The British motorway service areas are great places. Not only can you get gastronomic experiences you can’t get anywhere else, you can also rely on seeing something in the car park. Often, you won’t want to linger to eat it or examine it, but sometimes you do. And this was one of those days.
I can’t remember the previous time I saw a Lamborghini Espada in the metal, even in a museum collection. So, to see one, on a day like this English summer morning, parked up and ticking gently as it cooled, with space around it to look (but not touch!), was a treat well worth getting up early for. It was even worth enduring the services for. 
The Espada has been covered on CC previously, when JPCavanaugh saw one at an unexpected location. But a quick recap: introduced in 1967 with a 4.0 litre V12 under perhaps the lowest and flattest bonnet ever, it looked like a concept car. Like the Lamborghini Marzal in fact, shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1967 by Bertone, and styled by the immortal Marcello Gandini. 
The Espada was that show car toned down just a bit – the doors were no longer all glass and gullwing opening, and the dash brought much more inline with what you might expect from an Italian supercar. Power was from a 345bhp version of Lamborghini’s glorious V12 rather than the mere 2.0 litre V6 of the Marzal. This is a series II car, with minor external changes and a revised interior.
You may feel the Espada has not aged that well. Maybe, but pause and consider this. This particular car dates back to 1970, the time of the Austin Maxi, the Plymouth Road Runner and the Ford Torino. They aren’t many cars of 1970 that are as at home on a bedroom wall now as they were then. This, the Miura and the Daytona? That’s about it.
The Espada came just 5 years after the Jaguar E Type 2 seat Coupe and just one year after the E-Type 2+2 Coupe. Given how it looks now, against the 1966 E-Type it must have been astonishing. You may feel it is the best looking 2+2 ever, and, much as I like the E-Type, I’m not sure I’d argue.
Of course, it’s not the longest running 2+2 around, or even in that car park. Perhaps that honour can be handed to the Porsche 911. OK, there have been six major variations over 51 years, but in terms of style, configuration and place in the market, little if anything has changed beyond recognition.
Just two parking slots from the Espada was this 1972 Porsche 911T. The 911T was actually the entry level 911, with a 130bhp, 2.4 litre version of the everlasting Porsche air-cooled flat-6. The mainstream 911 had 165bhp and the 911S had 190bhp in Europe, and in the US market power was inevitably a little lower. 130bhp may not sound a lot for a 911, but a 1973 Rover 2200TC had 98bhp, so the power gain for the Porsche was around 30%. In 2014, an Audi A4 2.0 litre is around 210bhp and an entry level Porsche Boxster starts at around 260bhp, so there is a valid comparison to be made – the Porsche has a proportionally similar advantage over the Audi as its predecessor did over the Rover.
This example is one of the few cars you could imagine looking good in a shade that can be politely termed chocolate brown. Of course, the condition of this car and those superbly styled Fuchs alloy wheels help a lot. 
Being a 911T had few downsides – it’s a bit slower, but any 40 year old car is going to feel slow today compared with its modern equivalent. Also, of course, with less power you’re going more slowly when you get to the corner and discover your speed exceeds your talent, which was always a risk with a classic 911. And the flat-6 will make the same noise as its powerful siblings.
So, two cars that were milestones in 1970 and 1972, and maybe what we thought we’d all be driving on the motorway. More than to make you linger in a motorway services car park, before you’ve had a proper English breakfast. Quite an achievement, and a great start to the day.
Two of my favorite sports/GT cars of the 70’s. The 911 is timeless, and the Espada is a brilliant period piece. To see both at once? What a treat!
It’s only fair to note that the first 911 had only 130 hp DIN, although it was a bit lighter.
Interesting – the 911 pictured has LHD. Grey market import perhaps?
Saw the Marzal at the Auckland motor show awesome car as are these Espada and rare unlike the Porsche which are relatively common though fast in any model lack of outright hp is compensated with lack of weight.
