The Italian skunkworks that makes classic raging bulls more valuable than gold and stocks
- Digitising the details
- Research the key
- Restoration not improvement
- So what’s it cost?
- Some stunning examples
- Perfectly lived in
It’s an interesting fact that an authentic Picasso painting can be valued at over $100 million, yet a replica that’s indistinguishable to the naked eye is worth a miniscule fraction of that.
Same goes for a diamond versus a cubic zirconia. They both look the same, yet their values aren’t anything alike.
Obviously, authenticity is everything when it comes to valuable commodities, and this is certainly the case in the realm of classic cars, which nowadays can be a sounder investment than gold, property or stocks.
There’s also the undeniable fact that a classic car is an asset that will give you far more enjoyment than monitoring your share portfolio or managing your investment properties.
In line with this trend of escalating classic-car values, premium brands such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar et al have set up their own in-house restoration divisions that can return vintage models to the same condition as they left the factory in.
They also provide irrefutable certificates of authenticity, stating that every single component in the car is original.
Lamborghini’s Polo Storico heritage division was established in 2015 and has since subjected more than 100 cars to painstaking restorations.
The Italian supercar maker’s heritage division restores cars made between 1963 and 2001, with the 350 GT, 400 GT, Islero, Espada, Miura and Countach accounting for the majority of restorations carried out so far.
Before the launch of the born-again Lamborghini Countach last weekend, when the brand celebrated the 50th anniversary of its most iconic model, the man in charge of Heritage Commercial Management at Polo Storico, Francesco Stevanin, detailed the process to carsales.
Digitising the details
“Documentation exists for 90 per cent of cars produced since 1963 and we are now in the process of digitalising it all,” said Stevanin as he opened a large ring binder with yellowing sheets in individual plastic sleeves.
“We have a collection of nearly all the original production sheets and sales records showing where and to whom each car that came out of the factory was delivered,”
“There are also details such as the car’s VIN number, engine number, paint colour, interior trim colour and material [vinyl, rather than leather, was the norm in the early days].
“The records also show what kind of carburettors, crankcase, sump, pistons [with individual weights], intake and exhaust valves and so forth that went into that particular car.
“What I particularly like is the readings from the dynamometer that show the power, torque, RPM range. It also shows the tuning for the carburettors… four IDL Webbers in the case of this Miura.
“Some Miuras were fitted with Bosch spark plugs [depending on what was readily available at the time] while others had Champion plugs, so it’s a matter of identifying exactly what components went into each car and recreating precisely that. Because this was an early Miura – a P400 – the documents show it was fitted with smaller [205mm-wide] tyres on 15-inch rims.”
At the end of production, each car was thoroughly tested, with the tester recording his name and the date it was tested. There are notes from every phase of testing, covering drivetrain, electrical system, doors and locking system, air intrusion, carpets and seats, lights and so on.
Research the key
When any car is brought in for restoration to Polo Storico, the first step involves detailed research.
Stevanin explains: “There are two pillars of certification – authenticity and originality. When I refer to authenticity, it means that the car in front of me is really that car, with all documentation proving its identity, registration papers and continuous history. We have to see that its VIN and engine numbers have not been molested in any way.
“Originality refers more to the technical specification. It’s rare to nowadays find a car that hasn’t already been subjected to a previous restoration elsewhere, and the level of sensitivity when it comes to originality wasn’t the same in the 1980s or ’90s as it is now.
“So, the first step when we receive a car for restoration is to go through all the documentation and then completely disassemble it to determine its exact state.
“When we see that we have a ‘molested’ car in front of us we are often able to get confirmation from one of our suppliers. Usually, it’s case of very fine details… such as an incorrect screw or clip having been used.”
Restoration not improvement
Even though modern technology and engineering equipment means parts can now be refabricated with far greater precision than was the case 40 or 50 years ago, Stevanin says the aim is not to make cars better than they originally were.
“We are not in the business of improving cars over when they left the factory. The aim is to respect the spirit of the original and to recapture that,” he said.
Production tolerances in the 1960s and 1970s were nowhere near as precise as they are now, so restoration projects take this into account to return each car to the state it would have been in when it left the factory. Forget about millimetre-perfect shut lines and ultra-high-quality paint finishes. The focus here is on authenticity.
