2023 Bull Market Pick: 2001–10 Lamborghini Murciélago

Welcome back to the Hagerty Bull Market List, our annual deep dive into the collector cars (and bikes) climbing the value ranks. This vehicle is one of 11 chosen for the 2023 installment of the List. To see the other 10, click here. 

It’s said that Murciélago the feisty bull endured 90 blows from the matador’s sword before he was spared from slaughter and sent to the famous Miura stud farm to beget a line of little bulls with bad attitudes. Speaking of prominent lineage, Murciélago the Italian sex-wedge was a direct descendant of the Lamborghini Diablo, Countach, and Miura, which means there were high expectations when it launched in 2001.

With 571 horsepower from a 6.2-liter V-12, the requisite scissor doors, self-levitating air scoops, and the very baddest of attitudes, the new Lamborghini lived up to its heritage. However, even people who travel in their own private 747s have needs, and the Murciélago (say “mercy-ell-a-go”) answered criticisms of past Lamborghinis by providing certain luxuries like outward visibility and working A/C. It also had superior chassis dynamics with sharper helm response and less of the notorious understeer that dogged the Diablo.

Don’t get us wrong; the Murci was still almost 2 full tons of raging Latin libido—but wrapped in a little more velvet. And now the Murciélago has followed the path of its predecessors by bouncing from a rapidly depreciating used supercar into an appreciating classic. Its course was set when Lamborghini became a colony of the mighty Volkswagen Group in 1998. Fully functioning prototypes of a Diablo evolution called the Canto were fed to the shredder, and work began on a road-to-roof replacement of Lamborghini’s flagship. More interior space, a more logical dashboard, more power, and better handling were all priorities.

As production continued throughout the 2000s, Lamborghini kept tweaking the Murci and introducing variants such as the open-top Roadster and 40th Anniversary Edition. In 2006, it launched the LP640 you see here, with larger side scoops and a goggling monopipe for an exhaust. As it did when pasted on the original Countach, LP means longitudinale posteriore, a reference to the engine’s longitudinal location behind the seats, and 640 a rounding of the upsized 6.5-liter V-12’s rated 632 horsepower.

Strapping yourself into a Lamborghini with an 8500-rpm V-12 is like crawling into Keith Richards’s Fender Telecaster for a set at the Garden. The feral bark at startup is a prelude to the werewolf yowl the engine achieves when it goes on cam around 4000 rpm. Ferrari never made a berserker quite like this, and nobody makes one quite like it now, ever since turbocharging and electrification took over the sex-rocket trade. Especially when you factor in the Murci’s rare six-speed manual transmission, a relic of the pre-paddle past when anyone who wanted to go fast needed to know how to work a clutch. It’s thought that perhaps fewer than 25 manual LP640s came to the States.

The Murci’s shifter glides easily on triple-cone synchros through its stainless-steel gate. The same transmission was used in the Audi R8 and a few others, perhaps the highest evolution of a supercar manual before it all ended in microchips. Microchumps, we say. It’s worth spending the time and (significant) extra cash to get a Murci with the buttery stick shift. It is, as they say, the full Monty—er, Murci, and that’s no bull.

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2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640

Highs: Doors that swing up instead of out; a V-12 that revs to 8500; the (remote) possibility of acquiring a manual; makes your kid an instant celebrity at the school drop-off zone.

Lows: Italian fragility; needs regular conjugal visits with a gas pump; you must enjoy getting your picture taken at all hours and speeds.

Price range: #1 – $382,000  #2 – $323,000  #3 – $262,000  #4 – $191,000

HAGERTY AUTO INTELLIGENCE SAYS:

The rush to find analog supercars with manual transmissions overlooked the Murciélago. Shifting owner demographics suggest this is slowly changing, but a couple of big sales could change the perception of the Murci quickly. Values for the Murciélago are up 48 percent since 2019 but have lagged behind those of cars like the Porsche Carrera GT, which doubled in value over the same period. As next-generation enthusiasts are a growing share of owners (approaching 2/3), values for the Murciélago appear poised for more appreciation.

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