Lamborghini Miura - 1966

The Lamborghini Miura is a sports car produced by Lamborghini between 1966 and 1973. At the 1965 Turin show, Lamborghini exhibited a chassis in boxed sheet metal called TP400 (from the position of the engine and its displacement). The engine and suspension that already fitted the 400 GT had been installed there with a few modifications. The project was an initiative of the technicians Gian Paolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani, who, although aware of Lamborghini's aversion to racing, had used the mid-engine scheme of some racing cars of the time , such as the Ford GT40 or the Ferrari 250 LM. On these two cars, however, the engine was in a longitudinal position, while the Lamborghini one was mounted transversely between the passenger compartment and the rear axle, a solution that made it possible to considerably reduce the overall dimensions. At that time, most of the GT sports cars adopted the front engine and rear wheel drive configuration. Nuccio Bertone, present at the exhibition, was fascinated by it to the point of declaring to Lamborghini: “I am the one who can make the shoe for your foot”. The latter, even in the face of the considerable enthusiasm aroused in potential customers, allowed himself to be persuaded to approve the project despite his skepticism: "It will be good advertising", he declared to his technicians, "but we will not sell more than 50". The choice of Bertone as a coachbuilder was also determined by the fact that the Grugliasco company did not have collaborative relationships with Ferrari and Maserati, Lamborghini's main competitors, but above all by the bankruptcy of the Touring body shop at the end of 1966, which had designed the previous 350 and 400 GT. The new car was designed in just 4 months by the young stylist Marcello Gandini, who had recently become Bertone's chief designer to replace Giorgetto Giugiaro who had gone to Ghia. Ferruccio Lamborghini, who was born under the sign of the bull, wanted to baptize the finished car with the name Miura in honor of the breeder of fighting bulls Don Eduardo Miura Fernandez. The Miura was the first in a long tradition of cars built by Lamborghini and baptized with names inspired by bullfighting. Furthermore, the initials of the chassis lost the T despite the mechanics not having undergone significant changes. Unveiled at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, the Miura P400 was an unprecedented success. The car left all visitors breathless, suddenly aging all the supercars of the time and starting a new era in the sports car industry.