Miura, the original supercar

"Just imagine, that body shape, coming down your high street in 1967, only the sight of Harold Wilson on LSD could've caused more of a stir." - Richard Hammond on the Miura P400

"You can imagine sitting there in a Wolsey 1800 or a TR6 in 1972, and this turns up at the lights, hopefully with Twiggy in it... I think I'd have fainted." - JK on the Miura P400SV

 

http://www.themiuraregister.com/miura/register.php?id=681

The first time I saw a Miura was in 1976 and I almost did faint. I'm not exaggerating.

 

I believe this pic was taken behind Portman Lamborghini's George St (London) premises when Barry Robinson had just purchased the car from Charlie Chong and thus it was still UK-registered CCC 1. Circa 1984?
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Could very well have been. Charlie Chong owned it after my father in 1978. I think it passed through the hands of a couple of dealers before: Malcolm Clarke > David Salamone > Charlie Chong though not sure.

 

For anybody interested in this thing...some interesting pics anyhow (not mine)
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=230719649899&index=20&nav=SEARCH&nid=05778900371

 

http://www.tonyerker.info/html/miura_kokotas.html

#3829 ...Apparently this Miura (S I believe?) was discovered recently in Greece. From what is known so far it was given as a gift from Onassis to Greek famous night-scene singer Kokkotas and probably stayed here ever since. Is there any other known history on this car? Joe Sackey?

 

Nothing further from me. Is there Onassis documentation, or is it simply lore?

 

Thanks for the quick response. Unlikely that there are any documents. Maybe its lore but it's true that Onassis was fond of Kokotas -a decent racing driver and general petrol head who could have bought it himself (had a GT40 as well back then). But I expect more news on this story.

 

As previously stated in this thread, I personally saw and inspected this car, minus drive train at the present time. The drive train is available at a remote location. When I personally met with Mr. Kokkotas, he told me the story ( thru a translator) as stated above.
Gary Bobileff

 

I have no problem with the notion that Onassis gave away a Miura, because in fact at the time he could have afforded to give away the entire Miura production

 

A street scene from Tokyo in the mid 70s...
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Did we ever establish the chassis number of this car??
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The side view of a Miura is my favorite though still beautiful from all other angles.

 

A Mike Pullen test day
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

When did they stop doing the original type of Bertone badges? I notice the rally/racing Miura S? above posted by Joe has the original type which I do prefer being more colourful.

 

From the best I can tell the badge changed with the intoduction of the P400S. Which implies the racing Miura, in the photo above, was a P400 converted to look like an S by changing from black to chrome trim.

edit; Looked again at the white Miura, it appears to be a P400 (black trim) with a P400S Bertone badge.

Cheers Jim

 

No, never untill now...
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks for your reply. I saw this too and was partly why I asked the question although I did think that the white P400 may have had later badges applied because the originals may have fallen off or something?

 

Does Mr Kokkotas still own the car?

 

Great pics of the racing Miura. Thanks for posting, Joe and Olivier. Doesn't look like there's an 'S' badge on the back? Can anyone make out what shape the tail pipes are?

 

5008 before it burnt to the ground in the Painted Cave (Santa Barbara) fire of 1988.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Post fire.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I have not looked for them, but I have been told the Bertone badges on the P400 are much harder to find than the Bertone badges used in the S and SV. It is fairly common to see the badges updated on the P400. I suspect the orginal badges are easily damaged when they are removed to paint the car and since they are hard to find, the later badges get fitted.

Cheers Jim

 

Thanks. Sounds logical. I've seen some bubbling of the paint occur on the metal where the badges are applied to hence the need to treat the metal necessitating the removal of the badges. Is that part of the body made of aluminium? Bubbling occurs quite a bit on the pointy bits of the rear clam on the side where it rests above the side sills.

 

Mr. Fiat has the OEM style Bertone badges, I recently got a set. I have two sets of the later style Bertone badges (not the "B" style like used on the SV's, but the shield style with multiple colors) if anyone needs them.

What I am having a hell of a time finding is the Torino plastic badges (not the non-original metal ones, the plastic ones). Anyone with a source for the plastic Torino badges, please post it.