Our most expensive project car to date is complete, but the road to victory was far from easy as this project was our most problematic project to date as well. Secret Entourage is committed to finding great ways to enjoy luxury lifestyle without the significant costs associated with it and as we wrote an entire series on how to drive an exotic car and get paid, it only made sense that we go the used exotic car route with this 2004 Lamborghini Murcielago…
The 04 Murcielago is one of the best values currently for a used Lamborghini and can be found in immaculate shape with low miles for under $140,000 which means it can be driven for free for a year or so. The problem however is the outdated look of the Murcielago for us car fanatics who are always exposed to the new Lamborghini Aventador or LP640 models which keep getting more and more outrageous in terms of design. The solution for us was to do what we do best, which is mod the car to the best of our ability and to a level above the average wheels and tires combo.
For those of you that follow us and have been around the Secret Entourage family for a while, you may recognize the Murcielago as it has been with us for quite some time. When the car arrived, it did so with a set of very ugly Forgiatos, which we are not fans of at all. The finish that was chosen from the previous owner was far from what we envisioned as the perfect wheel but it was what we had to work with and so a harder baseline to work with when you are on a budget. We originally wanted to go through the conversion and also swap wheels but as you will see, our budget kept us from doing so due to the very difficult processes that we underestimated when taking on this conversion.
We reached out to a few dealerships and tuning shops to first put together a complete kit as the parts alone were very hard to source but still possible with a few phone calls and favors. A special thank you to RSC, Prestige Lamborghini, Mr. Spoiler, Lamborghini of Washington and ECS of Northern Virginia for helping us through this project.
The only parts that fit directly from the LP670 onto a Murcielago are the front bumper and the rear diffuser. Everything else needed to be tweaked, cut, bent or re-engineered to actually work. Here is a list of what you should know if you ever want to attempt a similar conversion.
– The LP640 and LP670 share different oil coolers than the regular Murcielago and therefore the vents in the side skirts of the LP670 do not align properly and cannot be functional unless you tweak the angle of the oil coolers through custom brackets.
– The side skirts of the LP670 are taller near the rear fender by about 2 inches and so you will need someone very competent to actually gut about 2 inches off the lower part of the rear fenders of the Murcielago for a perfect fit.
– The rear diffuser fits very well but the exhaust exit is about 5 inches too low, meaning custom exhaust tips are needed for the correct center exit out of the center mounted rectangular tip.
– The factory decklid doesnt fit the wing and so a RevoSport decklid was used. The decklid only takes LP640 brake lights, so you’ll need one of those too and will need to rewire.
The most difficult part of the conversion are the side skirts due to the fact that they are almost 80% custom fabrication, and trimming to make them work. The oil cooler as mentioned above will also need a large amount of fabrication on the bracket side so be prepared to have a great machine shop locally on stand by or cough up some big money for some LP640 brackets to make them fit.
For our project car, we also went with a set of Lp640 taillights to finish off the look of the back end.
We highly recommend you have a great body shop doing the work as the attention to detail and previous experience with real carbon is a must in order to see this project to the end. The whole installation working through all these unknowns took about 90 days. Mr Spoiler of Manassas, VA worked with us very closely to get the right look and work through all the challenges and tweaks needed to complete it. Their attention to detail and experience with fiberglass, custom paint, and carbon fiber made them an excellent choice and yet still proved to not be an easy job. We highly recommend not going for a cheaper alternative as the mistakes could add thousands to the build of the car.
All in all, it should be noted that despite major complications on the installation and the fact that the kit is not a direct bolt on as others made us believe it to be, the quality of the carbon fiber is very high and durable. We give the quality of the kit a 9/10 and note that it is some of the best carbon work we have seen to date.
On the wheel side of things, our total budget went over board by about $10,000 by the time the kit was finished and left us very little to play with the wheels, so we decided to simply Matte Black the wheels for a cleaner look until we eventually upgrade them to something along the lines of ADV1, D2 Forged, or HRE at the right time.
Almost $40,000 went into the build of this car since its acquisition, which means that we are unlikely to be getting that kind of return back when the car sells but it should be noted that this kit transforms this car to a whole new animal and that the attention the car gets is unrivaled compared to the dated pre-kit look. This makes an old bull look much more appealing but also more Lamborghini like with very clearly defined clashes of carbon and paint, without mentioning a perfect wing, which alone would make a drastic impact on any Murcielago. For those of you contemplating the conversion, we recommend doing the diffuser, exhaust and wing as a cost effective but impactful alternative.
Make sure to check out our Luxury Lifestyle System for more info on buying and selling exotic cars, and visit the following tuners for more info on this conversion.
See you next month when we unveil our next project car…
