Lamborghini Islero S: ghost of a chance

By Martin Buckley

| 22 May 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Lamborghini Islero S: ghost of a chance

Even in the rarefied world of front-engined Lamborghinis the Islero is an enigma, but for me it presses every button.

And that’s not just because this one starred in a Roger Moore movie that’s about as obscure as the car itself.

The shape, the period, the name: everything about this short-lived Lambo makes it perfectly cast for its starring role in a late-’60s fantasy world of GT glamour cars.

From deserted and sun-kissed autostrade to endless Alpine tunnels, the Islero is the ideal companion for the roads of the imagination.

The Lamborghini Islero S got flared wheelarches for its then-new 70-profile tyres on Campagnolo alloys

With those quad exhausts blaring and giant spinners on Campagnolo magnesium wheels glinting in a high Mediterranean sun, the tailored looks of this compact two-plus-two turn heads without loosening jaws as you flash past beleaguered Euro-families in their straining Opels and Fiats.

It’s a shape that leaves them guessing, eschewing showstopper drama for refreshingly simple lines.

There’s power in that sleek nose and a hunched poise in the way that glassy, angular roof squats over the fat rear wheels, along with something businesslike about the chopped, boxy tail.

Ferruccio Lamborghini had never intended his Islero to be a glitzy machine. Quite the opposite, in fact. “I wanted a car that was not quite so exotic,” he said.

Launched at Geneva in 1968, the Islero 400GT, named after the bull that had killed matador Manuel Rodríguez in 1947, was rather lost in the excitement that surrounded the four-seater Espada.

In some ways, there was not a whole lot to get excited about.

Here was a reskin of the Touring-bodied 400GT 2+2, based around the same square-tube chassis but with longer wishbones and trailing links designed to accommodate the latest 70-profile tyres.

The 4-litre, quad-camshaft V12 that produced 325bhp – allied to Lamborghini’s in-house five-speed gearbox – was exactly as before.

The body was built by Milan-based Marazzi, a company formed by Mario Marazzi – a former employee of the then recently defunct Carrozzeria Touring, which had formed the bodywork for the Lamborghini 350GTs and 400GTs.

The Lamborghini Islero S has a glorious four-cam, six-carburettor, 350bhp, 4-litre, V12 engine

Marazzi, still with us today building buses and hearses, and the occasional oddball Alfa Romeo station wagon, emerged from the remains of the coachbuilder’s 1967 demise.

He assembled a group of ex-Touring workers and continued building the 400GT on Lamborghini-owned tooling.

Ferruccio could see there was still an appetite for his cars and gave Marazzi the job of building a successor to the 350/400 series, using as many existing components as possible.

Mr Lamborghini had become rather tired of losing money on every car he made, so the Islero was designed to be reasonably economical to produce, with single-curvature glass and a functional and unpretentious interior.

In fact, Ferruccio was closely involved with the car’s styling, the steel body being shorter and slightly heavier than the previous model.

It was a little roomier inside (although rear legroom remained negligible) and was said to have improved soundproofing.

Compared with production models, the Geneva prototype had a deeper front air intake, interior trim differences (mainly a two- rather than three-spoke wooden steering wheel) and stainless-steel sill covers, but otherwise the Islero was introduced pretty much as it was.

From the side it showed an immodest amount of its expensive exhaust system; to the rear it displayed Alfa Romeo-sourced light clusters and the outline of the spare-wheel well below the floor of a short, shallow boot.

In total, 226 Isleros were built from 1968 to ’70. One early car was loaned to Brigitte Bardot, who was a friend of Ferruccio’s.

The boss ran a blue Lamborghini Islero with tan leather – plus a curious wooden petrol cap and quilted interior – as his personal car, as did his brother Edmondo.

Driving the Lamborghini Islero S that appeared alongside Roger Moore in the 1970 film The Man Who Haunted Himself

The last 100 Isleros, from the summer of ’69, were S (or GTS) models with 350bhp engines.

The extra 25bhp came via higher-compression cylinder heads, different advance curves on the distributors and changes to the static ignition timing and carburettor jetting.

They had flared wheelarches, tinted glass, a bonnet scoop for cabin ventilation and slot-like wing vents.

The doors had fixed quarterlights, the rear ’screen was heated and the side repeaters on the wings were circular.

Chassis changes were restricted to larger brakes and revised rear suspension with a thicker anti-roll bar to bring the Lamborghini Islero into line with the Espada.

The interior was new, with a completely different dashboard featuring rocker switches, a glovebox where there had been a grabhandle, and an armrest for the rear passengers.

The Lamborghini Islero S seats were new, with higher backrests and sometimes cloth inserts.

But, most importantly, build quality was better all-round: the Islero in its original form had gained a reputation for poorly fitting panels.

Only the Islero S was supplied with right-hand drive and just five are believed to have been produced.

Distributed by Lamborghini Concessionaires in Alie St, London, the Islero S was listed at £7400 in 1969, when a Miura was £9500 – so in Lamborghini terms it was something of a bargain.

The Lamborghini Islero’s cabin is not its strongest suit, but is at least well-equipped

Del Hopkins, a factory-trained engineer who worked for Lamborgini for 31 years in the UK, rates the Islero as his favourite model: “I’m always one for the underdog, so I’m a lover of the Islero and the Jarama.

“I don’t like flash-looking cars, which is odd given that I worked for Lamborghini for so long!

“Isleros were few and far between, but I saw them coming in as part-exchanges and for servicing.

“They didn’t really sell, but they were better built than the later Bertone stuff, which was rubbish.

“It’s a car I have fond memories of. They are very lively and, because of their shorter wheelbase, you have to be careful in them, certainly in the wet.

