In a world more and more obsessive about the way forward for mobility, it’s straightforward to miss the intrinsic values of the previous. However not at Lamborghini.
Tucked away in Sant’Agata Bolognese, the beating coronary heart of Lamborghini’s heritage program, Polo Storico, stands as a defiant reminder that historical past isn’t only for museums – it’s for roads just like the twisty Passo della Futa the place we bought to drive a few of these traditional icons from the Raging Bull model.
Polo Storico, based in 2015, is Lamborghini’s official restoration division. However calling it a restoration store barely scratches the floor. It’s a time machine, a analysis lab, and a shrine multi function.
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Its mission is obvious: to protect, restore and authenticate Lamborghini’s iconic fashions from the Sixties by way of to the early 2000s – from the 350 GT to the Diablo. And in doing so, Polo Storico doesn’t simply preserve vehicles alive. It retains the soul of the Italian efficiency automotive model intact and really a lot prime of thoughts.
These aren’t simply outdated vehicles. They’re rolling blueprints of Lamborghini’s DNA. The Miura didn’t simply launch the thought of a mid-engine supercar – it pre-empted a whole class.
The Countach wasn’t simply daring – it was radical, like no different automotive had ever been. The LM002 didn’t simply predate the Urus – it created the hyper-SUV section 20 years forward of its time. These machines didn’t simply form Lamborghini, they formed the supercar world.
And but, these masterpieces in design and engineering require particular care. That’s the place Polo Storico steps in with obsessive dedication that few rivals, if any, can match. There are automotive geniuses nonetheless out there to the group right here, who started working with Lamborghini in 1965 and proceed to lend their experience as we speak.
Over the previous decade, it has restored a few of the most vital vehicles within the model’s historical past.
The Miura SVR, a one-off track-focused monster, took 19 painstaking months to carry again to life. There’s a outstanding story right here. Initially constructed as a Miura S, the automotive was first revealed in Verde Miura Inexperienced paint with a black inside on the 1968 Turin motor present.
However after passing by way of the arms of a number of house owners, it was finally acquired by German fanatic Heinz Straber, who returned the automotive to Lamborghini’s manufacturing facility in Sant’Agata Bolognese with directions to improve it to the extra excessive Miura SVR – a track-focused evolution impressed by Lamborghini check driver Bob Wallace.
These modifications included beefed-up bodywork to deal with wider rear tyres, Girling disc brakes sourced from the Porsche 917, an enormous rear wing mounted forward of the engine cowl, light-weight BBS centre-lock wheels, a dry-sump lubrication system, upgraded camshafts and carburettors, and a distinct entrance splitter and roof-mounted spoiler.
Upon completion in 1976, the automotive was once more offered for a reported sum of US$550,000 to a Japanese purchaser, the place it remained till it was shipped again to the manufacturing facility in 2016 for an entire restoration by Polo Storico, regardless of having arrived disassembled.
Its situation offered vital challenges, so the restoration group needed to depend on historic information, together with specs from the earlier SVR improve.
A Countach LP400 Periscopica was stripped to reveal steel and returned to its uncommon metallic blue paintwork after greater than a yr.
The 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400 (chassis quantity 3246) within the placing inexperienced ‘Verde Scandal’ was handled to over 10 months of meticulous consideration.
The restoration coated bodywork, inside, chassis, braking, cooling and electrical programs. The identical automotive went on to take the highest prize in its class on the Lamborghini & Design Concroso d’Eleganza in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in September 2017.
The Lamborghini 400 GT Interim is a uncommon and noteworthy mannequin within the marque’s historical past. Considered one of simply 23 ever made, it took practically a yr and a half to recreate.
And the crown jewel, the Countach LP500 prototype recreation, consumed 25 months of archival analysis, hand fabrication, and uncompromising authenticity.
These aren’t restorations. They’re resurrections of the very best order.
However Polo Storico isn’t nearly instrument bins and welds. It’s about provenance. The group holds over 30,000 unique technical paperwork, drawings, images and components information. Each automotive that passes by way of is evaluated with forensic element, licensed with factory-backed authenticity, and reintroduced to the world in concours-level type.
