Gallery: Lamborghini Celebrates 50 Years of Espada in London, Italy

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Lamborghini Espada, so the automaker has parked it in a crosswalk.

It’s not just any crosswalk, though. Lamborghini has been taking the Espada on a tour of London. First stop, the Royal Automobile Club founded in 1987. NExt up, Abbey Road. Where the Beetles recorded some of their most memorable songs. And like the album cover of the band in the crosswalk, so parked the Espada.

Lamborghini has been sending the Espada on a tour of Europe to celebrate the car’s 50th. That includes a tour of 20 classics last month organized by Lamborghini Polo Storico. That one covered 800 km of highways through Umbria, Tuscany, and Emilia-Romagna.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

The Espada was never the most gorgeous Italian supercar shape, but it’s one that has had an enduring presence. The car was a four-seat GT, sold alongside the 2+2 400 GT and the much more historically recognized Miura. But then, it’s not hard to be overshadowed when the Miura is your sibling.

But the Espada got the last laugh. Lamborghini sold 1,217 of them making it the brand’s best seller until the Countach in the mid-1980s. The name means sword and refers to the sword a bullfighter uses for the final strike.

It was designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone, the designer who penned the Miura, the Diablo, the Lancia Stratos, Alfa Montreal, and even the Renault 5 Turbo, among others. The car debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1968.

The Espada used a 3.9L V12 that had six carbs and 24 valves. While most were sold with a manual gearbox, the Espada was one of the first V12 cars available with an automatic. The engine produced 321 hp, raised to 345 hp thanks to higher compression in 1970.

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