Patrick Moore: 2002 Lamborghini Murcielago
Words: Kevin Cole | Photos: As Watermarked | Copy Edit: Richard Graves
I recently had the opportunity to take a trip out to Dallas, TX for a jam packed automotive weekend. It included the best, most fun go-karts I have ever driven, Import Faceoff, multiple supercar sightings, and the chance to get up close and personal with this 2002 Lamborghini Murcielago.
Coming from Knoxville, TN, I don’t see that many supercars on a daily basis. A couple of them come out to the cars and coffee meets, and I’ll once-in-a-while spot one in the West Knoxville area. Dallas though…Known as one of the supercar capitals of the country, Dallas is a completely different animal.
If you are anything like me, you will start to foam at the mouth just looking at pictures or reading articles about Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, McLarens, and the like. So when we got the opportunity to do a feature on this car: instant excitement.
The Murcielago, one of Lamborghini’s best known cars, replaced the infamous Diablo and preceded the recently-released Aventador. This 2002 model came equipped with a 6.2 liter V12 engine boasting an immense 580 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque. All that power gets translated to speed and acceleration through Lamborghini’s first-ever 6-speed gearbox, with traction (somewhat) helped along by a full-time all-wheel drive system.
The owner, Patrick Moore, is a very respectable, all around nice guy. Patrick’s interest in the automotive world began in high school. All of his friends drove sports cars and he found that it was a way to network and connect with other people. After owning a Camaro, a Mustang, and a Corvette, Patrick decided he wanted to set himself apart from other vehicles on the road:
”I then worked my way through 4 Vipers, starting with a RT/10, GTS, and two SRT-10 Coupes. The only other exotic I have owned is a Lamborghini Gallardo, I just decided I wanted the flagship Murcielago.”
Patrick’s Murcielago remains mostly-stock other than the interior and exhaust. The factory all-black interior has been ditched in favor of a black and yellow combination that compliments the exterior colors of the car. Everything has been redone in elegant leather with yellow stitching including the dash, door panels and center console.
The exhaust has been upgraded to a straight through design, allowing the V12 to scream a little louder. The result, I can tell you first-hand, is an impressively raw, throaty bellow. Patrick does not currently have any other future plans for this Murcielago other than to just drive and enjoy the car for a few years….then trade up to an Aventador.
After spending the entire afternoon with this car, I really started to understand why they come at such a high price. Thanks to Patrick, I can now speak from the perspective of having ridden in the car, as we drove between shoot locations. At normal acceleration and cruising speeds the car behaves in a mostly relaxed fashion, but as soon as you start to lay into the throttle it becomes a monster.
I do not believe that you can really start to appreciate the superb engineering wrapped up in this supercar just by reading this article or looking at pictures. Hopefully, you too will have the opportunity to experience one of these vehicles first hand at some point.
Patrick would like to say, “Thanks to Kevin, Mark, Dave, and Forward Motion!”
We say thanks to you Patrick for sharing this prestigious piece of supercar-heritage with us and our readers.
Here are a few videos of the Murcielago in action between shots.
[...] car, you can find full story written by me and more photos and videos of the car in action here: Patrick Moore: 2002 Lamborghini Murcielago | A Forward Motion This was also the first shoot I did with the new camera. DSC_0055 by 1BadBB6, on Flickr [...]