This is the 53rd Lamborghini Miura that was made and it’s been sitting in storage at Porsche Foreign Auto Wrecking in Los Angeles for over 44 years, just waiting for a new owner to come along and give it the restoration it deserves.
The first 120 or so Miuras were built with 0.9 mm steel chassis tubes rather than the 1.0 mm tubes used on later examples. These early versions have been called the “thin chassis” Miuras as a result, and they’re among the most desirable in the collector community.
Fast Facts – The Lamborghini Miura P400
- This is the 53rd Lamborghini Miura that was made, it was stored at Porsche Foreign Auto Wrecking in Los Angeles for over 44 years, and is now heading to auction with RM Sotheby’s. It originally had a Giallo Muira finish over Bleu Fintapelle trim but is missing its original engine and transmission. The auction price starts at $350,000 USD.
- The first 120 or so Lamborghini Miuras, known as the “thin chassis” models, were built with 0.9 mm steel tubes instead of the later 1.0 mm version. These early models are highly-prized among collectors for their rarity, making them some of the most desirable examples in the classic car collecting community today.
- The Miura P400 was developed in secret by Lamborghini engineers, featuring a transversely-mounted 4.0 liter V12 engine behind the passenger compartment, which created a compact drivetrain and help afford the car balanced handling. It is considered one of the first supercars, influencing future performance car designs and defining the modern supercar formula.
- The Lamborghini Miura’s groundbreaking design heavily influenced future supercars. A total of 762 Miuras were produced between 1966 and 1973. The car became iconic, attracting high-profile owners like Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and Eddie Van Halen.
The Incredible Story Of The Lamborghini Miura
The story behind the development of the Lamborghini Miura is the stuff of automotive legend. Company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini famously preferred elegant front-engined GT cars, but a team of his engineers including Giampaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace, formed a clandestine Skunk Works-type division at Lamborghini, and developed the Miura after office hours and on weekends in total secrecy.
Even in this condition, the styling of the Miura still looks beautiful. It’s been heralded as one of the most beautiful automobile designs of all time.The prototype they developed was internally named the P400 for Posteriore 4 Litri in Italian, meaning Posterior 4 Liter in English, as the 4.0 liter V12 was mounted in the rear behind the passenger compartment in an unusual transverse configuration.
Much like the earlier Morris Mini, the Lamborghini Miura used a transversely-mounted engine with a transmission integrated into the engine casting. This created an exceedingly compact drivetrain and the rear-mid location of the engine gave the car well-balanced handling.
Many have pointed to the Miura as the world’s first production supercar. While this claim has been somewhat controversial, it isn’t without merit. Modern definition of a supercar is largely agreed to consist of a rear-mid-mounted engine, often a V12, driving the rear wheels. The car will typically have a wedge-like profile with a lower front end than rear, seating for two, exceptional performance, and a price tag to match.
Whether or not you agree that the Miura was the first production supercar, it was the car that arguably had more influence on future supercar design than any other, and perhaps even more impressively it’s the car that finally got Enzo Ferrari to agree to the development of a mid-engined Ferrari V12 production car – the Ferrari 512 BB.
Enzo had been reticent to agree to this for years, as he believed that most non-racing car drivers would be unable to handle the driving dynamics of such a car.
His opinion was likely softened by the Ferrari Dino which debuted in the late-1960s, though this was a smaller sports car with a much more manageable 2.0 liter V6 in the back.
The interior of the car looks to be largely complete, though looking over the vehicle there are plenty of parts missing which will all need to be replaced during the restoration.The Lamborghini Miura would remain in production from 1966 till 1973, after which it was replaced by the groundbreaking Lamborghini Countach which had been designed by the same man as the Miura – Marcello Gandini who was then working at Bertone.
762 examples of the Lamborghini Miura would be made in total, they’re now among the most desirable classic cars of their time. Many major celebrities have owned Miuras, including Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Eddie Van Halen, and Rod Stewart.
The Lamborghini Miura P400 Project Car Shown Here
The car you see here was delivered new to its first owner through Roberto Carpanelli’s Rome distributorship finished in Giallo Muira over Bleu Fintapelle trim (yellow over blue).
Its early history is largely unknown, the story picks up again in May 1979 when it was registered to an owner in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
The car is missing its original engine and transmission, so the new owner will need to decide whether to bring the car back to original condition, or perhaps fit it with a more powerful V12 from a later Miura model.A year later the car suffered an unspecified mechanical fault which made it undrivable. At this point it was bought by Porsche Foreign Auto Wrecking, where it has remained in storage for the past 44 years. The car is now without its original engine and transmission, and its color has been changed at some point in its history.
The vehicle is now due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on the 26th of October with a price guide starting at $350,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
