1968 Lamborghini Miura

When Enzo Ferrari upset the wrong people, good things happened. With Henry Ford, it resulted in the creation of the Ford GT40. With Ferruccio Lamborghini, it began with the 350GT of 1964 and later the Miura which is arguably the founder of the supercar class.

Ferruccio Lamborghini introduced the chassis of the Miura at the Turin Motor Show in 1965, and although he had stated he would never build a race car, all indications pointed to a change of mind. The chassis had been built by Giampaolo Dallara, Bob Wallace, and Paolo Stanzani in their spare time, without Ferruccio's knowledge. It was shown to Ferruccio in November of 1964 and he entrusted the construction of the bodywork to Bertone, where a young designer called Marcello Gandini was put in charge of the project. The name of the car comes from the well-known breeder of fighting bulls, Don Eduardo Miura, made famous by Hemingway.

The prototype example was chassis number 0509 and it was unfortunately destroyed during testing by Bob Wallace on the back roads of northern Italy. Three additional test cars were built and tested before Wallace and Bertone found the perfect design, one that had reduced heat and noise in the cockpit.

The first example to be sold was chassis number 0979, and it was delivered in March of 1967. The early model production ended in late 1968 and was replaced by the 400S, with the first example - chassis 3919 - being completed near the close of January 1969. The engine had been tuned to produce an additional 20 horsepower and additional weight-saving measures resulted in a decrease of 200 kg. The final iteration of the Miura was the Miura SV which was shown in 1971 at the Geneva Motor Show. They had an additional 15 horsepower than the S and were 65 kg heavier.

The Miura had a transversely mounted engine placed amidship in a box-section platform chassis. The 4.0-liter version of Lamborghini's Giotto Bizzarrini-designed four-cam V12 offered 350 horsepower and was capable of speeds of 180 mph, making the Miura the world's fastest production car. After the 125th example had been built in early 1968, the steel used in the chassis was increased from 0.9 to 1mm in thickness. After April of 1968, customers could specify a leather interior.

The introduction of the SV, for spinto veloce, brought with it the removal of the distinctive 'eyelash' headlight embellishments and changes to the rear lights. Much of the body remained largely unaltered apart from slightly flared wheel-arches shrouding wider tyres. The interior received cosmetic changes and the engine now produced around 390 horsepower to help offset the increased weight. The biggest improvement was to the build quality. Additional changes were made to the front and rear suspension arrangements which helped improved the handling. New 9-inch Campagnolo wheels were located at all four corners. During 1971, a 'split sump' lubrication system was added, having separate reservoirs for the engine and transmission oil. This became necessary due to the final cars' ZF Limited-slip differential.

By the time production came to an end in 1972, a total of 150 SV models had been produced.

by Daniel Vaughan | Sep 2019