The Shah of Iran Miura

john

great looking collection.... please tell us a little more of your P111 usa spec urraco?

happy new year

hf

 

John,
Those are amazing cars! I thought the white w/ blue 355C was owned by another Fchatter. Is yours the ex. Enron car?

 

the blue/ white ex enron car is the same car. There's only one. I bought it to pass on to Chris Sacco. While it's owned by my company title will be passing to Christopher Sacco in exchange for him acting as the general contractor on the design and renovation of my hanger garage. (he "will for for Ferraris)" I consider the car to be his. Chris just did an awesome race in it last month with full team support by Lemans winning Risi Competzioni. He's tearing up the Streets of New Orleans in it.

 

John: I am bewildered by this tale of Miura unreliability. How can this be??

 

Pictures of SV taken in 198?,these were sent to various european collectors,how did the car go from hear to the USA?
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The history after the shah and his family is well documented.

The shah used the car alot, as did his sister who the shah allowed to drive the car to impress men when she was single. (I have a few wild acounts of this)

The car was in the hands of a family member in Iran when his possessions were confiscated at the palace.

The car was exported from Iran to Italy in the early eighties. In 2001, Joe Sackey imported the car into California where he and Gary Bobileff spent two years going through a 100 point restoration of the car. From Joe to Jim Spiro (who owned a Daytona Coupe, F50GT1, and the 1962 one off Lemans winning Ferrari Testarossa). Jim had the car a few months and sold it to me.

From there I drove the car alot from New Orleans to Seaside Florida.
4870 is an extremly sexy car in the flesh, and for someone single, well let's just say 4870 has always been magic. Like the Shah allowed his sister to do, i used the car to impress the opposite sex. I was dating a supermodel from Miami and thought driving the car back and forth to the beach house would impress her (in retrospect the F430 would have been a cheaper way to close the deal but at the time I was pulling out all the stops). After my single days were ending, 4870 went back to Bobileff and for another two years he brought the car back up to 100 points and fixed some mechanical gremilins that were there for a while.

The car is perfect now. It's lead a very very colorful life. Although I'm now single again, the car is reserved only for photoshoots and short drives in sunny weather. (I'm smarter now with the cars to impress girls)

 

40 years ago I picked up Meg in a 63 VW Beetle. As she was a Brooklyn Girl who's idea of a car was the D Train it worked just fine.

Hope to see You Soon!

Meg and I send our Love.

 

John:

You are a great custodian for the Ex-Shah SV. Perhaps I can mention that the correct date that I purchased this car in Italy and imported it to California was February the 17th 1999.

Kaivon Saleh who looked after all the cars stored at the Royal Niavaran Palace in Teheran has some great stories to tell. He told me that the jet pilot Shah was quite a driver.... much to the disappointment of all the SAVAK agents whose job it was to follow him everywhere and keep him alive. BTW Princess Ashraf was not the only member of the Royal family besides the Shah to use this car. The Shah's son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and various other Royal household members stretched its legs from time to time, including Kaivon Saleh himself on many occasions, as his job dictated!

You should have some paperwork there that also shows that the car was exported from Iran and arrived in Italy on January the 24th 1991. The exporter from Iran is noted as Assadollah Rostamkhani. The importer was Manfredi Sinistrario of Pesaro who operated the BMW dealership in Pesaro under the name of Drive SrL. The import papers state that the car still had Teheran government plates "TEH 8884" on the car at the point of import. Sinistrario had the car sympathetically restored in Italy and he showed it at the Lamborghini Day 3 at Sant Agata September the 25th & 26th 1993 where it won The Best Miura. He sold to me in Feb 1999.

I sold it to Jim Spiro on September the 22nd 2003 when he made me an offer I could not refuse. Of course as you know Jim Spiro missed the car so much after he sold it to you that I found him another SV (4968).

4870 is a truly historic road car with a thousand tales to tell.

Best,
Joe




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napolis: hope to see you soon to, 08 was a difficult year but I look foward to 09.

Joe: thanks for the info.

