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Keep Track of My New Gated Manual Murcielago! VIN ZA9BC10U63LA12495 (Photos, Videos, Drives, & More)

14K views 72 replies 22 participants last post by  GhiniV12 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all!

I am super excited to say that I have just bought one of my all-time dream cars, a manual Murcielago. This will be my 4th Lamborghini and 8th sports/supercar and coming from a Gated PreLP Gallardo and an LP570-4 Gallardo Performante, I am confident this will be my favorite. My new Lambo garage will be this Murci alongside an Aventador Roadster!

It is a 2003 Pearl Yellow Lamborghini Murcielago with speedline wheels and 9,775 miles VIN ZA9BC10U63LA12495.

In this thread, I want to keep track of everything I do with the car, including photos, videos, modifications, drives, and more. First off, I want to go over my thought process when buying the car and the key people/things that helped me along the way.

After selling my PreLP Gated Gallardo (sold here on the forums) I replaced it with an EGear LP570-4 Gallardo Performante off of BAT and after driving it and enjoying it for over 2,500 miles, I really missed the old F1 sound and feel of the OG 5.0L V10 as well as the gated manual. I figured if I was going to go back to the high-pitched scream, I might as well go after one of my all-time dream cars, a Manual Murci. I have always wanted the combination of the classic look, silly doors, V12, and gated manual. I sold my Performante (also sold here on Lamborghini Talk) and the hunt began.

I started looking and quickly found that clean gated Murcis are INSANELY expensive now and I would need to find a storied car to fit into my budget. This made things even more difficult as finding a manual Murci for sale in the first place is hard enough. I am a driver above anything so as long as a car drives like or better than factory and looks presentable, I'm happy.

I found that Jeff from JRGarage was selling his 2003 Murcielago and it was perfect; pearl yellow, 2-tone interior, stock wheels, manual, etc. I did some more digging on the car and found the thread here on Lamborghini Talk about it, and it was certainly off-putting. I decided that the car should speak for itself and reached out to Jeff.

I spoke to Jeff and he was a pleasure to deal with. He was upfront with everything about the car and we spoke at length about the accident, the rebuild, the prior owner, maintenance, and how the car is today. He said the car is pristine now, everything was professionally repaired and the car is tight, beautiful, and dialed. The only things to note were the tachometer read 1k RPMs low, the tires needed to be replaced, the front bumper was slightly a different shade and is visible in certain lights, and there is some slight overspray on the rear bumper. No big deal. I asked why he was selling it and he said he literally does not fit in the car because he is like 6’ 5” and he bought a Murci Roadster so he can actually fit in it and decided to sell the 03 lol. This, and of course, he stood to make a handsome profit off me.

Jeff also went over the whole story of the car, at first it sounded it little far-fetched, but I later found out that it all made sense. He was told this story by the Auction house the car was at in 2020. The original owner was a huge car collector in Washington (or Washington DC, don’t remember) and he bought the car in 2003 and was in an accident later in 2005. Since the car was so new, I am sure it was still very valuable and it was rebuilt shortly after. The original owner kept the car and owned it for the following 16 years, he owned the car from new in 2003 all the way till 2021. This was SUPER awesome to hear because the owner got into an accident, rebuilt it, kept it, and continued to drive it. Usually, if a car is done poorly it gets rebuilt and sold and changes hands a bunch, so this was great to hear. At some point, the original owner was going through a divorce, and, unfortunately for him, part of the divorce proceeding was that he had to send all of his cars to auction, including the Murci. He did so intending to buy them back and it seems like he wanted to minimize his cost. He listed the cars with the auction house and said they had significant primary and secondary damage, even though this was not true (I can only speak for the Murci). He did manage to buy back some of his cars, but not all. Jeff was bidding against one other person on this Murci, which could have been him, but there is no way to know and Jeff ended up winning the car. This story sounded great for the car as it confirmed it was not sent to auction for damage, but I was not super confident it was true. The Carfax shows a “damage report” in 2020 on the car, to clarify this was NOT another incident. Carfax scrapes the internet for information to put into their reports and their algorithm saw that it was listed in 2020 at an auction with “frame damage” and subsequently put that on its VIN report. Since coming from the auction, the car has had no major work done, just fluids were changed when Jeff’s mechanic went through it.

Overall, it sounded from Jeff that the car was in great shape all things considered. I took all that with a grain of salt and pushed forward with the deal.

In the middle of all of this, I reached out to Ed Bolian about the car. As most of you know, Ed Bolian is one of the most educated people on Murcielagos and even more so on storied cars. He said the car seemed solid and was priced appropriately, he just recommended that I get a PPI. This definitely gave me more confidence in the car.

The last step was getting a PPI, the most important step. I had never bought a car with an accident before so I was honestly expecting the PPI to be pretty miserable. I do NOT want a project car, I have dealt with problematic cars before and do not want to again. I want a turn-key car. I set myself up for disappointment and had Jeff take the car to Corsa Motorsports, they had never seen the car so this was a fresh dive. I was VERY clear with Corsa Motorsports on what I was looking for. Corey over at the shop heard me out and took care of me. I told them I did not care what it cost; I need to know every nook and cranny of the car. I asked that they pull off all the underside panels, front bumper, rear bumper, and anything else they needed to ensure the car was in good shape. They did so and sent me nearly 200 photos and videos of the car.

