The Miura->ke378 and the Countach->ke387 might be the first supercars->ke177 that come to mind when talking about classic Lamborghinis,->ke44 but the Italians have built many other enticing automobiles throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Sure, none are as iconic as the Miura and the Countach, but there's at least one nameplate that has become increasingly popular with collectors nowadays: the Urraco. Manufactured between 1973 and 1979, the Urraco was Lamborghini's answer to the Ferrari Dino,->ke1932 Maserati Merak and the Porsche 911,->ke282 and an entry-level proposition to the more powerful Countach. In short, it had a similar status to the Gallardo->ke375 and its newly launched replacement, the Huracan.

Unlike the Countach, which carried a V-12 engine under its rear bonnet, the Urraco was motivated by a V-8 unit. At first displacing 2.0 liters, the mill was later enlarged to 2.5 and 3.0 liters for the faster P300 version. In its most powerful version, the Urraco had 247 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque traveling to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual. Of the 791 Urracos ever built, only 21 were produced for the American market. The U.S. spec featured larger bumpers, different taillights and emission control devices that decreased the 2.5-liter V-8's power from 217 to 177 ponies.

While not as impressive as the Miura, the Urraco became Bob Wallace's vehicle of choice to develop a successor to the radical, one-off Jota. Dubbed Rallye, the beefed-up Urraco featured a 3.0-liter V-8 uprated to 310 horsepower, a race-spec front bumper, a massive rear wing and a full roll cage. The project was eventually abandoned.

Production of the Urraco ceased in 1979, but the its platform lived on with the Silhouette and the Jalpa models throughout 1988. Because its production was affected by the oil crisis and the numerous worker strikes in Italy at the time, the Urraco is fairly rare nowadays, with well-maintained model able to fetch up to $100,000 at auctions. Not exactly impressive when compared to the amounts Miuras and Countachs change hands in the 21st century, but that doesn't stop Gene Ondrusek from being a proud Urraco owner. Watch him drive and talk about his prized classic->ke503 exotic in the video->ke278 above.

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