Manual Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 for sale

It can’t be easy to stand out in the crowd at an event like Monterey Car Week. One minute, the wraps are coming off your brand-new, multi-million-pound carbon hypercar to a crowd of prospective buyers with money to burn. Then, as a sea of influencers collectively reach for their phones, Gordon Murray shows up with another V12 supercar and completely steals the show.

This is exactly the situation that befell Lamborghini just last week. Moments after taking the cover off its ultra-exclusive Fenomeno, a limited-run V12 hypercar that makes the Revuelto look a little tame, Gordon Murray rocked up with a modern interpretation of the F1 GTR and a fancy new long tail, which made everything else look a bit, well, forgettable. And it’s not like the Fenomeno is phenomenally exclusive, either. Lamborghini is building 29 of them, which is, admittedly, fewer than its Sian predecessor though the Centenario and Reventon were scarcer with 20 coupes apiece. But if you really want to make a splash at Monterey Car Week, you needn’t bother yourself with any of them – you should take this manual Muricelago LP-640 instead.

Any old LP-640 is going to draw a crowd. The Murcielago was Lamborghini’s first production car built from the ground up under the watchful eye of Audi, resulting in a V12 supercar that was considerably more accessible (and sturdy) yet was just as dramatic in the audio and visual department. All of the early cars came with a six-speed manual, but when an automated system was introduced a couple of years later, it quickly became the more popular of the two. Lamborghini, however, stuck by the trusty H-pattern for the LP-640 upgrade in 2006. But by this point, flappy-paddle fever had taken over the supercar world and demand for a V12 with three pedals was, shockingly, almost nonexistent. 

Emphasis on the ‘almost’, because Lamborghini did manage to find a handful of buyers willing to buck the trend for the more traditional option. Of the 1,250 LP-640 coupes that left Sant’Agata, 88 were optioned with a manual gearbox. And of those, just six are said to have been specced in right-hand drive, this Balloon White example being one of them.

That means you get all the benefits of the 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12, uprated to 640hp (a whopping 60hp more than the original), without a jerky e-gear transmission getting in the way of things. The LP-640 also came with some subtle design tweaks, including a more aggressive front end and a single tailpipe, plus upgraded anti-roll bars, springs and dampers to sharpen up the handling. Carbon ceramic brakes were available as an optional extra, a box the original owner of this car ticked, so you’re really getting the full LP-640 experience here. 

It’s an experience that’ll set you back a fair bit, though. Not quite seven figures, but not a million miles off at £875,000. That’s the sort of money that buys you this LP670-4 SV and leaves you with £175k in change, or this e-gear LP-640 with enough cash to spare for a brand-new Revuelto if you fancy it. Heck, it’ll probably get you a good way towards the Fenomeno if the cash is burning a hole in your pocket, but it does make you wonder which would draw a bigger crowd. Lambo’s latest rarity or the 18-year-old Murci with a stick in the middle? I’d hedge my bets on the latter…