The Rare And Totally 70s Lamborghini Urraco Turns 50

The Urraco was designed by Marcello Gandini, at Bertone.
It was built from 1970 to 1979.
Only 776 were ever sold.

That is if we remember the very cool Lamborghini Urraco. Unlike most Ferraris from the era, Lamborghinis did not become part of mainstream media or pop culture. Everyone knows and recognizes the Ferrari Daytona but the Urraco is relatively unknown. And it turns 50 this year.

The Urraco is all the best design bits from the 1970s rolled into a beautifully sculpted body. Items such as the super-wedge front end, pop-up headlights, all the way to the louvered rear glass, it is perfect. Gorgeous thanks to renowned designer Marcello Gandini, who was, at the time, the principal designer for Carrozzeria Bertone, was also quite innovative.

It was novel because of it rear-mid-mounted V8 engine which featured single overhead camshafts and the “Heron chamber” combustion chamber. This enabled a higher compression ratio that, with the help of the four Weber double-body 40 IDF1 type carburetors, delivered 220 horsepower from 2.5 litres of displacement.

The Urraco’s chassis was fitted with a MacPherson strut system on both front and rear axles, the first time this was ever done on a production car.

The first Lamborghini Urraco, the P250 ( “P” for the rear (posteriore) engine, and 250 for displacement of 2.5 litres) was built in 520 examples from 1970 to 1976. The ultra-rare P200, a 2.0-litre 182 horsepower version for Italy, only saw 66 hit the road between 1974 and 1977. Finally, the P300 (3.0-litre and 265 horsepower) was the last version and sold 190 times from 1975 to 1979.