The Lamborghini Miura, a revolution masterpiece

The 1960’s are often described as the social revolution decade but another one happened at the same time, mixing technology and design.

Public gave a first glance to a transverse, mid-mounted V12 engine chassis at 1965 Turin Salon. It wasn’t the work of a famous carmaker from Maranello, but from Lamborghini’s three top engineers, Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace. The name of the development prototype was P400 (for Posteriore 4 litri) and the funny story was that the three men worked on the car’s design at night, hoping to sway Lamborghini from the opinion that such a vehicle would be too expensive and would distract from the company’s focus.

After 1966 Geneva motor show, there was no doubt left; with the Marcello Gandini design, a timeless masterpiece was born, the Lamborghini Miura. Its name comes from a former race of fighting bulls described by Ernest Hemingway. Lamborghini’s founder, Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini (1916-1993) was highly fascinated by bullfighting and the Miura was the first of an ongoing serie (Diablo, Murcielago…).

By the way, the stylist was only 28 when he released the prototype. His car was as enjoyable for technical as for styling reasons because fitting a 350 hp V12 between the back wheels was a first on a production vehicle. The journalist José Rosinski tested it in 1967 (for the famous French magazine Sport Auto) at 268 km/h and measured a standing start (0 to 1000 m) of 24.7 seconds when a Murcielago needs around 23 seconds.

Nobody expected such a result from Ferruccio Lamborghini, and his company before specialized in agricultural equipment and most recently grand tourer (such as the 350 GT). This car is the mother of all the supercar generation going from the Ferrari 288 GTO to the forthcoming Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4.

The most famous Miura was the 1971 SV (for Sprinto Veloce), featuring 385 hp for only 1300 kg. At that time, the best F1 engine had only 205 hp. This specific model was able to reach 285 km/h. Finally, 765 Miura were produced and only 150 were SV. These cars are also really profitable investment (constant rising quotation) with more than 75 000 € for a Miura and more than 120 000 € for an SV but we shouldn’t speak about reason in the Lamborghini world.

Photos © Automobili Lamborghini SpA, Sport-Prestige.com and JoeSackey.com

Olivier Pourchet