On October 5, 1879, a Navarra fighting bull named Murcielago survived 90 strikes with a sword during a fight in Cordoba, Spain. It is said that Murcielago fought with such passion the crowd called for his life to be spared.

Dustin Butler never met the famous bull, but he did spare the life of a well-known car designed to honor the very same prized fighter. Dustin bought this 2006 Lamborghini Murcielago on eBay in November 2015, just nine short years after it rolled off the assembly line in Sant’Agata Bolognese in Italy. Like the bull which is honored by this world-renown sportscar, Dustin’s Lambo had taken many strikes in those nine years since it left its small, communal, birth-town.

Before leaving, the car was celebrated by employees and admirers of the Lamborghini stable as the 2,000^th Murcielago to leave the plant, the car’s VIN documenting this fact. There are photos of the car with an LP640 and a Gallardo, surrounded by 500 Lamborghini employees all celebrating the car’s dual-century significance. The car came to the U.S. and was first sold in California, and then bought back as a “lemon.” The car’s second owner lived in New Jersey, and unlike the Matador so many years prior, he subsequently killed the car with only 12,240 miles on the odometer. The car was scrapped for its many valuable parts and then wound up on the online auction site, where Dustin acquired it.

When Dustin received the car, it was in three pieces, but still had enough valuable bits to be an enticing project. Enticing, but not financially viable. Dustin explains, “The V12 engine was going to need around $60,000 worth of parts to make it right again. With the miles, I knew it was going to need a clutch change very soon. An e-gear Murcielago gets around 15,000 miles per clutch, and if the dealer does it, it’ll cost around $15,000 dollars!” Consider that a dollar-per-mile clutch tax.

Shopping at a Lamborghini dealer is vastly different than rolling up your sleeves, wielding a toolbox and a wagon, and heading down to your local pick-a-part for an LS-based takeout engine. Dustin lists several reasons why this was the most viable option, “Swapping it was just cheaper, more reliable, and lastly, I didn’t have to deal with the Lamborghini dealer.”

Dustin implemented the Lamborghini throttle bodies and air chambers, but the 5.3-liter’s throttle body does all the heavy lifting.

Dustin poured several years of work into the once-proud, once-lemon, and once-wrecked Lambo until 2018 when he sold the unfinished project. Another three years pass and Dustin gets a call asking if he’d like to purchase the car back. Reckoning much like a movie he hadn’t finished, Dustin led the car by the horns back to his stable. He finished the car just before his wedding in 2022. He has about three years working off and on with the car and the last year was a full-time flog to get it finished.

Instead of the peaky V12 and e-gear transmission, Dustin trusts his shifting through the factory Murcielago shifter, custom-tailored to its new duty by the folks at Cableshift.com. The shifter now rows an imported Audi six-speed 01E (2-wheel drive spec), close-ratio, Wavetrac transaxle featuring custom gearing and buildup by Advanced Automotion in Corpus Christi, Texas. The adapter to the 01E was made by Eric at A&E Automotive & Machining in Farmersville, Texas. That adapter links right up to a 2005 5.3L V8 built by Fausten Willhite of Shinook Machine Shop in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. As the engine came together, it was prepped for boost, which Dustin plans to address with some Precision turbos in the future.

Currently, the engine is running the stock computer with a harness from PSI. A set of Siemens Deka 60Lb injectors, Walbro 340 fuel pump, and Corvette regulator feed the second iteration of this bull. Randy Prevatt in Tulsa, Oklahoma tuned the car in its current state. As it stands, Dustin built the car to be as refined but reasonable as possible. He eschewed a big, lumpy camshaft for a smooth, stealthy idle and runs the spent fumes through a set of short-tube headers feeding into a Murcielago Capristo exhaust system which further routes them through the single exit hole in the rear fascia. Even looking at the engine bay, Dustin implemented many of the cues from the Murci’s original design to help the LS-based engine blend into its Italian surroundings.

In a further blend of American-Italiano, a GM power-steering pump drives the factory Lambo steering box. The car is still running all the Lamborghini HVAC system which hooked right up to the GM A/C pump and heater lines. The front and rear suspension are still as designed in the Old Country, featuring factory adjustable coil-overs (four front/four rear) with a front lift system. Toss in that tuned Lamborghini sway bar, and Dustin explains the handling as, “It has all the original Murcielago suspension back under it, so it handles just like it did from the factory. It has ZERO body roll.”

It’s not as if a Lamborghini Murcielago needs any help garnering attention, but just to be sure, Dustin had Robbie Haynes at R&J body shop in Tahlequah, Oklahoma re-paint the car its factory Giallo Orion, eye-searing yellow hue. He also added an LP670 SuperVeloce front bumper and front fenders and the mirrors are upgraded to the newer LP640 status. That stylish and silky-smooth rear wing is a Liberty Walk unit modified to fit on the exhaust cover.

On the inside, black leather has been updated to an LP640 interior with carbon accents throughout. The original gauge cluster was sent to Dakota Digital as a special project for the Murcielago. The folks at Dakota Digital re-engineered the cluster with their HXD digital system which is now designed to work in any Murcielago.

In the end, Dustin sums up his thoughts on his creation, “I love the looks, feel, and smell of the car. The Murcielago has so many lines and curves – every angle is just amazing. The feel on the road is like no other car I’ve ever driven. It is just planted on any surface at any speed, and the Italian leather smell is again no comparison to anything I’ve ever owned or sat in.” Perhaps, after all the fanfare, tumult, and transformation, Dustin finally found his one-in-a-million bull, you know, the kind of untamed beast so full of fury and passion they name supercars after it.