Miura, the original supercar

Coppet, Switzerland, at a Swiss Concours D'Elegance the weekend before last

Bobby Wallace never lent me a single image for my Miura book http://joesackeyclassics.com/authored-books/the-lamborghini-miura-bible/ , and I didn't even ask!

The historical images for the Miura book came from a variety of paid-for-copyright or written permission explicitly granted sources as documented in my files:

- Peter Sach's Klemantaski Collection (the famed Peter Coltrin black-and-white factory images)
- The Karl Ludvigsen Library (more black-and-white factory images)
- The Spitzley's Foto Zagari collection (both black-and-white and color factory images including the only known image of Bobby Wallace and the Jota together!)
- Richard Baron & John Lamm's Road & Track photo archives
- Rainer Schlegelmilch photography archives
- LAT Photographic archives
- Sutton Motorsport images
- Bertone SpA archives (glad I did when I could!)
- Peter Vann archives (the famed images of Ferruccio with his SV at his winery)
- Bob Estes archives
- Conde Nast/Corbis archives (image of Miles Davis sitting on his Miura, for example, copyright permission for use in the book for that single black-and-white image alone cost $204.56, with hundreds of images it adds up)
- George Lepp & Associates archives (the famed Car & Driver images of the Sanders family P400 being tested at speed in the Nevada desert, a car they still own, George had long left association with C& D magazine but like many others I tracked him down and found him in a little town called Los Osos California! He gave me 4 great images, we used 2)
- Motor Presse International (a series of images from Motor Klassik magazine of the famed SVJ 4860, 283 Euros, and that was back in the days when Euros were worth something!)

The contemporary images for the Miura book came from a variety of donated photographer sources:

- My wife
- Myself (I used to be an avid photographer over many years, but then my wife became much better than me, and now my sons are even better, so I'm out of the photo business, in fact nobody in my family will let me hold a camera any more! Thank goodness the book was published when it was or there'd be none of my images in it)
- Past & current Miura owners (many owners were only too happy to send me past & present images, all of which the publisher was provided with a return address for use after scanning)

Sourcing the images & illustrations was a 10-year operation. What a trip it was scouring though the book's file this evening, I am proud of this book and glad we published it, for those who don't know, over the past 11 years its been in existence it's sold out several printings and was Internationally published in German & French as well as English. In summation, if Wallace ever lent someone someone his precious images for a book, it wasn't to me, and, if they were Miura-related, it looks like whomever it was didn't do much with them!

Quite frankly, I'm surprised he of all people would be upset about any images, and, if he indeed even had any to give out, perhaps he was glad to get rid of them as I have never met a more unsentimental person in my life, as anyone who has ever really met him might agree! This is a man who wouldn't use 3 words where 2 would do. Besides the images on his wall at the Phoenix workshop, I'm truly surprised he possessed a single one of the factory days, there are other historians besides myself who have visited with him over the past few decades of his life, and I have never heard the story of the missing images.

Anyway, I dealt with Bobby on a business basis @ 18 years ago in the summer of 2000, I took him the engine of one of my ex-Shah of Persia Miura SV to rebuild. He did the job over the course of a few months and invoiced me, all pretty straightforward and uneventful. I don't remember what he charged me but I do remember the searing heat in Phoenix! Although I would never refer to him as a friend (I never saw him smile once the whole time over my 3-4 visits), by the end of the project he had opened up sufficiently enough to tell me a few brief stories about the Sant Agata days, although I must confess getting them out was like pulling proverbial teeth. Stories such as the time he rode as passenger with F1 pilot Jean-Pierre Beltoise's Miura P400 at very high speed in the wet, JP crashed the car badly and Bobby ended up in the hospital with a broken hip, he said the testing of the cars back in the day was "not for sissies", I put that story in my book.

FWIW I just checked and the Miura book appears to be going up in value on Ebay. Yikes!

 

I do believe from Frankfurt you could also get Alitalia to JFK New York as P400 3414 did, correct?

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4311, one owner from new

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Sure thing, sorry, no story.

Meanwhile, whereas Vale, Claudio et al are always smiling and lighthearted, Bobby simply was universally renowned as the opposite, he never smiled at all, in fact how many images from all of history can you produce showing Wallace smiling?

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Good points, more likely American Airlines or United Air Lines, perhaps the latter as Lamborghini used them in the period to ship Miuras to the USA

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If you say so, that would be your own conclusion, its also possible he or someone relaying this story is incorrect.

Four things to consider.

Firstly, it makes no sense that he would give me images and I would proceed to not use them, the source list above covers the scope of every single image in my book, each one of hundreds cataloged & accounted for, none of them being from Bobby Wallace.

Secondly, if Wallace gave me images, I would have been proud to include them in my book with the associated credit, but then I would simply have returned them post-publication as we did dozens of others, it's really not that hard. The fact is, I never asked him for images because when I met him I was only concerned about my Miura SV engine rebuild.

Thirdly, it's entirely possible he gave images to someone else, and the link to my name from Bobby or another person reporting this story is in error.

Fourth, it’s both convenient & interesting that the man you vaguely suggest lent me some images is no longer alive to vouch for your story, which seems rather fuzzy & weak, assuming you were first-hand with Wallace, inquiring minds wish more specific details:

When exactly did you visit with Wallace?
What exactly did he say to you about his missing images?
Were the images he gave out Miura images or of other cars?
How many images did he give out?
Did he mention to you the names of the person/s he gave images out to?

Interesting that nobody seems to remember any specific details!

Did he tell you personally that he was pissed off about his personal photos not being returned, or did you hear that from someone else?

Can you produce any images of the man ever smiling?

No denying he was a straight-shooter, but he was grumpy, and I’m not talking about in his old age, I’m talking about from day one, from the youthful factory days in the 60s & 70s, that’s simply the way he always was.

I dealt with him personally in Phoenix for the complete rebuild of my engine over a period of several months, and in contrast to 2 other ex-Factory men I have had many dealings with, Bob was borderline miserable, zero sense of humor - he built the engine well though, and that's what mattered.

None of this disparages Bobby’s memory one Iota (see what I did there?) or takes away from his work and what he accomplished for Lamborghini, it’s simply an accurate recollection of how Bobby chose to be, he chose to wear a scowl rather than a smile. Take a look at some of these images http://www.madmechanics.com/forum/general-kitcar-chat/18041-bob-wallace-lamborghini-passes-away.html

Giancarlo Barbieri, another straight-shooter, who worked side-by-side with Bob at Sant Agata in the 60s & 70s, also knew Bob very well, here is what he said about Bob on-the-record, captions below from Davide Cironi's film

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Agreed, as I said, and I quote myself: "None of this disparages Bobby’s memory one Iota or takes away from his work and what he accomplished for Lamborghini, it’s simply an accurate recollection of how Bobby chose to be".

That is for sure.