as the car moves down the road, the cable can move back and forth, maybe touching the metal, rubbing the metal and after 20 years, you know, 50 100,000 Mi, whatever it is, there's a good chance that the cable will rub and cause short circuit the chassis and cause a fire, and that's what happens.

You always want to carry a fire extinguisher when you have one of these. I've never had a fire. with this thing, but the only day I do it is the day I don't have a fire extinguisher with me, well, let me show you some of the body preparation. Here it is in the sanding booth. You can see the floor that is needed. some, uh, some fixing a little rust on the floor, it was a good solid car, this one is in California. I don't drive it in the rain. I never wash these cars, I just clean them all the time, so, accordingly, there.

There wasn't much corrosion before '86 when I bought the car and it just rotted a little, eh, but it's a great 4L V12 vehicle. You know David E Davis, who had Car and Driver. The magazine has said that everyone should drive a V12 car at least once in their life and it is so smooth that it is a wonderful high speed road card to drive. I love these things and the fact that you can take three other people with you. is the amazing part, you know this car really looks amazing when you see it on the road, especially next to modern SUVs, you know, that are so tall, it looks like a snake going down the road, I think that's the most amazing thing. cool, um and it's not a car I would modify in any way.

I've never seen anyone take a spotter and make it look better. I mean, whether it's the dashboard, whether it's the wooden steering wheel, it still has a lot of the classic lines and the classic elements. The sports cars of the 1960s, the big Italian cars, the huge pie-type instrument, you know, the tachometer and the speedometer, uh, the switchgear is all original, it's really a lot of fun and, of course, I think one of the most beautiful wheels ever. These Lamborghini magnesium wheels. and it's a hatchback, let me show you this opens, you've got some kind of little switch down here, as you can see, you can open this, we put new hydraulic struts in there, you don't have to buy them in Midal, there's always some Americans. supplier that can offer you something pretty similar and there's a style element here that I think is great.

I think Honda and everyone else copied this piece of glass right under the rear window so you can see behind you, you can see through the windshield. I can see my hand all over the back, that's cool and it cost those exhaust points the four pipes, I mean that's H, it doesn't get more Italian than that. I think a spot means sword if I'm not mistaken and your battery and below that is your spare tire right below here is your Dynamat like I mentioned and below that is your battery uh there's battery all the important battery disconnect switches that always you're going to want to have on any old Italian car because like I said the wiring can You get quite a few dice but it's a good idea to do it on any car and we put a Ctec battery charger in each of these and they last forever.

Normally this would clip under the spare tire here and this would cover that, but for now. just do it like that, but mechanically there was nothing wrong with this car, it was just the cosmetics, you know, after god, I've had it for 30 years, so the car is now, gosh, 50 years old, so it still runs and it drives like a new car, I mean it's a little bit heavier than a modern car, it doesn't have power steering but it has air conditioning, in fact what we did was take out the original air conditioning unit, which was about this big , and we put one of our old air units in it that we use in all of our cars uh they're fantastic they're small they're compact they blow a lot cooler uh they actually work great something that's interesting but annoying, you have a filler here and you have another filler here and They're joined together by little tubes when you're at the gas station you put it here and then you drag the hose over here and then you realize it only goes this far and then you have to go, excuse me.

You have to take out, turn around, go around the bomb on the other side while people point fingers at you. It's a little annoying, but it holds 24 gallons of gas, which sounds like a lot, but gas mileage isn't one of the attributes. This car, when you put your foot in it, you're probably pretty close to the digits 11 something like 12 but it makes a glorious noise, you know, if a symphony orchestra is cool, who cares how much it costs, that's it, come on. Let's open the hood and this is a huge piece, you don't want to damage it, you're not going to find one of these hoods anywhere now, as I mentioned we did a mechanical restoration about 10, maybe 15 years ago.

