lambodiecast

Before Kato-San took on adding wide fenders onto the Gallardo, Aventador and Huracan his company Liberty Walk already had an Italian wide body kit available, called the LB-Works Lamborghini Murciélago Limited 20. In his usual style, he dropped the Murciélago completely to the floor by installing an AirRex air ride suspension, riveted wide wheel arch extensions to all four corners, fitted a very low rear diffuser complete with custom exhaust. Up front a deeper splitter was added and naturally a massive, clear carbon fiber rear wing could not be forgotten ... and even so many years ago he only made 20 of these kits available, so the LB-Works Murciélago Limited 20 is a very rare car indeed, and only a handful made it outside of Japan (there is a blue one in the United States).

Most of these wide-body kits from LB-Works come with an abundance of decals, most of them show the 'imagine all the people living life in peace' on the door which has become kind of a trademark on most of these LB-Works kits, also the Japanese flag is proudly shown usually. The rest of the decals are names of the parts used on the actual car, like iForged for the wheels, Toyo for the tires, AirRex for the suspension ... and these days FI Exhaust.

The LB-Works Limited 20 kit can be fitted to all model years of the Lamborghini Murciélago, some have been fitted to an early 2004 car, while at least one kit made it onto a Murciélago Roadster ... and one of the decals fitted points out which serial number the kit has ... nr 18 of 20 is a Japanese registered Coupe, finished in a gloss pink metallic body over a customized black interior with pink details rolling on black cross-spoke wheels and a modified engine.

The scale car

This 1/18 scale model is a near-perfect replica of the real 18/20 in Japan, down to the pink carbon fiber section on the dashboard pod that even features a Q-Citura style stitching pattern ... which is strange as the seats are the standard ones from the factory in black leather. The dashboard also features pink stitching which is nicely replicated on this smaller scale. Pink seat belts are visible on this model too, and even a carbon fiber pattern on the central console ... it seems this is a manual gated gearbox version of the Murciélago ... the stick does look a bit weird on this model, to be honest.

Being a sealed resin model with a mostly black interior makes it difficult to check out the interior, but it looks decent from what I can see, another thing with resin models is the engine, and in this case it really looks like we're missing out on something special as we can't open the engine cover. This model comes with a dark tinted glass engine cover, and underneath we can distinguish what looks like a highly modified V12 ... complete with bespoke LB-Performance headers and Liberty Walk flag, very nicely detailed.

On the outside those massive wheel arch extensions draw all of the attention, and they are fitted with visible rivets on this model too, but let's not forget the entire front bumper is different too, with a lower splitter and upright fins on either side, very nicely reproduced in 1/18 scale complete with open grilles in the intakes. Similar on the sides, the very deep side sills are present with the modified intakes in front of the rear wheels and that massive 'LB-Performance' script on the black insets. And while on Kato-San's white Murciélago he mirrored this script on the right side, on this pink one that isn't the case in real life, so neither on this model ... very nice attention to detail.

At the rear we find the very low diffuser add-on with the custom exhaust tip on an LP640 style rear bumper, and again we get open grilles (only the very small triangular ones are sealed), this really is a higher-end model, as it should be judging by the regular list price. If this Murciélago is an LP640 in real life or an earlier 6.2 model with the taillight retrofit I don't know, but now this car boasts the LP640 taillight clusters.

You can't have an LB-Works Lamborghini without a rear wing, and on these Murciélago Limited 20 editions we get an SV inspired wing on bespoke Liberty Walk struts, very nice in design, and in this case finished in glossy clear carbon fiber, the pattern on this scale car is very nicely done and looks just right ... on the side we have the Rising Sun design on the doors while on the shoulder air intakes we find a lot of decals, including Speedhunters and naturally the 'made in Japan' script.

So this is a very nice scale model of a rare car located in Japan, but there is one thing they just missed ... the wheels. If you take a closer look you'll notice pink color-coded brake calipers, which is correct with the real car, but those black cross-spoke wheels that should be the fitted iForged units just look too small, and not concave enough ... at the rear the tires on this scale model are just too narrow and there is no 'Toyo Proxes' script on the tires (yes, this car didn't have Pirelli Tires in Japan, instead the owner fitted Toyo tires), and on this scale model the sidewalls of these tires are just too tall ... which is a real shame, as this is the only thing that is wrong with this scale model.

Bottom line

So what's the verdict? I have to admit I've been looking to add an LB-Works Murciélago to my collection for some time now, to complement the Aventador and Huracan I already owned, but when I do find an LB-Works Murcielago Limited 20 online the prices are totally ridiculous. This isn't a must-have model in the history of Automobili Lamborghini Spa for me, it's a nice to have model, so I wasn't prepared to spend crazy amounts of money on one.

Then I find an auction listing for this model located in the US, I put in my max bid and waited, expecting to miss it anyway as I took into account the steep shipping costs ... but look and behold, my bid won the model ... fast forward several weeks, and an additional €63 of import duties and taxes ... and I've been able to add this special model to my collection.

Apart from the wheels and tires (which I might swap in the future) this actually is a very nice model of an existing car in Japan, I really like the fact that there is a real LB-Works Murciélago Limited 20 out there with number 18 and it looks exactly like this model, so in the end I'm very happy with my latest addition.

our RATING

Exterior		8/10
Interior		8/10
Engine		6/10
Accuracy		8/10
Overall rating		8/10

Original price : € 140