Bruce Wayne zips a charcoal grey Lamborghini Murciélago through the streets during a scene in The Dark Night racy enough to make anyone’s heart pound.
It certainly did that with Omahan Sean Glassman, who previously saw the car when he, along with the rest of the world, first took notice of the Italian sports car in the 2005 film Batman Begins. The movie franchise started a vehicular love affair for Glassman.
“Murciélago means ‘bat’ in Spanish,” Glassman explains. Although the auto line was not named for the caped crusader. Lamborghini names their cars after famous fighting bulls. The bull Murciélago reportedly received more than 24 stabs during a fight in 1879 and survived.
Glassman continued to watch video of Murciélagos outside of the movie theater. “Just seeing that car and then watching videos of it on YouTube. The sound of it…I was just absolutely obsessed with it,” he says.
It was no surprise, when, several years later, Glassman found himself owning a version of the aurally seductive, Italian, V12-powered vehicle. More precisely, he bought a Lamborghini Murciélago LP-640 Roadster in Arancio Atlas (Arancio is Italian for “orange”).
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Glassman, who is creating the company Blue Steel Investments when he’s not patrolling downtown as a nine-year veteran of the Omaha Police Department, acquired the car nearly two years ago from a Baltimore-area dentist. Originally, this Lambo was owned by Ed Bolian, VINwiki CEO and an exotic car specialist. This provenance, along with the car’s specifications, persuaded Glassman to pull the trigger after several years of searching.
“I knew it came from good hands and it was well cared for. It was the exact spec that I wanted on the car, and I paid a little bit more because of it,” Glassman revealed. “But I’m totally fine with that.” Though he won’t disclose the final purchase price for the car—one of only 300 or so that exist worldwide—Glassman did attest that the amount was “worth every penny.” Online vehicle sales sites show the vehicle selling for $150,000 and more, with one owner in Washington wanting nearly $500,000 for a rare edition.
Glassman grew up a gearhead and would eventually get into buying and selling cars during the few years he spent in California as a fitness model in the mid-2000s. When he returned to Omaha in 2008, he partnered with a pair of firefighter friends to start their own dealership, SS Rides & Motorsports. His intial steps into exotic car ownership included Dodge Vipers and a Ferrari or two (an F430 currently shares garage space with the Murciélago), but the latest car to steal his heart was the Murciélago.
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The car has run well for him to date. Glassman claims he has yet to experience any major problems with his 631-horsepower topless brute, explaining, “These engines are built for racing. They’re built to endure some really intense thrashing and keep running.”
While he’s not afraid to put actual miles on his exotics, Glassman admits the Lamborghini—with its wide girth and slam-bang automated transmission—was never meant to play the part of grocery getter (that duty falls to his pickup truck). Nonetheless, he appreciates his personal Batmobile. “It’s such an event to drive,” he enthused. “It’s unique in so many ways and unlike any car I’ve ever driven. That’s why I love it.”
Visit lamborghini.com for more information.
This article was printed in the February/March 2019 edition of B2B. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.