Later that day, to my surprise, Corey called me and said everything went great! I could not have been more excited as I genuinely thought he was going to have a long list of bad things to say about the car. I took some notes while we were on the phone. He said the car was clearly in a front-end accident at some point as there were clear repairs to the front tub area. He said whoever did the work was clearly a specialist as it was done very well. He drove the car and got up pretty quick and said everything felt tight and it drove like factory! Corey said that he was surprised at how good the car was; he said he has worked on many Murcis and has seen clean ones in worse condition than this one. Corey said it was not perfect, but it was overall in great shape and I could drive it no problem. There were a few things he noted about the car, most of which I was already aware of. The front right shock was leaking a bit (very common), the front bumper was a slightly different shade, the rear bumper had some slight overspray, it needed a new set of tires, there were some small cosmetic things here and there (scratches, small cracks), and the passenger side mirror was a little slow to close on auto-close. None of those things bothered me the slightest, I was super excited to know the car was in great shape! It just needed some basic work. I called Jeff and we made a deal.

At this point, I am waiting for the car to arrive at my house in Chicago from Arizona. I am super excited to get the car as it felt like a pipe dream when I was on the hunt. Jeff was really helpful and flexible even though he was out of town on a trip the whole time. I have a couple of things to address from the PPI and I have been going back and forth with White Out here on the forums on a bunch of things to add to the car. It only has 9,775 miles on it right now, I'll probably double that in the next 5 years!

Going forward I’ll post photos and videos of the car and keep track of my ownership! I have attached the PPI write-up below along with some photos. Please do chime in with questions and comments!


Tire Wheel Automotive parking light Car Vehicle

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#47 · (Edited)
After picking the car up from detail, it threw a check engine light and a Catalyst L R light started flashing and beeping. I shut the car off immediately and called my mechanic. Apparently, this is a common failure. One of the control modules in these old Murcis is defective and trips when water gets kicked up from the wheels into it. The cats are not actually overheating. I just need to get the updated module installed along with new sensors. Everything works perfectly still but the beeping is super annoying. While the car is with my mechanic, I am also going to get the door struts replaced. The struts are ok right now but the doors are heavy and you have the push them ALL the way up otherwise they slowly come back down, especially when it's cold.

Edit: Also getting an oil change done

Current mileage is over 12,200.

Other than that, she looks good! (Photo below is before detail)

Video of the dash: IMG_2156.MOV

Vehicle Car Automotive side-view mirror Vehicle registration plate Hood
 

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#51 · (Edited)
After picking the car up from detail, it threw a check engine light and a Catalyst L R light started flashing and beeping. I shut the car off immediately and called my mechanic. Apparently, this is a common failure. One of the control modules in these old Murcis is defective and trips when water gets kicked up from the wheels into it. The cats are not actually overheating. I just need to get the updated module installed along with new sensors. Everything works perfectly still but the beeping is super annoying. While the car is with my mechanic, I am also going to get the door struts replaced. The struts are ok right now but the doors are heavy and you have the push them ALL the way up otherwise they slowly come back down, especially when it's cold.

Edit: Also getting an oil change done

Current mileage is over 12,200.

Other than that, she looks good! (Photo below is before detail)

Video of the dash: IMG_2156.MOV

View attachment 321653
I am at my mechanic now and a couple of other things came up.

One of the pulleys is whining (audible in the videos above) and apparently Lamborghini does not sell that part individually, you have to source the pulley and bracket assembly. $4250

Water pump is leaking. Need to replace. $5200

Frustrating that the pulley assembly is so expensive just because you have to order the entire assembly from Lamborghini rather than just the pulley. And 5 grand for a water pump? And it's a few weeks out from italy? Also frustrating.

Oh well. After this the car will be dialed in!

Current mileage is over 12,500
 
#48 ·
Can we please get some exhaust vids?

Nick Reid is a great asset to this forum and to Murcielago owners everywhere. Yet, there are no good videos of his exhaust. I don’t know why there arent more.

You will be doing Murcielago owners around the world a great service
 
#49 ·
Sure thing. White out is awesome but you're right, there are hardly any clips of the DTP exhaust in action. I remember I was trying to hunt some down before making my order but to no avail aside from a video white out personally sent me. Here is a flyby and a revving clip. I'll try to get some in-car pulls this weekend.

Keep in mind my setup is currently the DTP exhaust (replaces the secondary cats and muffler) and RP intakes. Primary cats are still in place.

Flyby: murcielago tree tunnel fast.MP4

Revving: IMG_2092.MOV
 
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#50 ·
I appreciate those vids. It sure doesn’t seem to have the high pitched sound that I am wanting
 
#57 ·
I've researched like HELL and there is not a PreLP Murcielago exhaust that gets the high pitched F1 sound. From every video/post/comment/etc that I've read/watched is that you must get an LP Murcielago for the F1 sound. All YouTube videos showing F1 Murci exhaust are of the LP... You will see go spend hours watching videos like me haha

Funny because it's the opposite of the Gallardo... The PreLP Gallardo is the F1 beast.

I'm heavily in the market for a Murci as well but I think the exhaust note will never make me happy. I am on my second Aventador with Brilliant exhaust so I know what I'm talking about...
 
#55 ·
As of now, no. I think the car is loud enough and I was told removing the primaries makes the car significantly louder. I think it sounds good as it is!
 
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Reactions: white out
#67 ·
Obviously this has the fabspeed exhaust, does it still have primary cats? Does it have the fabspeed tune also?
 
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Reactions: Ripper
#73 ·
We've thoroughly enjoyed the Murcielago for the last couple of years and all the way to 16,600 miles! After thinking about it the last few months I think it's time to move on.

As much as I love the car, I end up driving the Aventador way more and the Murcielago doesn't get the love it deserves. There is a lot of overlap in driving experience between the 2 V12s and I've been thinking about dabbling in Ferrari. Maybe a 458 or 430.

It pains me to sell a V12, gated, scissor-door Lamborghini! I'll be listing it closer to summer, if anyone is interested, shoot me a PM!
 
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