Features

Back to Library >
ti icon

Features

Two Espadas, 47 years

3 years ago

Writer:

Mel Nichols | Journalist

Date:

10 January 2023

Scene One: Modena, northern Italy, early Saturday morning, May 1976. Nine hundred miles to the French coast at Calais, ferry to Dover and on to London. I want to be home tonight. There’s a Lamborghini Espada Series III in the hotel garage and its keys are in my pocket.

I’ve been in Modena all week seeing Ferrari, Maserati, De Tomaso and Lamborghini. Lamborghini’s genial sales director, Ubaldo Sgarzi, has asked if I will kindly deliver an Espada, the dramatic-looking Gandini-designed 154mph four-seater, to London. I’m – ahem – happy to oblige. No restrictions: go as fast as you like, Ubaldo says.

At 6am I fire her up, tootle from the hotel through Modena’s empty streets to the Autostrada del Sole and head north.

Get full access to The Intercooler for four weeks for just £1, with no commitment!

Four weeks for £1

Why sign up for four weeks?

  • Read this article right away
  • Get full access to The Intercooler's daily articles
  • Access the entire archive of 1500 stories and more than two million words
  • Listen to The Intercooler's weekly podcast ad-free
  • Get the subscriber-only midweek podcast, Ask The Intercooler
  • Listen to our daily stories as mini podcasts
  • No commitment, no subscription. Just full access for four weeks

Already subscribed? Click here to log in.

ti icon

Library

Underrated: Maserati MC20

Yes, Maserati’s new supercar is quite back to basics by modern supercar standards and that, says Steve Sutcliffe, is exactly why he can’t get enough of it

Toyota GR Yaris review

Often when a car comes surfing into shore on a fast tide of hype and unrealistic expectation, its arrival can be something of an anti-climax. And few hatchbacks in recent years...

Our Cars: David’s 106 Rallye

Having recently moved back to my adopted country – la belle France – I was in need of a daily runabout. As I have access to a ‘sensible’ vehicle in my better half’s new Land Rover...

How to make an F1 star

It wasn’t that wickedly precise 108mph ace that won Emma Raducanu the US Open title earlier this month, nor even her arsenal of fearsome forehand and backhand shots...

Driving on the Isle of Man

On the Isle of Man there are no speed limits outside of towns and villages. Henry Catchpole celebrates the British Isles’ last true motoring paradise

Suzuki Swift Sport review

I’ve been doing it myself. In the wake of our hot hatch podcast, there’s been a lot of chatter about the sporty hatchback category being bookended on one side by the Mercedes-AMG...