The Grand Restoration was when Ferruccio Lamborghini’s Twin-V12 Riva Speedboat was renovated

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lamborghini-riva-aquarama-7 Legendary brand, Lamborghini has always been a prize for ardent lovers of cars. However, the top notch company also added boats to the list of its heritage products. It was in 1968 after Ferruccio Lamborghini, the owner of the automobile company, teamed up with Carlo Riva, the luxury speedboat manufacturer. The duo added a new page in the history of luxury boats when a very special boat was materialized in Lamborghini’s factory. The new vessel was fitted with 450 horse power 4.0-Liter V12 engines. The speed of this augmented Riva speedboat was 55mph.

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lamborghini-riva-aquarama-4 The name was Lamborghini’s Riva Aquarama Speedboat. It was originally the Hull no. 278 that took a stretch of three months for transformation of the fast Aquarama. It was history, as the Riva boat was kept unused after Ferruccio’s death, dusted under a tarpaulin in the old warehouse for years.

The Riva boat complied by Lamborghini was restored last year and was put upfront after a tedious toil of three years. The collector of the historic specimen was a Dutch agent who handed over the restoration project of the piece to Riva World in Netherlands. The process was arduous. The delicate wooden frame needed tremendous labor. Layers of coatings were applied to restore the body. Report says that 25 coatings were applied to the body. The newly restored vessel represent the old specimen with brushed metallic buttons and polished chrome work. The seats and interiors are replaced with polished leathers that replenished its ultra looks. The next challenges was its internal mechanism. Nevertheless, the objective was not to bring out a museum specimen, but to recreate the luxury boat that once ravaged through blue waters. Owner of Dutch Riva, Sandro Zani could not acquire one of the original engines of the old machine from Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum, as it was not for sale. Zani had no other way than to buy other V12 engines and transform them for the boat. In the process of recreation of the engine, the Museum helped a lot, as without peeking into the original piece, it would have been impossible to recreate the same. The project was personally supervised by Zani.

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Lamborghini-riva-aquarama-0 Thus, the new Lamborghini Riva Aquarama was given a second life. The vessel is equipped with 4.0 V12 engine similar to its earlier version. Six twin carburetors are used to attain a top speed of 89 Km per hour, which is 15 Km more than of its older form. To ensure similarity with the previous vessel, 75 years old Bob Wallace was also taken on board. He was the then test driver and developer for Lamborghini. The old man’s contribution was substantial to develop opposite direction rotation for the vessel that removed the prop walk trouble. The restored Riva was shipped to Italy from Netherlands and it was tested by Carlos Riva himself on Italian waters.