I’ve never seen a Lamborghini Espada in person. I’ve seen plenty of 911s in the past 40 yrs. but never an Espada. Nice looking car.
Me neither; and it’s one of my favorite cars of that era.
Nice catch!
I’ve only ever seen one, on the back of a rollback truck near Tampa, FL. The fact that it was up high somehow accented how low the car actually is.
Everybody in my car wondered what in the world it was, so I had a moment of car-geek pride that I was actually able to tell them…
I had a similar experience when one showed up to a local strip mall cruise in, people were wondering what it was, I was one of the few who knew, it was the 2nd Espada I’ve ever seen, the first one I saw in the underground parking garage of the Sonesta resort in Key Biscayne.
The title of this post reminds me of a Kinks song called “Motorway” from the Everybody’s In Show Biz album.
Also, I noticed that the owners of both featured cars parked them correctly between the lines instead of parking them so as to prevent other cars to park near them, which is pretty obnoxious to me.
there is a website for that, search ‘YPLAC’ and it will come up.
Several months ago I saw an Espada that had had a Corvette V8 swap. I know, I know–sacrilege!
A couple of real real beauties. The 911 looks great in brown. Really like the small bumper early cars. Lately on the auctions on TV there have been quite a few restored cars painted in brown. Could the color be coming back? That Lamborghini is awesome! I also noticed the owners of these classics are even not taking up 2 parking spaces per car. Pet peeve of mine.
That’s Sepia Brown on the 911T. The sad thing is many Sepia were painted over in some other color, like red. Now there are so few left that they fetch a price premium. Imagine that for a brown.
The condition of the feature car is fantastic.
More like barker’s egg brown,what an awful colour to paint a glamourous sports car!
Your right to a certain extent Gem. However I prefer ‘Dog Egg Brown’ to ‘Drug Dealer White’ when it comes to colours.
Saw a shiny 64 plate Astra last week in a metallic brown, and it did look handsome for a no frills simple hatchback.
Brown seems to be making a comeback,there’s a brown Focus across the road at the nail bar,similar colour to a Mk3 Cortina.
I remember in the late 80’s seeing a white 928 with a license plate frame reading “Snowblind”.
I like the Espada, the 911, eh, its nice, but it seems so common next to the Lamborghini, I wonder what Espadas are going for now, you could probably get one for less than a 911, which has recently climbed into the ridiculous price level thanks to more money than brains crowd which now thinks its cool to pay $300K for a regular 911, they were the same ones that made Isettas $50,000 cars from $2000 cars.
Three things:
1) I’ve seen one Espada in my life – several times. It was owned by a local car nut a few blocks from my home back when I lived in northern Illinois and was silver like this one. This would have been about 1980. It is shockingly low and long. It looks unreasonably proportioned but very intriguing. It is still an extremely attractive car to me and I would love to have one if there was some trusted place to maintain it on the front range.
2) I have two very nice and original die cast models of the Espada in 1/43 scale from the time the car was new by the Italian toy manufacturer Politoys – in silver and green. Also the wonderful PMA Minichamps have made modern models of the Espada in several colors.
3) A writer/columnist for one of the two high quality English collector car magazines (Classic & Sport or Octane – can’t remember which) has an Espada and has devoted a few columns to the car in the last few years. His is also silver. Could this be his car?
Well, I can remember exactly when I last saw an Espada. 🙂 I must say, this one in silver looks more appealing than the beige one I saw.
Back in the late 80s, I knew an attorney who drove this 911’s near twin. I believe his was a 1971, and it was his nice weather driver for several years. He sold it in a moment of weakness, and regretted the sale ever since. I think it was the only other brown one I can recall seeing.
are you in Northern California? I remember seeing a beige one of these about 20 years ago here in Sacramento
Love me an Espada.
Interesting to compare it to the E-type. Bertone’s Jaguar Pirana below.
Nothing says “I’m a car for millionaires” more clearly than using headlights for a bumper. It says the owner has a private mechanic whose sole job is to replace the lights daily.
