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Lamborghini Urraco ownership is traumatic but awesome

Gene Ondrusek and his 1975 Lamborghini Urraco have a relationship forged in heartache. He bought the car on a whim in 1987 and had barely driven it when the timing belt snapped thanks to a bad previous engine rebuild. With the interior already a wreck, Ondrusek set off on a restoration that would take years to get the Lamborghini back together.
All of that time arm-deep in the car's mechanicals has turned Ondrusek into a pretty persnickety owner. Passengers have to remove their shoes before getting in, and he has a mat to protect the carpet on the driver's side. However, despite his fastidious temperament, this Urraco isn't a garage queen and gets driven often.
Ondrusek doesn't exactly make the Urraco sound like an unmitigated joy behind the wheel, either. The seating position forces the driver to sit at an angle, and with no power brakes or power steering, the wedge-shaped coupe is not exactly easy to handle at low speeds. Still, all that time fixing the car has clearly created a strong bond behind man and machine, and we think the wedgy, underappreciated mid-Seventies Marcello Gandini design has held up well. Get a feel for both the car and the owner's connection by watching this latest video from Petrolicious.

eBay Find of the Day: 1992 Minardi-Lamborghini M191L

Think of Italian Formula One teams and Ferrari is first and foremost to come to mind. But the Prancing Horse team is not the only game in town. What is today known as Scuderia Toro Rosso was once, and for two decades, known as Minardi. And for one (unfortunately unsuccessful) season, it was powered by Lamborghini.
That season was 1992, when Christian Fittipaldi (Emerson's nephew) drove for the team, substituted by Alex Zanardi for a few races and teamed up with Gianni Morbidelli - the Italian driver who just took the Superstars championship this past weekend.
Alongside the Modena team it supplied the year before (to even less success), the Minardi partnership was one of only two Italian teams which the F1 division established at Lamborghini under Chrysler ownership would motivate power. It yielded a sixth-place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix as its best result, but the coupling of an Italian engine in an Italian chassis is what makes it stand out in history. Valentino Balboni drove it for demonstration events at Road Atlanta and Sebring, and now that car is up for auction on eBay Motors.

Lamborghini has already pre-sold 700 Huracans

It's barely been two months since Lamborghini revealed the new Huracan. The latest ten-cylinder Raging Bull hasn't even had its public debut yet, scheduled to take place next month at the Geneva Motor Show (the same show where McLaren will reveal its new 650S and Ferrari the revised California T). But the Bolognese automaker has already managed to take a whopping 700 orders for the new supercar.
Not that the customers are waving their checkbooks sight unseen, mind you. Over the course of the past month, Lamborghini has been carting pre-production Huracans around the world for VIP clients, 700 of whom have put down their deposits.
To put that number into perspective, consider that in 2012 (the last full year of production), the factory in Sant'Agata built just over 1,200 Gallardos. Assuming Huracan production continues at the same pace, that means Lamborghini already has over half a year's worth of production spoken for. So if you want to get yours anytime in the coming year, you'd better get your deposit in lickety-split.