A unique Lamborghini 400GT 'Monza' which has been discovered after 35 years hidden in a Spanish playboy's garage will be auctioned by Bonhams. After almost ten years' investigation and pursuit, Bonhams has been successful in consigning for auction a unique Italian prototype that has been hidden from public view since soon after its sale to the present octogenarian lady owner's family in 1966. The car will be offered at Bonhams' annual London Olympia sale on 5 December 2005.

This uniquely exotic front-engined Lamborghini - christened the '400GT Monza' - has been the centrepiece of a celebrated marque mystery for decades past. It has been the object of speculation not only by Italian car collectors and Lamborghini enthusiasts, but also by myriad lovers of classic cars worldwide. Indeed, many have doubted its survival and its whereabouts has been a much-discussed question. In fact, this Lamborghini Monza first saw the light of day in May 1966, combining the Sant'Agata marque's acclaimed 400GT chassis with gloriously voluptuous, Ferrari-esque coachwork hand-crafted by tiny local autofficina Neri & Bonacini, best remembered for their masterly coachwork creations on rival Ferrari chassis but also builders of the original prototype Lamborghini chassis and engine.

The Lamborghini 400 Monza's coachwork is, in fact, reminiscent of a Ferrari 250GTO, right from its low, wide mouth through to its steeply raked windscreen (which was taken from a '64 GTO). But the Monza was distinguished by a Maranello sports-prototype-inspired vestigial 'basket handle' roof design, the body styling then terminating in an almost horizontal fastback which was truncated by a classically cut-short, 'Kamm' or 'transom' tail treatment. Trademark blade-like bumpers completed its signature Neri & Bonacini styling.
 

According to at least one contemporary source, company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini followed this 400GT Monza project closely, hoping that it might bear greater fruit than an earlier design by the Modenese autofficina for a lightweight 350GT. Exhibited to the public for the first and only time at the 1966 Barcelona Motor Show, the Monza was instead sold to a wealthy Spanish sportsman with the necessary high-level connections to enable him to import such a car when most of Generalissimo Franco's citizens were obliged to make do with home-grown utility vehicles.

After being used mainly to transport its owner to race meetings in which he was driving his Porsche 906 and 908 competition cars, the unique Lamborghini Monza was laid-up in 1970 with just over 7,000km recorded on its odometer. Retained by the owner's family after his death, this unique Lamborghini Monza is preserved exactly as last driven and when offered at Bonhams' pre-Christmas Olympia sale later this year, this legendary, almost mystical machine - the Lamborghini 'missing link' - will be seen by most enthusiasts for the first time ever.

Simon Kidston, President of Bonhams, Europe, says: "This is probably the most exciting discovery in the Lamborghini world since the Shah of Iran's Miura SVJ emerged from the Gulf in the mid-1990s prior to be bought at auction by Nicolas Cage."