For one week only, visitors to London’s annual art and design show, Masterpiece 2017, will be able to feast their eyes on the stunning Riva Aquarama Lamborghini.

It is one of the most famous motorboats Riva ever built – and the rarest, fastest and most exceptional Aquarama of them all.

Riva rarely agreed to customise their boats, only in very exceptional circumstances.

The man who made Carlo Riva the offer he couldn’t refuse was the Italian industrialists and car maker, Ferruccio Lamborghini.

Speeding along the water

In 1968, Ferruccio wanted one of Carlo’s Aquaramas, but he wanted it with his own engines in it.

After much persuading, Carlo agreed, and the result was the Aquarama Lamborghini.

At the time, the standard Aquarama was powered by two V8 Riva-Crusader engines.

These gave the Aquarama a top speed of 48mph.

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Ferruccio Lamborghini asked that his boat should be powered by two of the same engines that powered his first sportscar, the Lamborghini 350 GT.

These were 3,464cc aluminium V12s, each delivering 350hp, which gave it a top speed of 55 mph.

Ferruccio and his family enjoyed the boat for over 20 years, transporting her every year to their summer retreat and returning her to Riva’s service centre in Italy every winter.

After Ferruccio died in 1993, the whereabouts of this unique Riva Aquarama remained unclear for some years, until a Dutch Riva enthusiast decided to track her down.

With the help of a Riva restoration specialist, he found her sitting ignominiously in a corner of an Italian boatyard, hidden under a tarpaulin.

That was 2010. He acquired the boat, and set about having her restored to her former glory.

The meticulous restoration of the boat and engines took three years, with the help of some very eminent experts including Carlo Riva, Fabio Lamborghini, Ferruccio’s nephew, and retired engineers from Riva and Lamborghini who’d been involved in building the boat over 40 years earlier.

With their invaluable expertise, the Aquarama Lamborghini was returned to showroom condition, exactly as she was when she first emerged from the Riva yard in 1968.

The restoration was completed in 2013 and the boat was brought back to Lake Iseo, the home of Riva, where she was put through paces by Fabio Lamborghini and Carlo Riva.

With the Riva Aquarama Lamborghini now fully restored to immaculate, as-new condition, she is quite simply unique, irreplaceable and very valuable.

She will be exhibited at London’s annual art and design show, Masterpiece 2017, by Riva’s UK distributor and classic Riva broker, Ventura.

The show takes place in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital from 29 June to 5 July.