Among all of the legendary names in Automotive history, the most instantly recognizable today is Lamborghini.
Ferruccio Lamborghini was well known for building tractors in the 1960's. His success allowed him to buy any car he wanted. Because of his love of cars he bought a few Ferraris but he felt improvements could be made to the Ferrari. Legend has it Ferruccio went to complain at the Maranello factory and they told him he  didn't know anything about cars and should drive a tractor instead of a car.
 This got Ferruccio angry so he decided to build a better car than Ferrari. He contracted Giotto Bizzarrini (who designed Ferrari's 250 GTO) to design the engine. In 1963 the engine was finished. This engine was made in his tractor factory but his completely new car factory was built in Sant'Agata Bolognese, only a few kilometers from Ferrari's factory in Modena. This paved the road for the modern legendary Lamborghini cars. 

All the photos you see are of this very car. The car is a 1974 P250S Urraco serial number 15732. We are NOT a dealership. We are simply two friends who love cars. Rehabbing this Urraco was a project we took up last winter. We both love this car however other projects are demanding our attention (and money). Please notice I said we rehabbed the car. This is not a restoration. The car is a wonderful driver and could be part of a collection as is. It could be shown without emberassment, but it's not something to take to Pebble beach and think it's going to win best in show. This is an exotic you can take out and enjoy - for less than the cost of most new cars.  It didn't depreciate as soon as we got it home.
Just think,
This time next week you could be driving a piece of history that makes wonderful sounds..something your heirs will battle for after you are gone..  or you could have a new plastic car that will be worth 10% of what you paid for it by the time it's paid off, it's your choice.

The Lamborghini P250s Urraco (pronounced "oo-RAH-koh"), meaning "little bull," was named for the fighting bull which killed the toreador Manolete. This car was introduced to the public in 1970 at the Turin auto show, though it wouldn't become available to the public until 1973.

The Urraco was developed as an affordable entry level exotic for higher production volume to compete directly with the Porsche 911. Soon other Italian manufacturers noticed this portion of the market resulting in Ferrari's 308gt4Dino and the Maserati Merak. 

The little Lambo's 2+2 layout housed a smaller 2.5 litre V8 engine of completely new design by Paolo Stanzini, positioned transversely just ahead of the rear wheels with the transmission mounted directly beside it. It's new chassis was a sheet steel unibody structure similar to the Espada. Front suspension components bolted directly to this structure while the rear suspension and engine/transmission were mounted to a subframe that bolted directly to the chassis from underneath. This made for better access to either engine or transmission for any work more involved than simple servicing. 

As you can see above, when necessary - the engine, trans, drops rather simply from under the car. We did it and should the need arise, so can you! The subframe was removed in these pics to install a new clutch and to detail and paint the engine compartment
We started this project in bare metal. There is no rust, nor has there ever been any rust. The only repairs we made to the sheet metal were a few minor dings were filled. There is also some lead work (some would insist this is the only right way to do a metal repair) on both rear quarter panels in the area between the body lines behind the rear wheels. This was done to fill a hole put there for a rear side marker. If you look close at the below pic you will see a slight discoloration behind the rear wheel - this is where the lead work was done.
This car is a euro spec car. There are no emissions controls on the car, the bumpers are the attractive euro spec bumpers. There have been no heavy crash bars welded in. The instruments are metric. This is an unmolested car. The only variations from original are the color, a modern cd player, and more appealing driving lights (the original's were huge and out of character with the rest of the car, but cutting edge at the time of manufacture). The car was delivered to the original owner in Italy "chocolate brown" 
Kim and I spent several hours in the local PPG dealer's shop trying to decide on a color. The guys there let us flip through color books forever. Thanx for your patience guys! 

The little Lambo's specs!
This is a rare car!! Most people think Ferrari's and Lamborghini's are equally rare, but think about that for a minute. In the last year - how many Lambo's have you seen in person? Ferrari's? In good weather in the Chicago area I generally see at least one Ferrari on the road a week. I'm not counting our red one or Kim's white one (both are pictured below) nor am I counting club events or at the dealer. In 5 years in the Chicago area that equals probably 150 Ferrari's.. In that same time period I have seen 3 Lamborghini's on the road. Most people don't realize just how few Lamborghini's are really around. From 1963 to present there have been just over 8500 Lambo's made... total. Ferrari made more Testarossa's than Lambo has made cars!
This P250 is one of only 520 built. Few of those survive today - especially as true Euro Spec cars. 
When imported most had heavy and unattractive bumpers installed. The Euro spec 250 weighs only 2420 lb! This car is nearly 1000 pounds less than a Corvette! 
Despite a larger stronger engine the Jalpa 2 seater is not as fast as the Urraco due to all the extra weight!
Production P250s sat on a 96.5 inch wheel with a 57.5 inch track both front and rear. Overall dimensions measured in at 167.3 inch length, 69.2 inch width, and 43.9height. The V8 engine with 10.5:1 compression produced 220bhp at 7500 rpm and 166 ft lb at 5750 rpm. The car had four vertically mounted Weber 40 IDF-1 carburetors, a standard 5-speed all-sycromesh gearbox, and 4.25:1 rear axle. Standard equipment on the P250 included air conditioning, electric windows, tinted glass, leather upholstery and AM/FM radio. 

This car was imported in 1976 by a local Doctor. He was on holiday in Europe on a new Harley and struck up a deal with the car's original owner. This was back in the days when the Red Brigade was kidnapping anyone who might have money. Fearing such an exotic car would make his family a target the original owner agreed to take the only new Harley in Europe and an undisclosed sum of money in trade for his Lamborghini. The American doctor, his girlfriend, and the Lambo's original owner piled in the Urraco and drove to Switzerland to transfer the funds. 
Soon the car was shipped to Chicago and used by the good Doctor on many adventures. He eventually decided to repaint the car and began stripping it down to bare metal. Unfortunately he wasn't able to complete the project and he sold it to another chicago man who took it a little further apart and mostly never got around to it for the next 6 years. A few kids and a minivan later he decided he would not be likely to ever finish it so he posted it on ebay. Last February Kim and Michelle  (that's us) saw the car and after Michelle looked it over we decided it was a project we both could embrace. Michelle is a long time car nut, who wasn't phased at the thought of reassembling a car, and Kim is an electrical engineer with an extensive mechanical background. The two of us didn't work so we had the time and we set about bringing Urraco sn #15732 back to life : ) 
That's me (Michelle) getting ready to apply some more primer.