Lamborghini Urraco, Part 1: Two Urracos from Sweden

Not every project in our workshop wears a Porsche badge.

The Lamborghini Urraco was Lamborghini's V8 2+2 of the 1970s, styled by Marcello Gandini at Bertone. We didn't find one. We found two, both from the same owner in Sweden, and we bought them together.

The green car: a matching-numbers P250

This series is about the first of the two: a 1973 Urraco P250, chassis 15204. The engine block carries the same number, so it still has its original engine. It had been in Sweden since 1990, with the same owner since 1989.

It came to us as an unfinished project, already partly stripped. Underneath, the car is green. At some point it was painted red, and that's how the Swedish papers describe it.

The black car: delivered new to New York

The second car, chassis 20164, has a story of its own. According to the factory records, it was built in orange with a black interior, completed in April 1975 and delivered in May 1976 to Grosman, a Lamborghini dealer in New York.

The official records list it as a P300, but a handwritten note says "2500", and its US emissions plate confirms a 2.5-litre engine. The likely explanation is that the P300's 3-litre engine wasn't approved for the American market, so the car was delivered with the 2.5-litre V8 used in US cars. We suspect it is one of the very few Urracos built for the American market.

Later it came to Sweden, where it was rebuilt and painted black, before an accident left it with a badly damaged front end. It also came with a Jalpa engine fitted, which is how we bought it. For now it is in our warehouse, and we haven't decided yet whether to repair it or sell it as a project.

This is how we found it, tucked away in a garage in Sweden.

Inside, it still has its black interior and the Urraco's distinctive dashboard.

A big thank you to Raymond Stofer, who keeps the Urraco register, for the information from the factory records.

On the move

Both cars, the engine and boxes of parts were loaded onto a truck for the trip to our workshop.

Next: Part 2: Under the paint