by With the manual transmission almost an extreme rarity in the world of modern supercars, the value of cars that offer that experience has skyrocketed. This trend includes vehicles such as the Lamborghini Murciélago, which featured a six-speed ported transmission in limited quantities during its production run. Thanks to the team at Hoonigan, we have a chance to see just how much horsepower the 6.2-liter V-12 in the back of one of these rare manual machines can put out on the dyno.
The car in question is a 2003 Lamborghini Murciélago owned by a gentleman named Ace. He bought the V-12 Lambo with about 30,000 miles on it, but it is now approaching 60,000 miles. During that time, the car has remained almost mechanically standard. As it stands, the car has a titanium exhaust system with an X-pipe, while a Gintani tune is installed on the ECU. The visual modifications are a bit more extensive, including a rear spoiler borrowed from one of Lambo’s GT1 racers of the period. The JDM-style Itasha livery is probably not to everyone’s taste, but it’s hard to ignore how good the Rotiform Aerodiscs look from the front. Any disagreements about the visual cues will be silenced anyway by the noise coming from the back of the car. The clip shows well why owners of these cars tend to modify the exhaust system. The sound is still unmistakably V-12 Lamborghini, but with just enough of that F1 texture we all crave.
Lamborghini says the early Murciélago V-12 is good for 572 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft. By tying the Lambo to K&N’s four-wheel-drive dyno, it was always clear that the car was not going to come close to that figure during testing. That said, it’s somewhat surprising to learn that the V-12 was only able to muster 455 horsepower and 435 horsepower during its two respective passes. The peak torque number was also only ever as high as 300 lb-ft, which is pretty far from what you’d expect. The crew stopped testing so as not to risk injury to the expensive V-12 engine.
Those numbers actually make the Murciélago the least powerful car tested in the “Dyno Everything” series. That’s not a knock on Lamborghini by any means, but more a testament to the metal Hoonigan brings through the door. Even if the Murci couldn’t secure a top spot on the charts, Hoonigan will struggle to find a better sounding machine to pass that test.
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