Restoration of Miura 1021

On December 23, 2010, I began what started as an engine rebuild and rear chassis refresh of Miura chassis number 1021. As you might predict, no dumber words are ever uttered by a car guy than “I’m only doing a “light” refresh on the car”. Quite predictably this turned into an all out full restoration of the car.

As of the moment I write this, the car has been completely disassembled, the chassis repairs are complete and the engine rebuild is about 1/2 done. Over some period of time, I will post pictures of the work performed thus far until I catch up with real life. Before I get into the pictures, let me first provide what history I have on 1021 (skip this first post if you want to get to the pictures)

Out of the entire Miura series, Lamborghini Miura 1021 was the 9th Miura built, including the prototypes. It was the first Miura delivered to Switzerland. 1021 is one of only 12 pre-production cars. I personally refer to all of the cars with 1000 VIN numbers as “preproduction cars” (others refer to them and the ones before them as “prototypes”) . Regardless, because of its early build and the very limited number of prototype and pre-production cars, it is a very special and very rare car amongst what is already a rare and special series of cars.

Chassis #1021

Engine #1019

Production #9
Delivery Date: 27 April 1967

Colors: Rosso Miura exterior/Black interior.


I know a portion, but unfortunately not all, of the ownership history of this car. Any help in completing the history of this car will be greatly appreciated.


1967 to 1969 - Dr. Alfred Hopf - Basel, Switzerland

Imported by Foitek AG in Switzerland and confirmed by Peter Foitek to have been delivered on April 27, 1967 (note that the factory records show April 28, 1967 as the consignment date, which I guess is the date they received payment?) to dealer Peter Monteverdi (builder of the Monteverdi Cars) for Dr. Alfred Hopf. I corresponded with Dr. Hopf in 2004. Dr. Hopf indicated that he drove the car every day during his ownership throughout Europe in his capacity as Racing Director for the Automobile Club Suisse (at the time racing was banned in Switzerland as a result of the 1955 Mercedes Le Mans accident). Dr. Hopf recalls the only negative points about the car being that the gearbox had a tendency to heat up when the car was driven hard and shifting was then very difficult. Dr. Hopf reports that the car was never in an accident nor raced during his ownership. In 1969 Dr. Hopf returned the car to Monteverdi in trade for a Ferrari Berlinetta because: "At the time I was not very enthusiastic about the performance of my Miura." (ed.:!!)



1969 to 1978 (approx.) - Ownership Unknown

It appears the car was brought into California in 1969. I have pictures of the car with California black plate number ZMW 977. 1970 was the last year black plates were issued in California and I have been told (but cannot confirm) that the ZMW series plates were issued in 1969.



1978 (approx.) to 1988 - Robert Ramlose - Downey, California

Owned by Robert Ramlose of Downey, California. The car appears to have been painted white with black interior prior to being purchased by Ramlose. One of Mr. Ramlose’s son has indicated to me that the car was never in an accident during Ramlose ownership.



1988 to 2002 - Larry Menser - Carmel, California

The Miura was purchased by Larry Menser of Carmel, California in 1988, with a seized engine and needing a restoration. Aside from the white exterior, Menser reported in 2004 that the car was mostly original otherwise, although there were signs of accident damage on the driver’s side front. Larry Menser undertook a full restoration at which time the engine was redone with sump separation and baffles completed by Bob Wallace. The car was repainted in red and the original interior was replaced by tan leather. The car was featured on the cover of the May 1990 Road & Track Magazine. The car was also shown at Concorso Italiano in 2000.



2002 Concours Auto

The car was purchased from Menser by Concours Auto of Sarasota, Florida with approximately 19,700 miles on the odometer.



2002 - 2004 - Joe Barrone - New Jersey

The car was purchased from Concours Auto by Joe Barrone of New Jersey.



2004 - to present - San Diego
In 2004 I purchased purchased this Miura from Joe. My wife and I have enjoyed the car and have driven it extensively, including trips to Consorso Italiano in 2006, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, etc.

At some point in 2009, a few engine issues came up that made me lose confidence in the engine. In December 2010, I dropped the car off at Bobileff Motor Car to have the engine rebuilt. My intent was to have the engine redone and to strip the rear chassis engine area and repaint it in the proper semi-gloss black as well as redo the suspension bushings, put in new springs, and rebuild the shocks.

In the course of that we inspected the car and quickly found a fair amount of rust in the under pan of the car, near the front firewall which is a common rust area for Miura’s. Afterwards, in the dismantling process of the rear suspension and partially stripping the rear chassis, I discovered that the damage mentioned to me by Larry Menser was not limited to the driver’s front corner, but in fact there was damage to the driver’s side area, including the rear driver’s side chassis area. The driver’s side door is slightly different in a few details to the passenger’s side and after looking at it carefully, the driver’s side door it not original to the car.

At this point, I did a LOT of soul searching (specially the financial kind). I could sell the car and search for another one (my initial ideal was a Miura S with air conditioning). However, having seen all of the Miura’s that had been through Gary Bobileff’s shop for service, restoration, fixes, etc., over the years it was obvious to me that unless I bought one that had just been restored, I was always going to have to address issues, correcting things, deal with rust, etc. I’d basically be back at this very same decision point with whatever car I bought to replace it.

