Neri & Bonacini Lamborghini
Sells for $311,000

Hidden behind a wall for over 20 years, the one off Lambo was recently sold by Bonhams.

Lamborgini owner, historian and Bonhams' auction man Simon Kidston recently had a rare opportunity to combine work and a great deal of pleasure. Kidston was almost solely responsible for the discovery and sale of a magnificent, one off, one owner Lamborgini which was hidden for more than a quarter of a century. After 10 years, the search, the chase, the discovery and the auction are over for Kidston, who also was responsible for the procurement and sale of the Shah of Iran's Miura SVJ. “It's a shame it doesn't happen more often!” he said.

When newcomer Ferruccio Lamborghini arrived on the motoring scene in 1963 his supercar rivals down the road in Maranello and in Modena took note. Here was a wealthy industrialist with the drive and the means to challenge their supremacy who had already put together a team of gifted young engineers who were to transform his ambitious dreams into reality.

"When I got there, at the back of the garage, behind a motor boat and perhaps 20 motorcycles, was the Lamborghini Monza. They had no idea what it was or that it might be of any value, let alone unique."

Lamborghini's first model, the 350GT, wowed the motoring press and public alike when launched in 1964. “Enzo, Orsi and David Brown had better look to their laurels!” remarked Sports Car Graphic magazine after testing an example early in 1966. Not content to rest on their own laurels, Lamborghini’s engineers were already at work on a successor, the 400GT, which was in road testers hands by the end of that year. “Better than all the equivalent exotic and home-bred machinery in this glamorous corner of the fast-car market” judged Autocar after 300 miles at the wheel.

The series produced 350GT/ 400GT coupé was the work of respected carrozzeria Touring of Milan, retained by Ferruccio who, it is said, was not entirely happy with Franco Scaglione’s design for the first 350GTV prototype. Although even the revised design remained somewhat controversial, just a handful of bespoke show cars were built on the 350/ 400GT chassis. Touring was responsible for a pair of handsome spyders and the rakish, shooting brake inspired ‘Flying Star II’ for a French client. Sporting Milanese firm Zagato penned a pair of coupés with many of their trademark features. Arguably the most exotic creation of all, however, came from much closer to home: Neri & Bonacini’s mysterious ‘Monza’.

AutoSprint, August 4th, 1966 ran this article about the Lamborghini. Too much Ferrari and not enough Ferruccio?

Giorgio Neri and Luciano Bonacini ran a well-established workshop in Modena looking after Ferrari and Maserati racing cars, and had taken over responsibility for the maintenance of customer cars after the latter’s competition department shut its doors in the late 1950s. They had been retained by Ferruccio Lamborghini to build the first prototype Lamborghini chassis and engine, and the very first complete car to bear his name, the 350GTV, in 1963. They continued as Lamborghini’s chassis supplier until handing over responsibility to their former employee Marchesi once 350GT production was well underway.

Already responsible for the famous ‘Nembo’ series of Ferraris, Neri & Bonacini now turned their hand to creating their own interpretation of a high speed Lamborghini grantors on chassis 01030. As a contemporary Italian historian put it: “This Monza 400 does not lack character: the cockpit, set low onto a flowing and powerful infrastructure, creates a silhouette which cannot fail to impress. The wide mouth opening, almost at ground level, the shape of the side windows, the rear sail panels all make it a handsome car. This prototype has been born with the blessing of Ferruccio Lamborghini, who is said to have followed it closely after disappointments with coachbuilders.”

There are cetain clues here. The windshield may be from a 275GTB Ferrari. Any opinions?

Believed to have been finished in May/ June 1966 (this date appears on photographs shot by journalist Pete Coltrin of the car nearing completion), the Monza may have been intended to put forward an alternative Lamborghini model but, after attracting the attention of the motoring press for a few brief months, it remained a tantalising one-off and disappeared from view for almost four decades. When we recently arranged for Giorgio Neri to be interviewed by Octane magazine as part of a feature on this car, he recalled: “I think we built it for an American client, possibly with the intention of racing at Le Mans, but there were homologation problems”. He was under the impression that the car had been built earlier, possibly in 1963/4, using a 350GT chassis (virtually identical to the 400GT chassis) but, seeing the car for the first time in almost four decades, confirms: “È perfetta… exactly as I remember it”. He recalls that the intention had originally been to call the car the ‘Monza Neri and Bonacini’ but that they finally decided to abbreviate the name to “Monza, a romantic and suggestive name”.

