Today the world has the Urus and numerous iterations of Aventador and Huracan, with the occasional limited series Lambo thrown in. In simpler, brighter times (the 1980s), though, Lamborghini juxtaposed the timeless Countach with the equally incredible LM002, the hard-edged, dirt-ready 4x4 that beat the market storm of super SUVs by three decades. Now, thanks to British restoration specialist Bell Sport and Classic, the 40th LM002 example emerges like new, ready to ramble down road and trail like it's 1987 all over again.
Lamborghini built roughly 300 LM002 examples during a seven-year production run between 1986 and 1993, and this beauty is chassis number 40, built in 1987. Bell Sport and Classic describes the model it received a year ago as a failed restoration project that arrived at its factory with multiple boxes of components in tow.
“The engine block was still in place," recalls Bell Sport master technician Attilio Romano. "But most of the ancillaries had been stripped off. All the separated components were supplied in boxes … it was a bit of a detective job, so the first thing we did was a thorough inventory."
Romano, a former Ferrari factory technician, stepped in as the mastermind behind the painstaking restoration, his decades of experience working on Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti models proving crucial to the significant rebuild. Many of the replacement parts and tools needed to bring the SUV back to life were no longer available, so Romano and team built their own in-house or sourced the work out to trusted partner companies. That work included developing a one-off tool to dissemble the specialized spring-in-spring front suspension, commissioning the build of an all-new water pump to original specification, and precisely grinding and filing damaged transmission gears back into working order.
Refinished in the original factory "Blu Acapulco Metallizato" paint, the restored LM002 rolls out of the Bell Sport factory as a gorgeous reminder of a time when one of the world's premiere supercar manufacturers also built a military-grade off-roader. It wears the original gray leather interior, which was cleaned up and repaired, its patina left for posterity.
Bell Sport's LM002 restoration is on sale now for a cool £285,000. It has 13,690 miles (22,032 km) on its 450-hp 5.2-liter V12 engine, a few of which were put on by The Stig on a 2003 Top Gear Lamborghini special.
Source: Bell Sport & Classic