Lamborghini Miura: Three generations tested back to back

Friday, November 04, 2005

Lamborghini Miura: Three generations tested back to back

Classic Driver has a very good post about the test of three generations of the Lamborghini Miura.

Lamborghini watchers will know that 2005 is the 40th anniversary of the world’s most beautiful car - the Lamborghini Miura. A normal celebration is simply not enough for this icon of icons so the 40th anniversary will span 2005 and 2006, because in autumn 1965 at the Turin Motor Show, the show-stopper on the Lamborghini stand was bereft of body. It was just a rolling chassis with a spectacular mid-mounted transverse V12.

Not only did it not have a bodyshell but no one had even been commissioned to design one. Nevertheless, the orders flooded in, so boss Ferruccio Lamborghini handed the design duty to Bertone. As soon as the Turin Show closed, Bertone got to work on his new commission. The head of design and brainchild of the Miura was an astonishingly young 22-year-old Marcello Gandini. After a winter of frantic work, the March 1966 Geneva Motor Show saw the presentation of the first real Miura and the immortality of Gandini.

Miura production ran from 1966-1973 and saw three main model types: P400, P400S and P400SV.