Many would have seen the Lamborghini Estoque Concept car (second image from top) which was made known to the world a few years back at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The Lamborghini Estoque is a mid-engine, rear wheel drive sports car and it has four doors.

Many have commented that Lamborghini has made something different from what is usually done and that is to come out with a four door sports sedan. But these people are not aware of a previous Lamborghini car that has four doors and that car is known as the Lamborghini Espada Frua Faena (top most image).

In 1978, Italian coach builder Pietro Frua build a four door Lamborghini car based on the Espada grand tourer. As mentioned above, the car is known as the Lamborghini Espada Frua Faena and it was built on a reinforced 1974 Espada Series 2 chassis.

Pietro Frua took eight months to build this four door Lamborghini. He managed to add an extra seven inches to the standard Espada chassis. This was to accommodate the rear seats and also to fit the rear doors. In the end, the car was over 4.5 metres in length and weighed 200kg more than the normal Espada.

Lamborghini Espada

The extra weight did not give the 350bhp V12 engine much problems but it was clear that the extra length affected its handling characteristics and hence, it also affect the overall performance.

The Lamborghini Espada Frua Faena was showcased at the 1978 Turin Motor Show and again in 1980 at the Geneva Auto Show. It did not attract much attention as many felt that the rear end looks ugly. The Lamborghini Espada Frua Faena was nicely built and Pietro Frua hoped that it could be produced in small quantities, but the show car was the only one ever produced.

Shortly after the 1980 Geneva Auto Show, the car was sold to a Lamborghini dealer in Basel, Switzerland. And it was later sold to a German car collector. The German collector still owns it today but the car remains registered in Switzerland.

Photo credit: Net Car Show and Wikipedia