The real Italian car trick and this might be an old wives' tale but it always works for me. Italian cars are built in Italy and Italy is hot and consequently the oil. Passengers. The passages through which the oil passes are somewhat small and when you have an Italian city, it is in a cold climate like New England or any other place where there is snow or it is below zero, you get in that engine and you rev ​​it and the oil is thick and it has to go through those small passages and consequently can starve the engine the real trick for an Italian car Alfa Romeo Ferrari I don't care what it is, you turn the key, let it warm up and you don't really walk away until it comes off the plug once you see it off the plug then you're ready to go then the engine is warm so you don't stress it so you don't damage the engine uh I've always done that and it worked for me my Countach has over 7,000 miles , this has to be over 100,000 now because for a while this SP armor was out and it was my only car for several years, so that's work for me, you know, don't go in there and speed up.

Go up and rev it when you're forcing cold, thick oil through these little oil passages, you can end up starving the bearings, so that's what I do. I turn it on. Accelerate gently, let it warm up. Do something. Listen to a song. the radio I make a phone call I do what I have to do and then I'm gone and you'll always be fine. As you can see, everything is quite simple. There's our Vintage Air AC unit I talked about earlier, it still has the original style air. wipers I like to keep it original under the hood this is your, of course, your clutch and your uh and your brake and master cylinders too uh the fuses are under there uh We've cleaned up the wiring a little bit, but it still looks kind of Italian, like You see, we dynamize everything that works very well, it's a great insulator for both noise and heat, and that's all under the hood, 4 L 3.9 engine to be technical, but they call it 4 L, around 300, what?

What was it, I think? It's 350 Hors of power, that's what I think I'm getting out of this thing now, oh you wanna put it there, not much Chrome on the car, uh, not overly done as you see, Body by brone, but originally written by Marcelo Gandini, I think. This was his most creative period in the 60s, when he was a young man still in his 20s and 30s, he is one of my favorite designers, in fact, he was here in the

garage

. I have a photo of him and me on the wall. let me show you, it's probably time to take it for a spin, like I said, this car doesn't have power steering because it's one of the first series and the power steering lady is available roasted, like I said before, it means sword, that's what the Matador would do. he used to kill the bull, you know, Lamborghini was born under the sign of Taurus, the Bull, his birthday was the same as mine, April 28, except he's 100 years old, I'm close to 100, but ah, what an engine with Such a wonderful sound this is, this was just a thing. for a sort of cross-continental flight in Europe, you know, getting there on the autobond and running at top speed with three other people and their luggage.

It's funny, it goes really straight and I always hear that these cars are a nightmare, but you know, that's always because someone does it. one fix one fix if you put it back the way it was they are pretty good and of course the weather has a lot to do with it too, being a California car it never rusted it never got wet so probably added another 20 Years into the life of the car, we redid the entire interior, as you can see in the original tan color, it looks great. I think when Gandini designed this car, he was inspired by two show cars, one was the Lamborghini Marzal and the other. the Jaguar uh piranha, a car that we featured on this website, last year or so, was a Jaguar that had been conditioned and had been ordered more by The Daily Telegraph or one of the English newspapers and had many types of Spanish. features when you realize this car is almost 5050 years old and has a lot of the old school stuff like turning on the heater, you reach under the dash and literally open a water valve to allow hot water to come out. through the heater but you have to do it manually you know it's interesting now all the cars take it to the Nurburg ring and they tell you what time it did it and people face their value judgment of the car based on the Nurburg ring , but you know, cars like this one are meant to have long legs and cover long distances in a single stride.

It really is a wonderful car to drive. I mean, look how low it is compared to all the traffic around me. It's really funny and when this came out in

1969

, oh my God. there was nothing like it, it really made a splash as I said they built well, some people say 1221, some people say 1217, but in any case it was the most popular Lamborghini until the modern era. This is my favorite era of Lamborghini, the series. 2, series 2 is a place and series 3 haddifferent wheels and had large bumpers and some other safety features. I like this one because it has no safety features of any kind, but you downshift and get out of it. the H gas is like an Italian opera 120 M hour like this it's so smooth since I knew we were going to drive this car today we had meatball sandwiches for lunch fantastic meatballs some ground beef a little lamp some fantastic pork, it's amazing how some cars look like big ships next to you on the road like this one, look at that thing, you have this nice big steering wheel that makes turning easier, plus my car has these little tiny wheels, they're more like dials.

