Lamborghini was only five years old in 1968 when success as a Ferrari fighter with its first two cars encouraged it to introduce its sensational 1968-78 Espada. A stunner, there hasn't been anything like it.

The startlingly unconventional Espada was built because Lamborghini founder/owner and fiery Italian industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini wanted a luxurious four-seater in his car line, if only because rival Ferrari offered a four-seater. Ferruccio liked bullfighting, and "Espada" was the name of a matador's sword in Spain.

The 155-mph Espada initially cost $21,000 and had a potent V-12 engine. It was called the world's fastest four-seater and certainly was one of the fastest cars of any type. Its styling was inspired by Lamborghini's 1966 Bertone-designed Marzal auto show concept car, which looked amazing with its large, all-glass flip-up doors that revealed the complete interior.

The Marzal drew lots of publicity partly because it was driven on the track by Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco before the start of the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. Former famous American actress Grace Kelly riding in such a "see-through" car kept flashbulbs popping in Monaco.

The Marzal's basic body shape was used for the Espada, which caused a sensation when introduced at the Geneva auto show in the spring of 1968. It had regular metal doors, but the car's styling still stunned the auto world. It had an unusually low, wide front end with quad headlights flanking a blacked-out grille, large inset hood scoops, enormous windshield and a low beltline that kicked up at the rear. A nearly horizontal fastback roofline allowed good headroom and ended in a chopped tail, with a glass panel between the taillights to assist rear vision.

Some didn't think the car was beautiful, but all agreed it was daringly distinctive.

Unlike other Lamborghinis, the Espada was amazingly practical. Its luxurious leather interior had four bucket seats -- two regular ones up front and two in the rear. There was decent room for rear passengers, who had their own air conditioning ducts. The left- and right-side seats were separated by a full-length center console that served as a passage for ventilation ducts to the rear and increased chassis strength.

Most thought the hood scoops fed air to the carburetors, but they shot air to an elaborate cabin ventilation system. Hot air left the engine compartment via a pair of slots in the front fenders that flanked each wheel arch.

The 3,583-pound Espada drove like a smaller, lighter red-blooded Italian sports car and looked like one on the outside. But it was a posh sedan on the inside, complete with front power windows. (Rear side windows were hinged to manually swing from the top, as on private airplanes.)

The V-12 was moved forward nearly eight inches to allow more interior room. Ten cubic feet of luggage fit under the racy, near-flat rear hatch without blocking vision.

The Espada looked larger than it was because it was unusually wide, only 46.7 inches high and had a rather long 104.3-inch wheelbase with an overall length of 186.5 inches. It actually was four inches shorter than a late 1960s Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro. Crash testing showed tough construction.

The Espada had a quad-overhead-camshaft 325-horsepower version of Lamborghini's magnificent 4-liter V-12 engine. It had no less than six twin-throat Weber carburetors -- three on each side of the engine top. The engine produced 350 horsepower in the 1970-72 Series II version and 365 horsepower in the final Series III version, which came in 1973.

The V-12 initially worked only with a five-speed Lamborghini manual gearbox, but a three-speed Chrysler TorqueFlite automatic transmission also was available, beginning in 1974. At first, only manual steering was available, but power steering eventually was offered.

The Espada was a superb-handling high-speed car, with an all-independent wishbone/coil suspension and four-wheel disc brakes. Its 24.6-gallon fuel supply was carried in twin tanks, one in each rear fender, for a good cruising range. Fillers for the tanks were cleverly housed inside hinged air extractor grilles behind the rear windows.

The first Espadas began coming from the Lamborghini plant in northern Italy in the summer of 1968, when only 37 Espadas were built, with one made with a customer-ordered large fixed glass roof panel. But volume rose to a steady level, with strategic running changes. The Series II, for instance, received a new instrument panel and rear passengers got, of all things, a new illuminated center armrest.

The Espada was supposed to be dropped by 1973, but Lamborghini's growing labor and economic troubles and the failure to come up with a better model led the automaker to just improve the Series III version. It received a mildly restyled front end and taillights, a revised dashboard that wrapped around toward the driver from the middle, reworked suspension and more-powerful brakes. Options were added to include a sunroof and the Chrysler automatic transmission, which was one of the best in the world.

New American safety regulations called for "safety" bumpers, which Lamborghini developed without affecting the styling much.

Lamborghini made 1,217 Espadas during the car's decadelong production run, which was a lot for a small exotic Italian automaker. More likely would have been built if the 1973 U.S. energy crisis hadn't badly hurt sales of powerful foreign exotic cars in America.

Auto writer Mel Nichols wrote that the Espada could satisfy "Mr. Average," "red-blooded experts -- and all those in between."

Most exotic car collectors like limited-production two-seaters, so prices for the fairly high-volume four-seat Espada are quite reasonable. The Cars of Particular Interest guide values an Espada in very good condition at only $23,500, although the Old Cars Price Guide puts the car's value in that condition at $35,000.