The Lamborghini Jalpa is a 2-door targa / 2-door roadster (Jalpa Spyder) from Lamborghini, built from 1981 to 1988, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. Under the bonnet: 3485 cc L353 V8. Marc Deschamps at Bertone drew it. The total made was 416.
The background
The Lamborghini Jalpa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxalpa]) is a sports car produced by the Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini from 1981 until 1988. It debuted at the 1981 Geneva Motor Show alongside the Lamborghini LM001 concept off-road vehicle. The Jalpa was the last Lamborghini to use a V8 engine until the Urus SUV in 2018.
The engineering
Power comes from 3485 cc L353 V8. It weighs 1510 kg. It shifts through a 5-speed synchromesh manual. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2451 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Lamborghini Silhouette; its successor was the Lamborghini Gallardo; assembly was at Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the DeLorean Motor Company DeLorean DMC-12, the Mitsubishi Pajero, the Dodge Ram — show what else the money bought that year. Its Lamborghini stablemates include the Lamborghini Calà and the Lamborghini Marco Polo.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Lamborghini Jalpa — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.