Conspicuous consumption!
That’s the only place where the Espada kinda falls apart for me, it looks like they never finished the front and just stuck some sealed beams in there, I wish it had a more exotic looking front end, something like the glassed over headlights from a Citroen SM.
Nah, I reckon that hollow front end caps off the design perfectly. All I’d do, maybe, is look at the NACA ducts on the bonnet.
Looks like you stumbled onto half a Top Gear challenge – May chose the Espada, Hammond the Porsche, somewhere there’s the E-Type Clarkson picked and the Morris Marina they’re stuck driving if one of the challenge cars doesn’t make it.
The Espada is just ridiculously cool, It appeals to both my American Muscle car senses and my Italian Supercar senses. There’s some questionable details on it for sure and it’s certainly a period piece but it pulls it off very well
I like the 911 too but Meh. I know where my attention would be in this parking lot.
That Porsche, please! I don’t even mind the brown. This generation of Porsche is one of the absolute most gorgeous…and the Fuchs mags seal that deal of course.
Ive got mixed feelings on that Lambo. I want to like it…I really do. But just WHY doesn’t it look nearly as good as the Miura, or even the Countach? Just not feeling that one…I think its how tail heavy the car looks.
I really wish todays wheel designs looked anywhere near as good as the rollers on either of these cars. They really look styled and set the tone for the cars. Not like the bland melted designs or worse yet the 500 billion angles slathered in full chrome of today. And the rubber to metal proportion looks spot on with both cars.
That desire is squashed by the fact that these old wheel designs wouldn’t allow space for the 18″ $5,000 each ceramic brakes, or the matching set of $5,000 tires with a 50 wear rating.
The 911 died for me once Porsche stopped using the Fuchs wheels. There never was a design more fitting to a car than those.
Magnificent, both of them, very nice catches! But I do have to wonder what exactly the four people in the sixth picture find so alluring about the Ford Escape (or Kuga to you, right?).
I also just noticed the rear windows on the 911, I was not aware that there was an option to pop them out like that. Nice touch, that.
When in the UK last year, I was intrigued by all the motorway service centres – they’re uncommon here. The range of apalling coffee many of them sold was similarly intriguing. Most of them were a tad grubby at their outer reaches, but I explored plenty of these grubby outer reaches as they were often home to geocaches. ’twas whilst caching at the “West Wellow Services” service area between Southampton and Salisbury that I experience my first ever taste of stinging nettles and holy crap they HURT!!!
Anyway, the colour of that Porsche is incredible – it looks like liquid chocolate, so tasty! But nothing compares with the Espada – still my favourite exotic 2+2. I’ve never seen one in the metal – I don’t even know if there are any in New Zealand. Such an incredible looker – I’d forgotten that it was introduced in 1967, it doesn’t look remotely that old. The huge glass area is fantastic. Awesome finds Roger, just awesome!
The Lamborghini is glorious. I have a soft spot for 911’s, but it pales in comparison in this instance.
That V12 has less power than the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG. I’m a lover of small capacity turbo 4-cyl cars, especially in superminis, as we call them in the UK and Europe, a prime example being the Fiesta ST. However, the Lamborghini V12 is up there with the Cosworth DFV in my personal bestist engines EvAr.
When I lived in Heckmondwike in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the 1970s an Espada used to appear once a month down the street where I lived it was the equivalent of having a space ship landing in 1970s yorkshire reputed to belong to a drugs dealer from Manchester again another planet it looked a million dollars in dismal 1970s labour england 3 day week power cuts etc
Happy days
1970s England was grim under the Labour government.It got a whole lot grimmer under Margaret Thatcher
Saw sevaral Espadas at the Friedrichshafen car show last summer, including a metallic-flake blue one with a panoramic roof that had belonged to Prince Ranier and paced the Monaco GP.
Anybody think that the Espadas might have influenced the design of the 1971 mustang or the 1969 Shelby Mustang? That flat creased hood with twin NACA intakes sure looks Similar.