SCM Analysis
Detailing
| Vehicle: | 1972 Lamborghini Jarama S |
| Years Produced: | 1970–76 |
| Number Produced: | 327 (150 S) |
| Tune Up Cost: | $3,500 |
| Chassis Number Location: | Plate on left wheelarch top in engine compartment |
| Engine Number Location: | Center of head on top of block |
| Club Info: | Lamborghini Club America |
| Website: | http://www.lamborghiniclubamerica.com |
| Alternatives: | 1971–72 Ferrari 365 GTC/4, 1970 Maserati Indy, 1970 Aston Martin DBS |
This car, Lot 146, sold for $188,285 (€178,250), including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams Cars’ auction in Knokke-Heist, BEL, on October 8, 2023.
While the Miura and later Countach were Lamborghini’s flagships, poster cars that adorned many a bedroom wall, the more-pedestrian front-engine V12 touring cars helped pay the bills and keep the lights on. Lamborghini road-car production began in 1965 with the 350GT, then moved on the 400GT in 1966, and then the Islero and Espada in 1968. As the catalog said, the Jarama would become the last of the front-engine touring cars upon the end of production in 1976, when Lamborghini ran out of would-be buyers.
It had started production of the earlier Islero in 1968 to offer a high-performance touring car aimed at the ever-important American market. Rather than redesign it, Lamborghini instead introduced the Jarama, again aimed at the U.S. It was built from new to meet the ever-expanding EPA and DOT requirements.
Family affair
The platform was based on the Espada but with a wheelbase shortened by 10.7 inches. The Jarama’s knock-off magnesium wheels were identical to those on the Miura and earlier Espadas. Lamborghini’s usual 4-liter V12 sent an advertised 350 horsepower through a 5-speed gearbox to the rear wheels. As with most exotics of the 1970s, light weight was not much of a priority, so the Jarama tipped the scales at over 3,200 pounds. Top speed was a claimed (but highly optimistic) 160 mph.
To keep costs down and simplify both construction and marketing, Lamborghini used essentially the same engine, gearbox, differential, brakes and suspension on all its front-engine road cars, while the Jarama’s unique bodywork was sublet to Marazzi. This mechanical commonality means that running-gear parts can still be easily sourced, and a few knowledgeable service shops do exist today. Body parts do not exist, so any crash or restoration work must go to a highly qualified fabrication shop.
Our subject car is an S model (also referred to as “GTS”). These featured minor visual body updates including a hood scoop, engine-compartment hot-air vents in the top of the front fenders and relocated turn signals. Much-needed dual alternators, standardized power steering, and a revised dash (with improved A/C venting and control switches moved to the center console) all made for a more user-friendly car. Bolt-on wheels which, unlike on earlier Jaramas, didn’t tend to come loose, were added. A redesigned exhaust system, improved cylinder-head porting and re-jetted carbs modestly boosted horsepower to a claimed 365. Like our subject car, most S models had cloth seat inserts.
Lift-off roof panels over the driver’s and passenger’s head were an option on the Jarama, but the panels were heavy and difficult to remove and refit. Unlike Ferraris of the period, Lamborghini offered an optional automatic transmission. Having recently sold a Jarama equipped with one of these Chrysler TorqueFlite 3-speeds, we can attest that performance of these models is leisurely at best.
Trainspotting
In the annals of Italian exotics, the Jarama is somewhat forgotten today. In part this is because Lamborghini’s final front-engine GT car was easily outsold by the factory just down the road. Thanks to Ferrari’s nascent worldwide network of authorized dealers and service departments, it fielded a variety of competitors that topped the Jarama, including the 365 GTC/4 (505 cars sold), the 365 GT4 2+2 (524), and the 400GT (502), which also offered Ferrari’s first optional automatic transmission, sourced from General Motors.
While there is no lack of Ferrari trainspotters who can provide ownership history on most of the Enzo-era cars, similar experts in the Lamborghini world are few and far between, and the few Lamborghini dealers from that era are long gone. Thus, the history of our subject car is limited to a record of when it left the factory and its reappearance in 2016.
Now, more than 51 years since it rolled out of Sant’Agata Bolognese, it faces a similarly challenging market to when it was new, this time because the demographics of the buyer pool for Italian exotics of the era is slowly shrinking.
This car’s paint and interior colors can best be described as “interesting,” although to the right buyer they are no doubt wildly appealing. Jaramas tend to come with all the potential deferred-maintenance issues one might expect, although that is likely not an issue here, with a claimed 1,200-hour restoration that obviously reassured the buyer.
Most Jaramas sell in the $75k–$140k range, so the $188k sales price here is at the very top of the market; we have not seen a Jarama sell for this much since 2017. That said, the restoration costs were probably about this much, so let’s call it fairly bought. ♦
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams Cars.)
