A 1990 Lamborghini LM002 — one of just 60 examples built to U.S. specification — is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, offering a rare shot at one of the strangest vehicles Lamborghini has ever put its name on.
A Countach Engine In A Truck Body
This particular truck, nicknamed the “Rambo Lambo,” is located in San Diego and shows approximately 17,000 miles on the odometer. Power comes from a 5.2-liter V12 derived directly from the Lamborghini Countach, producing 444 horsepower through a five-speed manual transmission and a full-time four-wheel-drive system built around a two-speed transfer case and three locking differentials — genuine off-road hardware wrapped around an engine that belongs in a supercar.
Maintenance records back up the asking price. Canepa Motorsports performed a significant service in 2019 totaling roughly $32,000 covering various mechanical components, and a San Diego-based European vehicle specialist refreshed the suspension just last month, showing continued upkeep right up to the sale. The truck also rides on Pirelli Scorpion tires that are about five years old — recent enough to remain fully serviceable, which matters since low-mileage vehicles sometimes carry tires that have aged out despite looking new. It rolls on 17-inch OZ alloy wheels, part of the equipment fitted to the final group of U.S.-spec trucks built near the end of the model’s run.
Inside, the LM002 offers a noticeably more luxurious environment than most off-road vehicles of its era, with leather trim, air conditioning, and comfort features aimed squarely at civilian buyers rather than a rugged, stripped-out utility interior.
A Truck That Started Out As Something Else Entirely
The LM002 wasn’t originally conceived as a civilian luxury vehicle at all. Lamborghini’s early development work aimed at building a rugged machine for potential commercial or military customers, and initial prototypes — the Cheetah and later the LM001 — experimented with mid-mounted engines and American V8 powerplants.
Engineers quickly ran into serious handling and packaging problems with that mid-engine layout in a vehicle this large, so Lamborghini abandoned it in favor of a traditional front-engine setup for the production LM002. That switch created enough room to fit the company’s V12 and build in a proper four-wheel-drive system, and the result — tall stance, oversized tires, squared-off bodywork, and a V12 soundtrack unlike anything else on the market — became instantly recognizable. The LM002 could also be fitted with tires designed specifically for desert conditions, which helped it find real buyers among oil industry executives and wealthy customers in regions where genuine off-road capability wasn’t optional.
Why The Final U.S. Batch Matters
Lamborghini never built the LM002 in large numbers — total production landed at just over 300 units, and the final batch included only 60 trucks built specifically to meet U.S. market requirements. This 1990 example belongs to that final U.S.-spec group, which beyond the OZ wheels and minor trim differences represents the last iteration of the LM002 before Lamborghini ended production entirely, making these particular trucks especially scarce among an already rare model.
Decades later, Lamborghini returned to the SUV market with the Urus, which now sells in high volume and anchors a huge share of the brand’s modern business. Compared to that thoroughly modern SUV, the LM002 represents something closer to a rolling experiment: exotic supercar engineering bolted into a body built to survive genuine off-road punishment, built in numbers small enough that finding one for sale at all is rare, let alone one with documented service history and relatively low mileage.
The auction for this 1990 Lamborghini LM002 is scheduled to close on March 13. Whoever wins it will take home one of the rarest production Lamborghinis ever built — a Countach-derived V12 wrapped in the architecture of a four-wheel-drive machine designed for terrain far beyond anything paved.
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