CARS & COFFEE No.1 2018
By Norman Shum
Shot by Mike McTigue
The first few weeks of January is always a slow start back to
normality after a bustling and exhausting festive period, your
motivation is zero, when you see the pile of work staring up at you.
Well, here at Cars and Coffee Liverpool we expected the same snail
pace start with the first meeting to ease all the petrolheads into the
year. Most of the precious metal we know are still tucked up nice
and warm, waiting for the winter weathers to pass.
So imagine our surprise when a colossal amount of folks turned
up at the Chung Ku Restaurant Liverpool to support this months
Charity James Apter - Friendship Fund (Alder Hey Children
Hospital for the trauma unit) raising £343.64 that day. Two new
young crew members Jack and Emma Shum joining us for the first
time. Kim Apter called them ‘Champion Bucket Shakers’.
Streams of yellow Supercars came in huge numbers, ranging from
Ferrari 355, 360 moderna, Ford Mustangs, Porsches, Lamborghini
Gallardo and Hurracan Performante piloted by the legendary David
Gidman from HR Owen & John Greatorex.
Out of the colourful landscape of precious cars, shone two very rare
and elegantly sculpted Italian Lamborghini Espada, owned by two
local lads from the Scotch Piper meet Paul and Cliff. These were a
Grand Touring Coupé designed by Marcello Gandini at the style
house Gruppo Bertone. Gandini, the Torino born designer son of
an orchestra conductor, is probably one of Italy’s finest designers
amongst Giorgetto Giugiaro (whom we’ve mentioned in a previous
article - responsible for the VW Mk1 Golf, Delorean and Alfa
Romeo Giulia GT amongst others).
94 wirrallife.com
The Espada was a four-seater GT, selling alongside the 2+2 400
GT and the mid-engined Miura. 1217 Espadas were made, making
it the most successful Lamborghini model, until the expansion
of Countach production in the mid-1980s. The Spanish name
“Espada” means ‘sword’, referring to the sword that the Torero use to
kill the bull in the Corrida .
The Espada used a monocoque steel body. Suspension was fully
independent, with double wishbones, coil springs, hydraulic shock
absorbers and anti-roll bars, four wheel disc brakes. Twin fuel tanks
held 95 l (25 US gal) of gasoline; the fuel cap was hidden behind
a black cosmetic grille in the C-pillar, one of Gandini’s signature
touches. Its 3,929 cc (240 cu. in.) V12 engine breathed through
six Weber side-draft carburettors and 24 valves commanded by
two chain-driven overhead camshafts per bank. The gearbox
was mounted in block with the engine. Most transmissions were
manual, and the Espada also introduced one of the first automatic
transmissions able to transfer the torque of a large sporting V12. Try
servicing her because she drinks 3 gallons of oil which is almost 15
litres!
Both these local cars originally arrived into the country in white
with period red leather interior in 1974-5 at Portmann Lamborghini
London at a staggering price of £13,000. The calibre of people
that drove these lavish models were - Princess of Monaco - Grace
Kelly, who had a blue Espada, which opened the Formula 1 Grand
Prix in Monte Carlo in 1969. Two of these Italian Stallions graced
our event, one in a flawless Lamborghini black and the other
in a striking Miura pastel blue, which interestingly enough was
previously owned by Bono from U2! Oh, and if you’re thinking... he