For those of you who know Joe Sackey and his love for the history of this mark, you'd not be surprised to hear that after I bought the car from Jim, Joe sent me the shah's license plate which was in his collection. He asked for no money but decided it was properly to go with the history of the car. This plate and Joe's history book on 4870 (over a foot thick!) where among the few possesions I took with me during my flight from Katrina. Thanks Joe.

If anyone is interested I can scan a few of the historical documents on the car. Some of them are very facinating, such as the very special bench test that was performed on the Shahs engine on March 24,1971 ( I was exactly three days old at this time)

 

I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think whatever you take time to
share would be well received. I love your collection and regret not seeing your DD
at celebration last year since I try to keep track of them.

 

Indeed the car's build sheet clarifies the ordering party simply as: "Per Lo Scia di Persia". Translation: For The Shah of Persia. Naturally, His Imperial Highness deserved a bit more bhp don't you think? The chaps at Sant Agata certainly thought so and they 'breathed' upon that motor...

Upon completion, lore has it that the men from the Iranian Embassy in Rome gave "4870" a careful checking over (for incendiary & other devices - cant be too careful if your viewed by some as a dictator) before the Shah was allowed anywhere near it. Then it was off to Teheran to join hundreds of other automotive Jewels at the Niavaran Palace garages by military Hercules aircraft... what a life.

Whats neat about the Shah (if you can forget his shortcomings) is that he was a true car guy. Witness the Maserati 5000 GT built in his honor and many special Ferraris and other makes he ordered new. Generous to a fault, his son got a new Countach LP400 for his birthday whilst still a teenager and his nephew (Kamyar Pahlavi) got a Maserati Ghibli Spyder for graduating from Sandhurst. It was the Shah's own car, but upon hearing of his nephew's graduation, he uttered the now famed words: "Here, its yours now".

Oh for a rich uncle....


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God knows we could have used a couple of these incendiary experts for final inspections at the Lambo & Ferrari factorys back in the day

Great stories Joe, thanks for sharing.

 

Fascinating story about #4870, i stayed in Iran as a kid -76 to -78 and would love to see that car on the streets.
The only memory i have when the Shah was going some were, was when the 2 Helicopters he used flyed really low over our house.
John, some scan of thoose documents would be really appreciated.

 

According to Kaivon Saleh, whenever the Shah drove 4870 on the streets in and around Teheran, he was tailed by several black Mercedes Benz 600 SWB filled with the 'men in black' (SAVAK - google it)...


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this car has quite a story

 

What a great story! Thank you so much for sharing #4870s history. John you have an amazing collection and I would love to see some historical documentation on this car. It is very much appreciated when private collectors are willing to share a peak at what gems they have hidden away. For a car enthusiast like myself, getting to view a "Private" collection is a cherished memory you hold on to for life.

 

I forgot to mention that a friend of mine grew up in Teheran and as a kid saw the Shah driving the blue Lamborghini Miura SV tailed by the SAVAK guys in Mercedes 600s, lamps ablaze. He was dumbstruck by the sight & sound of the Lamborghini. His testimony essentially corroborates Saleh's (the two don't know each other).

The young man moved to the USA, became a dentist in Southern California, and guess what sports car he purchased as soon as he could afford one? A Lamborghini, of course....

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the old V12s tend to leave a "great" impression on young kids...you can forget about them for some time but sooner or later the lust will come back

 

Sorry to be off topic but do you have any additional photos of your office? It looks amazing!

 

Absolutely breathtaking in person!
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Thanks for sharing John, Joe, and others with pics etc.
Looking at the engine compartment with the velocity stacked carbs give me new determination to do the same with my carbed Boxer.
Sweet !

 

My personal favourite Miura. You are most fortunate to be it's custodian and it looks like it is in good hands

 

John,

Sounds like you have had some really memorable times with the car and the others i assume. The dating the supermodel did it for me, sounds fantastic!

By the way, what are your plans for the hanger?

Regards

Matthew

 

great car

there is one of lambo F1 cars in the pics

 

Wish it were mine

I was just lucky enough to see John's Miura in person that day. I did miss out on hearing it come to life.

Another fine piece of automotive history.
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