“Espadas were more forgiving, but I preferred the Islero: it was more of a driver’s car.”

Del recalls one British-based Islero that was owned by the governor of the Bahamas and regularly went back to Sant’Agata for rebuilds; another was owned by an eminent surgeon.

‘Our’ car, chassis 6432, is perhaps the most famous Lamborghini Islero S of all.

Originally finished in Azzuro Blue with grey Connolly hide interior, it was invoiced by the factory on 31 March 1969.

With its £250 Borletti air-conditioning unit, seatbelts, numberplates and ‘sprint version engine’, it cost its first owner, the rather Victorian-sounding Mr AC Johnson of Henry Righton & Co, London N1, £8440.

The subtle Lamborghini Islero S exudes discreet style

It’s not clear how the car, registered YLR 11G, ended up starring next to Roger Moore and a Rover 3.5 Litre in the 1970 psychological thriller The Man Who Haunted Himself, but it steals a remarkable amount of screen time as the vehicular representation of the repressed hero’s more flamboyant alter ego.

This film’s rather unlikely premise involves two parts of the same man fighting for survival, but Moore, as the safety-conscious executive Harold Pelham, probably gives the best performance of his career after the desperate (but strangely likeable) Crossplot came close to finishing off his big-screen ambitions and any life beyond the Brylcreemed thick-ear of Simon Templar.

His interactions with the Lamborghini Islero S seem to be mostly back-projected, but the handsome pair look good on screen together.

Several decades and one restoration later, I’m slipping into the same seat, except that the leather is now red and the paint on the long, tapering bonnet is silver, but it’s a combination that suits the Islero S equally well.

Little is known of the car’s post-The Man Who Haunted Himself history between 1970 and 1988, but the current, Cotswolds-based custodian bought it from its third owner last year with very little accompanying paperwork.

The short-stroke V12 engine, one of the great automotive achievements of the pre-electronic age, idles precisely at a smoothly orchestrated 700rpm, with the peculiar throb that comes with six firing strokes to every full rotation of the crank.

Sidedraught Webers keep the bonnet line sleek and dual Marelli distributors keep the timing accurate through a rev range that extends well beyond the 350bhp power peak at a heady 7500rpm.

The Lamborghini Islero S has quad pop-up headlights

Even the smooth, silent pre-engaged starter motor adds to the sense that this is something special.

From warm, a mere flick of the ignition sets the engine at an instant idle almost before you’ve had a chance to release the key from your grasp.

It would probably be fair to say that the interior doesn’t really live up to the rest of the car: it lacks the stylish details of certain Pininfarina Ferraris or the bold drama of an early Espada. Yet, in a way, that suits the unpretentious nature of the Islero rather well.

Its sharply angled binnacle holds all of the instrumentation you could ever need, combined with Fiat-sourced rocker switches and a Blaupunkt Blue Spot radio.

There is a separate switch to raise or lower the headlight pods (albeit somewhat lethargically), plus another to light them up.

City driving is not a chore, either. There’s great vision and a remarkably light and easily controlled hydraulic clutch, plus a smooth, precise throttle. By the standards of most other exotica, the turning circle is handily tight, too.

The engine is flexible down to 1000rpm in fifth gear, but, once all the vital fluids are warm, there’s every reason to explore the revs.

The gobble of induction, as the six Weber 40s feed the mixture into short, curved inlet tracts, is quickly submerged in the metallic hum of top-end drives to the four camshafts and dual distributors.

The Lamborghini Islero S (for Spinto, or tuned) combines effortless performance with sharp handling

The revs pick up and shut down quickly, while power arrives more aggressively from 3500rpm and just keeps on coming, flattening great swathes of Cotswolds landscape as the Lamborghini Islero S strides out.

There is no need to change into fourth until you are doing well over 100mph, and from there you can level the throttle again – and that smooth, sustained thrust never seems to let up.

The gearchange is precise, with short, meaty throws: the finger grips of its wooden knob are echoed in the steering wheel’s chunky rim.

The Islero wants to run dead straight and the steering box, its design apparently somewhat compromised by the requirements of the exhaust manifold, doesn’t feel anything like as ponderous as its four and a half turns from lock to lock might suggest.

Through long, fast, high-vision curves in fourth or top, the Lamborghini is easy to position and carries lots of speed, generating hardly any roll and just a suggestion of understeer.

Spearing away from slower corners, the steering feels a little more twiddly but always remains communicative, adding to the impression that the Islero is really quite a compact machine.

The dual-servo brakes are not found wanting and neither is the ride, although the dampers check the body’s downward movement a little too abruptly. Otherwise, the Lamborghini acknowledges inequalities in the road surface but never really reacts to them.

No doubt about it, the Islero is the best Lamborghini of the lot. In its short life it managed to raise Roger Moore’s left eyebrow but very little interest from the press, and its birth and demise seemed to pass unnoticed.

Yet today that rarity gives it an aura of mystery that its more fêted siblings lack.

Images: Tony Baker

This was first in our July 2008 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfile

Lamborghini Islero S

Sold/number built 1969-’70/100
Construction tubular steel chassis, steel body
Engine all-alloy, dohc-per-bank 3929cc V12, six Weber 40DCOE carburettors
Max power 350bhp @ 7500rpm
Max torque 275Ib ft @ 4500rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, RWD
Suspension independent, by double wishbones, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering worm and sector
Brakes Girling discs, with twin servos
Length 14ft 10in (4521mm)
Width 5ft 8in (1727mm)
Height 4ft 2in (1270mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 4¼in (2546mm)
Weight 2795Ib (1268kg)
0-60mph 5.9 secs
Top speed 160mph
Mpg 12
Price new £7950