“To make a 100 per cent perfect car it’s easy, but if you want a perfect car, it’s not authentic. If your restored car has perfect, perfect paint, you are making a fake. It’s about the little details that are not perfect. At the time, they were not so precise on some details, because it just didn’t work like that.”
Back in the 1960s and ’70s, body panels were beaten by hand over a wooden mould, and the same process is replicated today, although finding skilled craftsmen who can carry still out this task has become a challenge.
Polo Storico can manufacture engine, transmission and suspension parts to factory-spec, but Stevanin says the aim is to save and refurbish (rather than replace) as much of the original car as possible.
“We also have a network of people and suppliers, some of whom were old employees of Lamborghini, plus we work with collectors of classic parts.”
So what’s it cost?
Stevanin says the spend on a full restoration can range from 230,000 to 450,000 euros ($A375-$735,000), which means you could end up spending more than the cost of a new Aventador.
It’s a bewildering amount of cash, but you can begin to see why when you consider that more than 2000 man-hours goes into the restoration. This is in addition to all the research that goes into the project before the restoration work even begins.
“Our clients come mainly from Europe, North America, Japan and Hong Kong,” says Stevanin. “Sometimes they ask for something other than factory-spec in terms of colour or trim, and then it is always a matter of compromise.
“We had one customer from the US who brought in two Espadas and for one of them he requested a colour that was never offered on that car. In the end, we compromised by agreeing on a silver that was not the colour the car was born with, but at least it was a colour that was offered on the Espada.”
Some stunning examples
Stevanin then asks me to accompany him for a short ride to a nearby warehouse where a handful of restoration projects are at various stages of completion.
He points to a Miura S bodyshell that’s been stripped down to bare metal and says: “This 1970 car formerly belonged to Eddie Van Halen [yes, that Van Halen]. The current owner has sent it in for a restoration, but when we stripped off the paint we found it was completely covered in body filler.”
The Miura was a wedding gift to Van Halen from his former wife Valerie Bertinelli and it was a car he drove daily around the streets of Beverly Hills. The sound of its V12 revving also features in the song ‘Panama’.
The fact it was owned by Van Halen already gives this Miura an interesting back-story, but it’s special in other ways, too, as it was modified by the Lamborghini factory and wore the designation ‘Lavorazioni Speciale’, which basically translates to ‘special by hands’.
The main changes were its ‘widebody’ configuration with larger air intakes in the flanks and wider Compomotive wheels.
Stevanin explains that the car will be returned to this spec when the restoration is complete. “Seeing as this car has historical significance, we will keep the, shall we say, ‘Van Halen configuration’, as part of which it will be painted red, rather than the Verde’ [green] it left the factory in.
“We sometimes get cars such as this [with historical significance], and then we’re faced with the choice of ‘do we take it back to how it left the factory, or take it back to a very precise moment in its history?’ In this case, the story behind the car prompted us to take it back to its early-1980s configuration.
“The car had a lot of corrosion, but the chassis is quite good. It’s not a desperate case, but there’s a lot to do. It will take about 14-18 months, but you will soon see some more news about this particular car.”
Having scrutinised the Van Halen Miura, we walk past a red Islero that’s been restored in every aspect and looks drop-dead gorgeous.
Perfectly lived in
Then we move to a Urraco S that’s in for a detailed, but not all-encompassing, restoration. “This is actually the first Urraco that’s been brought to us for restoration,” says Stevanin.
“When it left the factory the car was red, but during the course of its life it has been painted silver, although this is at least from the list of colours the Urraco was offered in. We’ve fully refurbished the engine and bodywork, but we’ve saved as much as possible of the original interior as the owner wanted a ‘preservative’ approach.
“The owner didn’t want the car to be completely disassembled, so we found the right compromise in terms of safety and efficiency, and we completely reworked the mechanical components. The bodywork is not perfect, so the car will look a bit ‘lived’ but mechanically it will be perfect.”
Stevanin adds: “Before we hand a restored car back to the client we put it through the same testing and validation process that the car would have been subjected to before it left the factory.
“We provide a certificate of authenticity, but that becomes invalid if the owner in subsequent years decides to alter the colour or change some other detail.”
A combination of art, science and exhaustive detective work, the domain of Polo Storico’s craftspeople is a fascinating one. They deal in diamonds… not cubic zirconias.
Keyword: Lamborghini Polo Storico: Restoring originality