Lamborghini

Date Acquired:

23 Dec 2007

Year:

1992

Cost:

1750EU

Fuel consumption:

Odometer:

26000

Servicing:

Annual Insurance:

Other costs:

After I brought the Diablo back home, the process of getting the car on the road legally in Belgium could begin.

I had already experienced the joys of this task when I bought the illustrious Godzilla 1 a few years ago.

Going to my "trusty" customs agent, I got the usual questions about paperwork, invoices, engine size, power and so on. It never ceases to amaze me how some people have never heard of Lamborghini. Seriously, what planet was he born on? All he could comment on was "are you sure the engine power is correct, mine is only 60kW, yours is more than 6 times that?"

After a while, I did manage to get my coveted pink form, after paying a hefty 2 Euro or so... Step 1: Import = done.

One thing I was really happy about, was that the car was originally from Belgium. I called the local Technical Control Station, and all I needed to do was go through a "Sold Car Control". Should be easy, right?

The employees of the Technical Control Station are nothing like the customs agent. In fact, they're the exact opposite. As soon as I pulled into the main hall, all eyes were on me. People were leaving their post, all other cars abandoned.

After the initial worshipping of the devil, we could get back to the serious stuff. Take note of all the factual data, then on to the testing of brakes, handbrake, exhaust, suspension and undercarriage. I even made them put a plank in front of the ramp, to make sure my front spoiler wouldn't get scratched.

And then, the verdict... One of the handbrake calipers was not working properly, and one of the front dampers had a drip of oil on it. 

Now you should know, half of owning a car, for me, is having a good garage to take care of it. I'm glad I had just that. I took the car to Francorchamps Racing Car in Wavre to take care of the issues. 

After a week, he called me that it was impossible to find spare parts for the dampers, as Lamborghini bought the spare stock at the end of the production run. Dampers were 1800EU plus VAT. Each. Not the kind of news that makes you happy...

He did have good news though. As he also runs race cars, and takes care of lots of very old, very expensive Ferraris, Jaguars and Porsches, he has a "suspension guy". Don't you love independent garages that have "guys" for everything? 

It took them about 6 weeks to take care of everything in total, but the suspension guy basically made all worn parts by hand, brand new. All the rest was refurbished. He then took the car back to the TC, to come back with the flashy green paper.

In all, the bill was about 1750EU. A lot better than the 4000-odd I would have had to pay at Lamborghini Brussels.

With all paperwork now in order, it was time to get the car registered. 

I sent everything to the Belgian DVLA, only to get everything back 2 weeks later "because of a missing document". Oh joy, don't you love red tape? 

I contacted the previous owner, who gladly sent me the missing item, and a while later, I got my license plate. And of course the bill followed shortly after, about 2600EU for registration and one year's road tax. Again, not something that made me happy.

What did make me happy, was being able to open up that V12 again, now with my personalised registration, and just drive...

Bring on the summer!

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