I like a big steering wheel. My Porsche Carera 62 also has the same type of large steering wheel and it is made of wood. I like a nice wooden steering wheel. You almost feel like you are in Sicily with these hills. here in California probably the biggest attribute of this car is the amount of legroom it has, you know, for tall guys and burly Americans or giant Germans, this is perfect, you have all kinds of room in the back seat, it's not much worse than any other four... car with seats, this is the strange thing. I have never had an overheated Lamborghini.

I know some people complained about the Murs overheating, but the Miras have a bleed valve that you always have to bleed, maybe well, haven't driven the car in a while. The car opens, you open the purge valve, you hear the air coming out as soon as the water comes out, you close it and it cools down. I've never had this thing overheat, it's about 85°F, maybe 90°F at night, it's a pretty hot day today. In California this thing is running in the middle of the temperature gauge for me, this is what Italian cars are all about.

I love the feel of this car. I love the smell. I love old school compared to new school. I mean. This style was really revolutionary when it came out, but it was built the old school way, guys, you know, bang bang with hammers and valve OR by hand, you open the heater to turn the water on and off, uh, and in that time it was quite advanced electrical. Windows Air Conditioning This is not something that Italian cars had, especially Italian supercars in the past. I mean, Ferrari in the '60s grudgingly put air conditioning in some of the things, but it wasn't a complete package the way the whole fugo idea was to build. uh, an Italian luxury car, I mean, he liked his Ferraris, but he thought they were somehow crude because they were basically street racing cars. uh, you know, Enzo was a race car driver and, uh, he just built streetcars to finance his racing.

While Lamborghini wanted to build real Grand Touring cars, go ahead, in the next step we will show you what it is like from the inside, as you can see you have a nice big panoramic windshield, it is fantastic, a thin pillar is not the best in a rollover . but hey, style is everything, there's your tachometer, your oil temperature, your fuel gauge, your water temperature, your oil pressure, your am gauge and, of course, your speedometer, here, your horn it's here, in this original speaker, very Italian, um, let's start at that end of the car they have your glove box right there through a modern Bluetooth radio and all that uh these are rear statistics these are your left and right window switches cigarette lighter of very Italian cigarettes of course your Air Venture watch um headlights windshield wipers and a variety of internal and auxiliary lights fans driving lights gear shift of course that little valve I talked about under the dash is right under here it just looks like a hot water valve that you have on a radiator at home you just open it the hot air flows through the heater and turns on the heater fluids are very important for Italian cars it's like marinara sauce when you have dinner you can't eat spaghetti without sauce marinara you can't have an Italian car without good fluids change the brake fluid change your uh change your your uh, your water and your radiator, your antifreeze and of course everyone else too.

You have a pretty good view of what's in front of you. It's not about how fast you go in this car, although this car does go fast and how it does it. you feel it as you drive and that's what makes it such a relaxing and communicative car to drive, that's what makes it fun, a very manly gearbox, you know, you grab it and push it and it's a bit agricultural, but that makes me like. It gives it real weight, you feel like you're in the hills of Sicily, all I need is someone to throw meatballs at me and I feel at home, as cliche as it may sound, this car really picks up speed the faster it goes. lighter and safer, it feels.

I'm not sure how they came up with this flyer. I think they took an extra large pizza pan and said yeah, that's a good size pizza, okay, and then you just drive up to this. I like wooden lever right here it's got the notches for your fingers well I hope you've enjoyed what has been a 30 year journey for me with this car and it's actually 30 years this year you know if you Google it , there is no shortage of videos of this car, not this one in particular, but I am referring especially to other uh, people in the automotive sector, Harry Medca, the great English writer, has a great video.

I think he did it for Evo magazine, where he drove a thousand miles from Italy back to England and his Aaron Robinson, the coach. editor of Car and Driver magazine, he has one that took him seven years to restore, in fact, he also said and he has a great video if you want to see it, but there are tons of them, there are people who bought them, 100% restored people who bought them like scraps and I tried to fix them and I got terribly frustrated every once in a while someone puts a Chevy engine in one that's not popular at club meetings, but anyway I just wanted to show you what it was like, um, we show you the restorations, we show you We showed how we had it and I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did, so I'll see you next week.