[foresterguy]

I had hoped to post this before Christmas but life somehow got in the way. This is something that began several years ago as an attempt to search for and document manual-transmission roadsters produced from 2004 to 2006. Although my emphasis remains on these cars, I had the data on many other Murcielagos but not in a format that was easy for me to retrieve and analyze, at least in a timely way. I spent the last few months pulling this information together and I’m presenting it here as an interest item/topic of conversation for the Murcielago forum members. Most importantly to begin, I don’t have the data on every single Murcielago that Lamborghini produced for the U.S. The data sources I’ve used to pull this together include any public record that I could get my hands on. This includes car sales, both dealer and private, archived web pages, auction listings, other Lamborghini-related repositories, such as LP112.com, VinWiki, and others. It has taken me untold hours searching for this data over the years. Whenever I found a new VIN, I recorded it along with other information such as mileage, color and accident history, if available. Where possible, I’ve tried to verify suspect VINs as I’ve discovered there are indeed errors out there. In this endeavor I’ve found information that may surprise you. So, let’s break this thread down a bit and start with the big picture (see next post).

 

[foresterguy]

For the years 2004-2006, I’ve documented 419 U.S. production Murcielagos. This is out of a total of 857 coupes and 435 roadsters (1,292 total) reportedly produced for the world for these years. There are undoubtedly quite a few more than 419 U.S. cars in my opinion. Of the 419, I’ve recorded 199 coupes and 220 roadsters. 80 of these are 6-speed manual cars. Here’s the U.S. breakdown:
COUPES (both e-gear and manual)-
2004: 98 (32.2% of world)
2005: 44 (19.1% of world)
2006: 57 (17.7% of world)

ROADSTERS (both e-gear and manual)-
2004: 1 (<1% of world)
2005: 104 (44.4% of world)
2006: 115 (94.2% of world)

For those of you interested in the 6-speed manual transmission cars:

COUPES-
2004: 27 (27.6% of U.S. cars)
2005: 8 (18.2% of U.S. cars)
2006: 7 (12.3% of U.S. cars)

ROADSTERS-
2004: 1 (< 1% of U.S. cars)
2005: 25 (24.0% of U.S. cars)
2006: 12 (10.4% of U.S. cars)

So, the first thing you should take away from this is that the percentages are skewed from 2004-2006 for coupes and 2005 for roadsters due to the limited data set given world production figures. Based upon my research I’m confident there are quite a few more U.S. coupes out there for all years, especially 2005-2006. I also think there are more 2005 roadsters out there than what I’ve found. However, you’ve probably already noticed the shocking number of 2006 U.S. roadsters: 115. Lamborghini claims in a Volkswagen/Audi shareholder report that only 121 roadsters were produced for the world in 2006. This is inaccurate. In addition to the 115 U.S. roadster VINs obtained, I’ve found another 14 world-wide bringing the total to 129….and I haven’t really focused on the Rest-of-World (ROW) cars, primarily because ROW dealers/sellers don’t seem to publish the VINs for these cars. I know there are more out there. I’ve seen them. So, it would appear that Lamborghini doesn’t really have a good handle on what they produced. I’m sure the numbers are there somewhere in Sant’Agata, but digging them out is probably a lot of work. Another interesting thing I’ve discovered is that the first batch of 2004 coupes were all manual. At least the first 13 U.S. cars (VIN 00887 thru 00947) were all manual. Car 00948 was the first U.S. car to receive an e-Gear transmission so if you have this car then you now know you own the first Murcielago produced for the U.S. with an e-Gear. It appears that the e-Gear wasn’t quite ready for primetime when the first 2004 models rolled off the production line. The other interesting tidbit is that at least 58 (confirmed) and 71 (possible) of the 419 cars have been in some sort of accident/wreck/fire/flood. That’s a lot. Some of you may also be wondering about that 2004 roadster. I know that many of you already know (courtesy of Ed Bolian) that particular car (01161) was the one featured in the ‘Batman Begins’ movie. It’s a pre-production roadster with a U.S. VIN that Lamborghini provided for the movie. In fact, it’s the only roadster I’ve seen produced in 2004. Lamborghini claims to have produced 80 roadsters world-wide in 2004 but in all the years I’ve never seen a 2004 roadster (01161 exception). This is an enigma. Did Lamborghini give these cars 2005 production VINs? More information is needed here.

 

[foresterguy]

For my last post of the thread, I’ll briefly mention the Canadian cars and at the end some numbers on the manual LP640s. I haven’t really focused a lot of energy here but in the information I have I can say that at least four manual 6-speed roadsters were produced for Canada in 2005 and at least one in 2006. Three of these roadsters have suffered accidents and fires. I also have the VINs for six e-gear roadsters. I have no data on the number of Canadian coupes as I did not focus on these models. As for the U.S. and Canadian LP640 6-speed manual transmission cars, Ed Bolian has done a great job keeping track of these. There is a lot of interest in these cars so I wanted to add to the lp640 6-speed manual count based on what I’ve discovered over the years:
2007 Coupes:
17 (includes 3 Canadian cars)
2007 Roadsters:
0
2008 Coupes:
6 (includes 2 Canadian cars)
2008 Roadsters:
5 (includes 1 Canadian car)
2009 Coupes:
2 (includes 1 Canadian car)
2009 Roadsters:
5 (includes 1 Balloon White Canadian car that I know exists but don’t have the VIN for)
Total=35
I’ve also seen a gated, Nero Aldebaran LP640 Roadster with an all-black interior, silver Hermera wheels with Michigan plates that was on the showroom floor of a dealership in Michigan (Prestige Imports) in 2015 but I don’t have the VIN. I think the car was still in Michigan as of 2018. This car is either a 2007 or 2008 model based upon the window switches. I didn’t count this one. So, the moral of the story here is that there are perhaps a few more LP640 stick cars out there that we don’t have a handle on.
I know some of you are wondering how many 2002-2003 cars were brought into the U.S. I can’t answer that. I never focused/captured data for these cars over the years. Maybe I should have but it’s too late (for me) now. I guess in retrospect I would have liked to have had this information but in my short sightedness I just wasn’t interested in spending the time since I knew they all were 6-speed manual cars. My mistake. As I said at the beginning my initial focus has been the 2005-2006 6-speed roadsters. I have a lot of information on these particular cars and I feel that I’ve captured most of them. Are there more out there? Probably. One can never be too sure. So, in summary we can say that the 6-speed manual cars, whether pre-LP or LP640, are rare but you already knew that. The only data set I feel fairly comfortable with would be the 2006 roadsters. The actual numbers for the other 2004-2006 cars should be significantly higher in my opinion, but the numbers shown are all I’ve been able to find over the years. I know there are more out there. So, what’s next? I continue to update my records whenever I find a car but I’m only one person. Several of you may have information/VINs on additional cars that would benefit us all. I’m debating on how to proceed from here. Should I publish a Word file that members could update and re-post? It would be a basic document with VIN, color of car, mileage and last date of information. I would be uncomfortable including anything else such as accident history. Comments?