On the other hand, if I restored this car, I could closely oversee all of the work, I could do a fair amount of it myself and I could fulfill my desire for originality on the car.

Seeing as this was a very special car because of how early it is and I had two of the foremost Miura experts within easy reach of me (Gary Bobileff and Jeff Stephan) which meant that help was nearby, I came to the inevitable conclusion that the car needed (deserved) to be completely restored, correctly, with minute attention to detail and originality. And so my voyage of discovery was underway.

Enough talk, here are some pictures of the car before I purchased it.

The first four pictures are from the 2000 Concorso Italiano. I found these on the internet, so I cannot attribute copyright so I apologize. At this point, the car is owned by Larry Menser. Note Borrani spinners, which I believe to be incorrect for any Miura but the 1st prototype.
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Here are pictures of the car when we were inspecting it in New Jersey. That's Gary Bobileff while performing a PPI on the car. The picture inside the garage is from the Internet and not taken by me. The car looks just like it did in the Concorso pictures.
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Here are some pictures once I purchased the car. First from when it was delivered. You want to scare the hell out of yourself? Having never done it before and upon getting your brand new car, have the driver put you in the car to drive it out of the trailer, 15 feet up in the air, hoping you don't drop it off the end. Nerve shattering doesn't even begin to describe it.

The second set of pictures are at the inaugural La Jolla car show. The car took second in class.
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If you have ever played the XBox game Forza Motorsport and have driven the Miura, the engine sounds you hear are of my car. Here are a few pictures of the dyno session when they did the audio. One thing I got out of it was the dyno results. Here's a picture of it as well. Once the restoration is complete, I'll do another dyno pull and compare. Are you reading this Gary??
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I have taken the car one various long distance jaunts. Here are pictures of a Lambo event in Palm Springs. The first three are on the way there with a few friends and the last one is in Palm Springs at the event.
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Here are a few from a trip to Pebble Beach in 2006.
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Enough of that. Let's start with a few pictures of the engine work. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the engine being removed from the car, so I'll start with the engine out of the car. Note the carburetors are not on; they need to be removed to take the engine out. I have no idea why the portrait oriented pictures are showing up sideways.

More to come.
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Martin: The pictures above are before I undertook the restoration. I'm doing the restoration now.

Here are a few pictures of the car when it was purchased from Robert Ramlose by Larry Menser. These are posted a bit out of sequence, as some where taken at Ramlose house when the car was being picked up, while others were taken outside of Menser's shop. These pictures were all taken by Larry.

Note very original interior, Borrani knockoffs, original holely front cross member (replaced at some point for a solid bar (S and SV style) which will be returned to original style as I put the car back together). I speculate that the car had been in its accident by this point and was repainted white during the repair (no proof whatsoever for this theory of mine).

Note Black California plate ZMW 977. I tried to get ownership history information from the DMV on that plate, but got nowhere with them. Anyone know if there is a way to extract that information from DMV records?
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Here are some detailed pictures of the engine number (1019) and the date stampings on the heads (1966 cast dates) and the carbs.
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Pictures of the motor and its disassembly. That's Gary at work taking the heads off.

Note the breather added to the engine. This is a standard Wallace upgrade which will be removed and returned to original. I am not sure exactly how it works, but I think it is intended to raise the cylinder pressure.

You will note that there are red Miura's next to a few of these pictures. On some it is mine (1021), but on others is it 1024, the car built immediately before mine, even though it was assigned a higher number. It also has the 9 light center console configuration. 1024 has been very helpful to have handy in the shop as we were able to use it as a go by in many respects during the chassis work (more about that later). The engine on 1024 was recently removed to be rebuilt, although in these pictures the engine was still in the car.

Can anyone tell my why the pictures that should show up in portrait (long way up and down) are showing up in landscape (long way left to right) and how I can keep that from happening?

That's it for tonight.
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One of the reasons I decided to get the engine redone was that there was oil in the coolant. As it turns out, a couple of the cylinder sleeves were at or below the deck of the block and a couple of others were barely protruding, so also not correct. The sleeves need to stand proud of the block. We found no evidence of coolant flowing into the cylinders.

While the split sump is being retained (added when Menser redid the car), the remainder of the Wallace upgrades are coming out, including the extended sump, breather, etc.

The bodywork is actually not bad and while the paint looks fantastic in pictures (it always did) in real life at this point in its life, the paint was, at best, "driver quality". Additionally, I want to return the car to its original color Rosso Miura. I know white is not original because the factory records indicate the car left the the factory in Rosso Miura, the first owner recalls the car being "red", and I found evidence of the original color on the passenger's side door underneath some tar paper like stuff that was put in by the factory to eliminate "oil canning" of the door sheet metal as well as all over the rest of the car in small traces not removed from the other two paint jobs.

The pictures are of the original color as found on the door, one before removing the tar paper, the others after. The can next to it for comparison is Koni orange (not a great match). The paint found on the door will get polished and sampled and that is the color the car will be painted.
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Absolutely correct. I think it's going to look great on the car.

Thanks Joe. The biggest surprise so far (and hopefully the last big one) was the amount of work that needed to be done to the rear chassis. I'll be posting some really neat pictures of the work soon.

I'll take all the blessings I can get, thank you.