Many of us recognize this unique shape instantly, however few will ever have a chance to own one…since there were only a few hundred ever made…but we can still look and appreciate it, right? We wouldn’t normally mention a car like this but it was too nice and too much an important piece of automotive history to pass up. This one is coming up for bids here at Amelia Island through Gooding-Christie’s this year, and while it’s going to go for a ton of money, we certainly do appreciate it! Let’s look closer, shall we? Big thanks to reader Araknid78 for the tip!
In the early 1960s, Ferruccio Lamborghini was already an established name in farm equipment in Italy, having started soon after the war and helped rebuild Italian industry in the process. The story goes that he owned a few Ferrari but was disappointed with the clutches and allegedly exchanged strong words about it with Enzo himself, prompting Ferruccio to start his own car company. Automobili Lamborghini opened its doors in 1963 and so began the Lamborghini road cars, starting with the 1964 350 GT.
A few short years later, Lamborghini’s revolutionary transverse-mid-engine chassis design debuted at the Turin show and caught the eye of coachbuilder Nuccio Bertone, who promised to create “…the perfect shoe for this wonderful foot.” By 1966, the first Miura (a breed of Spanish fighting bull) left the factory and revolutionized what a sports car could be.
Powered by a 3.9 liter (239 cubic inches) displacement, quad-carbureted V-12, the early P400 cars put down 350 horsepower through a 5-speed gearbox, the case and block being cast together as one piece.
Ventilated disc brakes at all four corners helped slow the speeding bull and it rode on fully independent suspension with coils and shocks.
We’re told that the absolutely pristine, stunning unit we see is a 1969 P400S, which means it is the second generation, which then means that it has some serious upgrades to correct and improve upon the P400.
We are told that its early life is a mystery but it made its way to Japan and was up for sale there in 1973. It came to the United States in the early 1980s, landing in California and then relocating to Ohio in 2002. Over the course of 3 years, it was completely nut-and-bolt concours restored, including the correct Arancio Miura paint color and by 2006 it was already winning more awards than some Hollywood actors ever do!
We can’t show you all of the detailed pictures here, but every one we’ve seen is impressive. They went so far as to put the stickers on the wheels!
We’re also told that this machine puts out 370 horsepower and only weighs 2800 pounds. According to the listing, all of the body and running gear are correct and numbers-matching, which is a huge plus on top of an already amazing car!
All in all, it’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of machinery. Many automotive historians and journalists consider the Miura to be the first-ever Supercar.
Personally, if I won the lottery, a car like this would be on my purchase list. I don’t know whether it would be kept safe in a museum or driven as-intended, but it would be loved and appreciated. How about you? Let me know in the comments!
What’s not to love,Italian engineering at its best. The almost perfect auto
My favorite car of all – just don’t have the funds to afford it …
2800 LBS with 370 HP shouls runs 12’s in Quartermile, top end depends on rear gears…..great ride
These are strictly billionaire’s toys nowadays. Owning one is your calling card into the Amelia and Pebble Beach vapor.
It used to be that only crazy gearheads owned these because they were such outrageous objects. They’ve all sold out to the guys who will never touch it with a wrench, but were told to buy one because they only go up.
I am a fan, but it is interesting that Lamborghini has never won a race that mattered, but these things get priced as if they did. It’s how the BS works at the top end.
As one rather famous man once said “they make good tractors!”.
These have always been expensive and awesome so I highly doubt that just crazy gearheads were the only people who used to own them.
Jesse, yeah, I should have said crazy gearheads with a lot of cash. They were never cheap, but they were not anywhere close to $2 million bucks, either.
But they were a different breed than the buyers of these today. They were buying worn out, clapped out, run-hard examples, and they tried to keep them on the road just for the thrill of it.
It was probably a sport among rich SCCA guys to see if you could keep it running.
One of the gym teachers at my high school drove a first-year Miura back in the day.
Did she own it? Don’t know. It was definitely the hottest thing in the teachers’ parking lot.
Ferrucio Lamborghini never wanter his cars to race. He hated Ferrari’s guts and demonstrated that you can build and sell extraordinary cars without the racing pedigree.
And Jay Leno has TWO! An orange 1967 P400 and a yellow 1969 S model that was once owned by Dean Martin.
Yes, and one of them he got for free.