The classic Lamborgini V12 looks as fresh as it did when shown at the 1967 Barcelona Motor Show.

Quite how remains a mystery but this rakish one-off was shipped to Spain for the 1967 Barcelona Motor Show where it caught the eye of a wealthy Spanish gentleman who, having already achieved success in other high-risk sporting pursuits such as motocross and big game hunting, had recently decided that motor racing might be fun. Moving rapidly from a tuned Mini Cooper to a new Porsche 904 (and soon a 908), his taste in road cars was equally exotic. The Lamborghini Miura on the Spanish importer’s stand was drawing the crowds, but there was a lengthy waiting list which, even with his connections (in a country where most of Generalissimo Franco’s citizens had to make do with home-grown family cars), was rather less appealing. Sitting next to the silver Miura, however, was an equally low-slung berlinetta resplendent in metallic Amaranto set off by chrome Borrani wire wheels. After a brief negotiation with Amato, Lamborghini's Spanish agent, and a call to a fellow golf-playing government minister, the Lamborghini Monza was his…except that by now the 'Monza' script adorning the car’s rear had been hastily replaced by a 'Jarama' badge in deference to the car's new home country (long before Lamborghini had christened its own Jarama model).

With only a little over 7000 kilometers, the interior needed only a careful cleaning.

Over the next three years the Lamborghini Monza conveyed its owner to race meetings across the country and on high speed private journeys, rarely leaving Spain. In 1970, with just 7,136km covered, this unique V12 granturismo was laid up in one of the owner's garages on a busy shopping street, alongside numerous motorcycles and a powerboat, before the entrance was blocked off. Here the car sat for the next few decades whilst thousands of miles away, motoring historians speculated as to the fate of the Lamborghini Monza. Rumours abounded that the car had been sold to an American collector, books on the marque were published which invariably listed the Monza as ‘missing’, but nobody knew for sure.

In 1996, Kidston was contacted by a Spanish family with a Porsche 906 in their garage which their eccentric uncle had purchased new. As Kidston relates it, "the uncle had died a few years earlier and the car had lain untouched since the late 1960s. They invited me to Spain to inspect the car and advise on its sale. When I got there, at the back of the garage, behind a motor boat and perhaps 20 motorcycles, was the Lamborghini Monza. They had no idea what it was or that it might be of any value, let alone unique. We became friends and kept in touch. This summer they finally decided it was time to sell and asked me to handle it for them."

In the early 1990s the owner passed away but his family, unaware of the rarity of the Monza, paid little attention to it. They finally contacted Brooks (now Bonhams) late in 1996 and we have spent the past nine years hoping for their consent to finally part with this unique and fascinating car.

The Lamborghini Monza is ‘as found’. The word ‘original’ could not be more appropriate: paint, leather, carpets, trim, nothing has been touched since 1966, with the exception of a mechanical check-up by former factory foreman Orazio Salvioli to ensure the engine runs and a gentle cleaning of the coachwork and interior by Modenese coachbuilder Pietro Cremonini. The Monza has recently featured in a major article in Octane magazine in which it was reunited with Giorgio Neri, veteran Lamborghini factory test driver Valentino Balboni and Ferruccio’s nephew Fabio Lamborghini. Rarely are such discoveries made these days: we are very excited to have been entrusted with the disposal of this one, direct from almost four decades in the same family ownership.

At the Bonhams Auction on December 5th, the long lost Lamborginii exceeded all expectations Interest was understandably high for the mystery berlinetta which attracted world-wide interest. Eight telephone bidders lined up to do battle with clients in the room, and the car finally sold well above pre-sale estimate for £177,500, ($311,235.USD) to a UK collector.