Miura, the original supercar

Thanks again, Joe. Just been looking at the preview of your book on your website and it shows the prototype with the 4 exhausts exiting in the middle of the rear grille and then there is a pic with the 4 pipes exiting underneath the car. The grille must have got lots of soot on it when the pipes were higher up so that may have been why they moved the exhausts down. Did any of the production cars have the 4 pipes exiting underneath or was this just on 0502? Can't wait to receive your 'bible' which will be later on this week hopefully.

 

See ? that's why I call my humble database but It's improving

 

The honeycombe must have been originally designed to let the excess smoke out that didn't get spat straight out from the back when the pipes were in the middle on the prototype 0502 as the pipes couldn't have been made long enough as the hood wouldn't have been able to be lifted then unless that area had no grille at all like the unofficial Jota modified cars. I'm not a lover of the Jota modded cars, especially as the mods have no function. I'd much prefer a standard unmollested SV.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6iKULhu-oI&feature=related[/ame]

Another good SV video here. Again, I wish I understood the lingo.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usJWrAqOfyk[/ame]

Thanks to you, Joe many people now know about these wonderful cars.

 

As I went through my magazine archives the other day in search of the Feb 1977 edition of CAR ( Convoy article, Countach thread ), I came across this little jewel. It was the first I had heard of Lamborghini and I was blown away.

Surprisingly, as a 13 year-old in 1966, I only removed the logo photo.

I have gone through the mag from cover to cover these past few days looking for a precise publication date, but all I can see is 1966. As another article deals with the 1966 F1 Championship ( mainly Monaco ), but also refers to Spa which was held on June 12th. So, it may be a June or July publication.

I hope you can read all the text.
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Fabulous. A 61???? Ferrari 330 GTC. I wonder what happened to Miss Baldessari?

 

CAR, August, 1966. It has the Lamborghini prototype on the cover. Very interesting photo's of the prototype, ones that I've not seen before. Thank you very much for posting it. I just found it and bought off ebay.

 

Joe Sackey :

would you mind telling ALL of us

about your first encounter with a Miura ? and how this fascination began etc.

or anyone else who would like to share their history

 

I'm of the belief that Joe was assembled at Sant A'gata...

 

Well, I really would like to hear Joe's story about this.

 

Marisa was not the salewoman she said... it was a "cover" as to cut off to the rumors at the factory.

Ubaldo Sgarzi has always been the only sale Manager and one guy worked for him : Enzo Morusi.

So Marisa was working with the title "Public Relation"... again to justify her wage... and she was closed to Ubaldo too. When she left the factory, she was replaced later by Belgian journalist Etienne Cornil - the 1st real PR, the factory ever had by that period, as he confirmed it to me.

No doubt to have about her... here is my scoop : she was Ferruccio's girl friend !!!

I've collected 7 witnesses for that fact, I'm happy you post this article because I never saw her picture before.

She is also the woman responsible of the divorce between Annita (2nd wife) & Ferruccio, but that part of the story you will read it my future book... in 2013 !!!

 

Thanks for sharing the above. Do you know what Marisa did after she left the Lamborghini factory?

 

I always remember speaking on the phone with a gentleman caled Alan Eisner (spelling) in 1978 about a Ferrari 365 Boxer he was selling and the subject of Miuras came up and he told me 'I know my Miuras and the chassis twists in the middle due to there being nothing there.' I was very alarmed and thought this surely isn't true as the Miura chassis has big side beams in the middle. I subsequently found out that thicker gauge steel was used on the later cars and I've always wondered since if the Miura chassis did suffer from twist, to what degree and if so which models were affected and if the twist could be remedied?

 

Very interesting !

thanks for bother and share

this text and pics deserve to beposted in this thread

 

She married another man and worked somewhere else... she's still alive as far as I know...

 

Thanks, Olivier. Pleased to hear it.

 

Almost all old cars twist today. Generally speaking this is not the car's fault. Chassis were designed to handle the loads that the best period tires could impose. One has to remember that even race tires did not impose very high loads back then compared to today. But as tire technology has improved, chassis began to flex because the loads the tires imposed increased dramatically. That is what happened to the Miura and most cars from that period. Cars are upgraded or replaced with new models as tire technology advances, and that is what happened with the Miura. Put some old period correct 1966 tires (not ones with modern rubber compounds) on an early Miura, and you will be sliding around before the chassis flexes much. Put modern rubber on any old car, including a Porsche 917, and you will get a lot of flexing. It is not the car's fault. It is technology moving the bar higher each year. Many vintage racers end up adding significant reinforcements to old race cars to be able to run modern rubber.

 

Let me add that the above arguments also apply to brakes. I get tires of people saying '....cool car but the brakes suck....'. They only suck because tire technology has made tires so good that the brakes get overpowered. For example, on a Pantera, or Countach, and even 1991 Diablo, period magazine reviews applauded the brakes because they did their job. That job is to get the tires to repeatedly reach that point just before lock up, and that point was defined by the stickiness of the tires. They did their job well, until technology caused the stickiness of tires to increased to the point that the brakes were the weak link. Mark my words.....in twenty years, people will say today's carbon ceramic brakes suck......Quote from circa 2030.. "...cool old Lambo Aventador, but the brakes suck....."

I think we all have to remember these things, and drive our old cars accordingly, out of respect for the old cars and for our own safety.

 

Thanks for your informative reply. However, what I am talking about is something more than flex and I was told that the chassis actually twisted or ended up being warped due to it being weak in the middle and also remember that this was told to me back in 1978 (I was 14) where I doubt very much that any Miura would have been run on tyres that it wasn't designed to. I'd just like to know the truth behind this if anybody knows?

 

Perhaps Joe or Mr. Bobilef can best answer this question.
But, from my experience, I don't believe any Miura was permanently distorted or bent under normal sporty driving due to a defective chassis. Such radical deformation would ruin the car and make it undrivable, and would require massive expense to remedy. Further, symptoms would include constantly braking windshields and rear glass, and doors that would not open and close any more after the chassis was deformed. I have looked at dozens of Miuras (not hundreds like the aforementioned experts!), and I've never seen chassis so deformed that the doors would not open or close properly (other than wrecked ones!). So, imo, those words you heard way back then from a guy promoting a competing car (boxer) was an exaggeration, and probably part of his sales routine to sell Ferraris over Lambos. Just my opinion, but I don't believe it to be true.