Maybe the best looking car, ever. However, the E-type is a tough argument.
in ’71, my sister (I was 17) dated a guy who had a silver shadow and a miura. we lived outside orlando and when he would come to pay homage to my goddess sibling and he was driving the lamborghini the whole neighborhood would watch it amble by grumbling and growling. it was a site at the time as there were no panteras, or maseratis en masse and this was probably the only miura in central florida then. and I had my measly 1750 duetto in the carport.
My God, I miss beautiful cars.
I would drive it like I stole it…..
Not a supercar. At least, not by definition. If a Miura is a supercar then so is an 1997 Acura NSX and a Toyota MR2. For a Miura to be a true supercar, the engine orientation would need to be changed to longitudinal and the radiators would need to be moved behind the passenger compartment. By that definition, the worlds first TRUE production supercar was the 1971 Lamborghini Countach.
I think few here would agree.
That’s a nonsensical definition of a supercar. And random as well. So a Ferrari 512 BB isn’t a supercar because it has the radiator in the front of the car? A 930 Turbo therefor isn’t a supercar either because, well, it has NO radiator (oh sure, you can argue that the rad is in the back because it is air cooled, but you get the idea)? A Maserati Bora isn’t a supercar because the radiator is in the front of the car? The road-going versions of the GT 40 (and the McLaren M6 also had the radiator in the front, so no supercar). We could go on………
bt
I certainly do not agree. The comment is without basis
Sounds like starting with the Countach as one’s idea of a supercar and then working backwards from there to define any supercar in terms of the Countach.
Jealous much? That’s not a reason to not call it a supercar.
Seeing this Miura reminds me of a funny tale i thought i’d share. I was in my early 20s and working for an old German. The Miura was there when i started working and another year. The engine and transmission were both rebuilt. Delivery day comes and the DR. shows up with his checkbook. Despite trying there was no way he was going to fit his large self into the car. I got to drive it back to his house and will never forget. Bragging rights for years to follow. You’d have thought he would have known he didnt fit before dropping a small fortune.
Made of 100% pure unobtainium, every car nut’s wet dream, LOL! I’ve never seen one in person, but if I ever do, I’ll die a happy man! I always think of the opening scene in “The Italian Job” (1969, the original, with Michael Caine and Benny Hill, not the remake with Mark Wahlberg, et al), when a Miura crashes head-on into a bulldozer coming out of a tunnel on two-lane road in the Italian Alps! Jay Leno did a very funny parody/tribute to that scene on “Jay Leno’s Garage!
The one problem with owning one of these, is that you NEVER want to drive it into a TUNNEL! What happens to the Miura in the original Italian Job film is nothing short of devastating! Hint: it involved a bulldozer ! As Italian actor Raf Vallone, playing the Mafia boss, told Michael Caine: “A friend of yours had a little accident six weeks ago…right here on this very road…”
Give me a early Pantera or a 427Cobra
When I had just started building my new house a few years ago a friend of my next door neighbor casually parked his Miura SV along the street. At least I snagged a picture. There and then I got to thinking that we would get along quite well. Unfortunately that neighbor moved away pretty much at the same time that we moved in and the current owners have nothing more exciting than a Toyota Sienna on the driveway.
In 1968 a friend and I were foreign car mechanics and SCCA wannabes. He hooked up with a guy who owned a couple “health studios” and who was also a car guy and owned a Miura. My friend got this plum job as the private mechanic taking care of the Miura and a few other cars- we all envied him until the IRS showed up and seized the health studios, all the guy’s cars and my friend’s tools as well. By 1976 my friend and I had started a racing shop building Formula Ford engines and designing our own car and this guy re-appeared racing a Ford with another string of “weight loss clinics”. He was actually a pretty astute guy with his cars and fair driver, but we kept him at arm’s length when he wanted to invest in our little shop. Eventually he and his clinics disappeared from the scene.
Thanks for the acknowledgement, Russell
If I had unlimited funds this would be my car of choice … ever since I saw it in an auto magazine in the ’70s, under the tag line “twelve cylinders, sideways,” I fell in love with it … sure the first ones had the block and trans cast in one unit (and a broken tooth would destroy the engine), no real ventilation – bugs and anything on the road would come in through the underside vents, windows only gave three-inches of air space, but who cares … I’d really like a later SV model, but, unless I win a lottery, it’s still a dream car …