THE LAST MANUAL V12 LAMBORGHINI COMES TO MARKET
A one-off Marrone Eklipsis Murciélago LP 670-4 SV, one of only five known examples fitted with Lamborghini's gated six-speed manual, has entered RM Sotheby's Sealed sale as collectors confront the value of the analogue era.
AI-assisted voice playback. Starts only when you choose Play.
There are rare cars, and then there are cars whose importance comes from representing the moment an entire kind of machine disappeared. The Marrone Eklipsis Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce entering RM Sotheby's Sealed sale belongs firmly in the second category.
Robb Report highlighted the car on 24 August, the same day bidding opened. RM Sotheby's describes it as one of just five known LP 670-4 SVs fitted from the factory with Lamborghini's six-speed gated manual transmission, one of three with the low-drag rear wing and the only example finished in Ad Personam Marrone Eklipsis over a two-tone Marrone Janus and Avorio Lilium interior. Most significantly, it is believed to be the last manual LP 670-4 SV to leave Sant'Agata Bolognese – and possibly the final production Lamborghini to combine a V12 engine with three pedals.
THE END OF AN ANALOGUE BLOODLINE
The Murciélago occupies a particular place in Lamborghini history. It arrived in 2001 as the first new flagship of the Audi-owned era, but its naturally aspirated V12 still traced its lineage back to the architecture that had defined the marque for decades. By the time the LP 670-4 SV appeared at the end of the model's life, Lamborghini was already moving decisively towards automated transmissions.
The SuperVeloce was the concentrated version: lighter, louder, more focused and powered by the 6.5-litre V12 in its most potent Murciélago road-car form. Most buyers chose the e-gear transmission. The tiny handful who specified the gated manual inadvertently created some of the most coveted modern Lamborghinis.
The appeal is easy to understand from today's perspective. Contemporary supercars can shift faster than any human, deploy hybrid torque instantaneously and cover ground with extraordinary competence. What they cannot reproduce is the mechanical choreography of a polished metal gate, a clutch pedal and a naturally aspirated twelve-cylinder engine that demands participation rather than merely permission.
WHEN SPECIFICATION BECOMES PROVENANCE
The auction car goes further than gearbox rarity. Its Marrone Eklipsis paint was ordered through Lamborghini's Ad Personam personalisation programme and is unique among the SVs, paired with a bespoke brown and ivory cabin. RM Sotheby's also notes the rare low-drag wing and records 7,906 kilometres, approximately 4,912 miles, at the time of cataloguing.
Those details matter because the collector-car market increasingly distinguishes between rarity created by production numbers and rarity created by specification. Two examples of the same model can occupy entirely different positions when colour, factory options, ownership history and mechanical configuration align. Here, the manual transmission is the central fact, but the one-off colour and period-correct bespoke choices make the car unusually coherent.
RM Sotheby's is offering the Murciélago without reserve through its Sealed platform. Bidding opened on Monday 24 August and is scheduled to close on Wednesday 26 August at 2pm EDT. The platform keeps competing bids private, placing greater emphasis on each bidder's own assessment of the car rather than on the theatre of a live auction room.
COLLECTING THE MOMENT BEFORE EVERYTHING CHANGED
It is tempting to discuss a car such as this entirely in terms of price, but that misses the more interesting point. The Murciélago SV sits at the edge of a technological divide. Its successors became faster and objectively more capable, yet none offered the same combination of a V12 engine and factory manual gearbox.
That makes chassis 4015 a document of an industrial decision as much as a supercar. It records the point at which Lamborghini concluded that the future of performance lay beyond the clutch pedal. Collectors are now deciding how much that finality matters.
Whether or not this particular car ultimately proves to be the last manual V12 Lamborghini ever built, the careful wording is important: RM Sotheby's itself describes the claim as a belief. But the broader truth is beyond dispute. The era it represents has ended, and that is precisely why this brown, three-pedal Murciélago feels more significant now than it did when it was new.
Imagery disclaimer: Imagery referenced for this article remains the property of RM Sotheby's, Lamborghini and their respective rights holders and is intended for editorial use subject to rights verification. Simply Luxury does not claim ownership of third-party photography, trademarks or auction assets.