Why the Lamborghini Murciélago’s Hard-Edged Character Still Captivates

The essence of most Lamborghini models has long been the 12-cylinder engine. Designed by Giotto Bizzarrini in 1963, the marque’s original four-cam, 3.5-liter power plant was a tour de force that trumped every card dealt by rival Ferrari at the time. Yet with the Murciélago, a new milestone was reached, at least to that point, when it came to Lamborghini‘s V-12 tradition.

Introduced in September of 2001 as the successor to the long-lived Diablo series, the Murciélago was fit with a high-revving, 6.2-liter V-12 that originally made an impressive 575 hp. The Murciélago LP640, introduced in 2006 and built through 2010, bumped displacement and power to 6.4 liters and 640 hp respectively. This added dose of steroids for the barnyard bully made that variant the most powerful production Lamborghini ever . . . well, at least until the launch of the Aventador in 2011.

With the Murciélago, then-Lamborghini designer Luc Donckerwolcke created a new angular shape in both coupé and roadster forms that has really stood the test of time. For 2006, the LP640 received a facelift by Filippo Perini, who became Lamborghini Style Center’s Head of Exterior and Interior Design in 2004 and Head of Design in 2006. Prior to his departure for Italdesign in 2015, Perini was also responsible for the Aventador and Urus, even more angular expressions of the Lamborghini design aesthetic.

The Murciélago’s formidable appearance means that many first-time drivers will approach it with the same trepidation one might have for a large male bovine. Everything about the car connotes “industrial strength.” Its drivetrain is complex, with full-time four-wheel drive, an elaborate suspension, big brakes, and a host of computer-controlled handling assists and watchdogs.

Most Murciélagos are equipped with Lamborghini’s electronic e-gear transmission, though a few examples were ordered with a good old-fashioned six-speed manual gearbox. Its gated shifter, topped with a solid metal cue ball right out of a high school machine shop, feels perfect. Clutch effort is Herculean, and shifting is indelicate but immensely satisfying.

Ingress and egress involve a studied series of contortions to negotiate the trademark scissor doors. Once inside, however, you experience a commodious cockpit that achieves a level of spacious comfort and luxury absent in many sports cars of the period. The relatively ample room is due to the prodigious width of the Murciélago. Underway, the suspension is more supple than the large wheel/tire combination would suggest, and steering feel and feedback—heavy at first—lighten up as speeds increase. Which they soon do, since things happen quickly in this car, where acceleration and a top speed of more than 205 mph (later models were faster) nudge the edge of the supercar-performance envelope.

As the revs climb to the 8,000 rpm limit, the Murci’s reason for being becomes clear. Nothing about this car is subtle, and it has a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality: soft and comfortable until you step on it, then it’s a handful. Its hard-edged personality can be off-putting to drivers not used to doing a little work behind the wheel. Ultimately, this very special car is for a very special type of driver. Its audacious shape—flat and low—combined with an unmistakable and penetrating exhaust note, mean that car and driver are magnets of constant attention. Which is just fine for the few dedicated bullfighters for whom the car was created.

With Italian sports cars of the era, automatic transmissions were far more popular than traditional manuals, but today, the market regards stick-shift models as more valuable than paddle-shift versions. Expect to pay anywhere from a low of $200,000 for a first-generation, e-gear Murciélago, to well over $1.1 million for among the last of the LP670-4 SV version. Interestingly, examples of the model with a manual transmission—available through 2010—can have as much as double the value of their e-gear counterparts.

Click here for more photos of this 2003 Lamborghini Murciélago.