The Long, Low Lamborghini Espada

Lamborghini, now part of Volkswagen's empire, was founded in 1963, 55 years ago.  As this list indicates, its first cars appeared a year later, and the Miura, the model that put the company on American car buff radar, arrived in 1966.  It was the first Lamborghini named after a Spanish fighting bull.

The second bull-named Lamborghini was the Espada, launched in 1968, the subject of this post. Some background can be found here that mentions Espada styling was by Marcello Gandini at Bertone.

Years before, General Motors' styling boss Harley Earl favored designs that either were long and low or at least looked that way.  He was not alone.  As early as 1905 the American Underslung brand built cars with large wheels and the chassis set below the axle lines.  By the time the Espada was designed, low and long was common automobile industry practice.

But Gandini took this to to something approaching an extreme for a car nominally holding four people.

Gallery

The Espada was aggressive looking: note the stark dual headlights.  There were aerodynamic touches such as the NACA jet fighter- shaped airscoops on the hood.  The front bumper was essentially non-functional.  What seem to be hot air outlets flank the front wheel opening.  The car also is quite flat -- hardly any radius to the roof and hood.  This is contrasted by the comparatively heavy C-pillar area and the rounded lower profile of the rear quarter windows.

Another frontal view.

The rear looks less heavy seen from this angle, aided by the crisp shape transitions and details.  Note how the back window relates to the curve line of the quarter window and the air vent's relationship to the upper side window line.  Nevertheless, the need for housing back seat passengers required a high roof line and plenty of sheet metal real estate abaft of the rear axle line.  The rear bumper is as sketchy as the one up front.

Side view.  Here the design seems most awkward.  The very low hood might be too low because it makes the passenger compartment seem a bit too high by comparison.  Details on the front fender look too pinched from this perspective.  The slight faceting on the C-pillar just below the air vent does not relate to the quarter window shape, though it does break what otherwise might be a monotonous swath of sheet metal.

The Espada's direct competition was the Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 of 1968-71 shown here in a Barrett-Jackson photo (365 GT Wikipedia entry here -- scroll down).  It too has a low hood and comparatively high cabin with plentiful glass area.  Its roofline curves down to the trunk far more aggressively, probably at the expense of back sear headroom.  But the effect is that of a lighter, cleaner-looking looking design, this aided by the lack of the sort of details scattered over the Espada.  The Ferrari was more successful in the marketplace with sales of 800 during its three-year run, whereas there were 1217 Espadas sold over a ten year period -- a much lower annual rate.