It's a half century for Lamborghini Urraco: Why this sports car is still an icon

First unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in late October 1970, Lamborghini Urraco has turned 50 this year. It is considered to be one of the most prominent cars to have been ever made by the Italian supercar maker.

It came with a 2.5-liter V8 rear engine which was mid-mounted and delivered a blistering 220 hp of maximum power at 7800 rpm and propelled the coupe to a top speed of 245 km/h.

Apart from its monstrous V8 powertrain, the 2+2 coupe also featured an independent suspension, with MacPherson strut system on both front and rear. It was a first for a production car at the time. Moreover, Urraco also stood out by introducing technical solutions that were considered 'very innovative for the time', courtesy engineer Paolo Stanzani, the technical father of the project and Lamborghini’s Chief Technical Officer at the time. The designing of the coupe was entrusted to Marcello Gandini, who was then the principal designer for Carrozzeria Bertone.

The coupe was initially introduced as P250 Urraco. The 'P' in its initials indicated the rear (posteriore) position of the engine, while 250 stood for its engine capacity (2.5 liters). This specific model stayed in production from 1970 to 1976. A smaller Urraco was proposed at the 1974 Turin Motor Show. It was a P200 which came with reduced displacement (1,994 cc, 182 hp) and was intended solely for the Italian market. The P200 stayed on the production lines for three years (1975 to 1977).

The next and the most powerful of them all, the P300 was presented in 1974. It featured a 2,996 cc engine which delivered 265 hp at the time. It stayed in production for four years from 1975 to 1979. This specific model led to the subsequent 8-cylinder models and more importantly the recent 10-cylinder models - Gallardo and Huracan.