There’s a terrific story on how the LM002 got here to be from the mechanics and techs there on the bottom again then (for one more time), however I noticed a uncommon picture of a heavy machine gun mount that Muammar Gaddafi needed for his border patrol Lamborghinis in Libya till the Italian authorities apparently shut the thought down resulting from hard-won model values, however from which the road-going model was born.
Certainly, there are extremely expert automotive restorers working worldwide. Nonetheless, there’s a superb cause why house owners of those traditional Lamborghinis are more and more selecting to ship their vehicles to the Polo Storico group to revive them to as-new situation.
That element has actual worth. In a world the place traditional Lamborghinis at the moment are multi-million-dollar collectibles, Polo Storico-certified vehicles stand aside, commanding larger premiums and extra respect.
For collectors, that certificates isn’t only a piece of paper. It’s motoring gospel, given the sheer heritage of Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese manufacturing facility, which nonetheless stands in the identical place the place its founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, stood when he commenced operations again in 1963.
Lamborghini’s Polo Storico isn’t nearly restoring previous legends – it actively reproduces unique spare components to make sure traditional Lambos stay real, totally practical, and traditionally correct.
Right here’s how this crucial service reinforces the model’s id and helps fanatics globally.
Polo Storico now shares genuine spare components for traditional fashions, masking over 65 per cent of the fleet (from the Sixties 350 GT to the 2001 Diablo). These components are accessible worldwide through authorised Lamborghini sellers or sourced straight by way of their internet catalogue.
When components are out of inventory, Polo Storico manufactures them from scratch, utilizing unique blueprints and archival drawings to make sure 100 per cent authenticity.
This functionality covers every little thing from main mechanical elements to minute washers and screws for Miura’s six double-barrel Weber carburettors – no element is simply too small. Any half reproduced should match manufacturing facility specs precisely. Fashionable enhancements aren’t made – the group prioritises historic accuracy and performance because the components have been initially engineered.
Utilizing modern substitutes shouldn’t be an possibility – every little thing should cross rigorous archival and technical checks. Restoration techs work underneath the watchful eyes of former Lamborghini workers, who assist apply period-accurate meeting strategies to match trim, leather-based, and finishes to unique requirements. They guarantee colors, textures, and even the traditional ‘classic leather-based odor’ are recreated authentically.
Every copy is logged and accredited by the Comitato dei Saggi (Specialists Committee) and supported by archive documentation. This ensures that Polo Storico-certified vehicles retain their manufacturing facility authenticity.
Certification enhances a automotive’s collectible worth – collectors belief factory-backed components and documentation greater than aftermarket options. Spare components can be found globally, so sellers can entry {the catalogue} digitally and order required elements, and even ship uncommon components internationally.
That “65 per cent components protection” is steadily rising as Polo Storico continues to develop new elements to rebuild its historic catalogue.
Go to the Lamborghini Museum as we speak and also you’ll see a major assortment of jaw-dropping vehicles in as-new situation. The 350 GT. The Miura SVJ. The Countach LP400S. The Diablo SE30. The LM002. These are only a pattern of what’s on present.
All lovingly preserved not simply as artefacts, however as residing, respiratory machines. Some are pushed in rallies and media occasions, just like the one I not too long ago attended, whereas others seem at Pebble Seashore. Some return to the very roads they as soon as dominated, just like the Passo della Futa the place we bought to drive these dream machines correctly.
What Polo Storico does is way more than preserve outdated vehicles working. It restores the pillars of Lamborghini’s mythos.
It reminds us that with out the Countach there seemingly can be no Aventador. With out the Miura, there would seemingly be no Revuelto. With out the drama, defiance and audacious design of these early masterpieces, Lamborghini could be simply one other efficiency model.
Polo Storico provides the previous a objective. And in doing so, it ensures Lamborghini by no means forgets what made it nice. A residing legacy.
And the following traditional Lamborghini to obtain the Polo Storico remedy would be the Murcielago, constructed from 2002-2010.
MORE: Everything Lamborghini
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