This Barn Find Lamborghini Brings Together Grace Jones, Guy Fawkes And Johnny Smith

‘Guy Fawkes’ Lamborghini mansion Barn Find with the strangest history – will its V12 run?

People haven’t always been kind to the Lamborghini Espada. Sure, it’s a four-seater, and yes, it looks a little weird, particularly when compared to something like the Miura, but people are coming around on them, and prices are healthy. Lamborghini only made something like 1,200 examples of the car over its 10-year lifespan, too, so seeing one is pretty special under any circumstances. Now imagine finding one in a barn at a stately home in England — one with an infamous history.

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That’s what happened on The Late Brake Show with Johnny Smith. A person familiar with this particular blue Espada alerted Smith to its existence, and together with an exotic car mechanic and an Espada owner/expert, they hatched a plan to drag it back into the sunlight after an extended hibernation and get it running.

Now, I mentioned that the home where this car has been stored for the past 15 or so years has an infamous history, and that’s because it’s where Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes (yes, that one) hatched the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament. In the end, Fawkes failed and was executed, but it’s still pretty wild that the space where it came together exists. It’s called the Ashby Manor House, and it’s rad.

The story of the car is interesting too. It was bought in the early aughts by record producer Ivor Guest (4th Viscount of Wimborne, if you were curious) from a friend and used as transportation to go between the Ashby Manor House, which he owned at the time, and another home in Scotland as well as to London. Guest is well-known for his association with Grace Jones, and she was squired around in the car on occasion.

The car was mechanically restored shortly before being put into storage, and while the car was unfortunately ravaged by rodents in the interim, most of that damage was cosmetic, so the start-up of the car ended up being fairly straightforward. Even cooler is that Smith and friends freed the clutch so that the car could be driven slowly around the estate.

The plan for the car is to put it up for sale, though the details aren’t available yet.