Miura, the original supercar

Glad, there is someone to point this correctly !

 

I'm terribly sorry for you LC3929... but your sentence sounds like an empty barrel.

The ex owner of Miura #3165 is member of this Forum, if he wants to answer you, free to him to do it, as he can explain that I flew to his location with Giampaolo's right hand manager to look at this Miura, then I called Giampaolo who confirmed to buy the car.

I have no need to have my name in magazine, the best role sometimes is to work in the shadow.

It is true you were not part of the Giro 50 Miura back in 2016... I was.

Thus, you were not present at the ceremony introduction during Dallara factory visit, where publically Sefano Domenicalli thanked me before providing to Giampaolo the keys of his Miura who also thanked me... despite your miserable approach.

VIP role... you can continue to dream about it
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I am not sorry for myself, and, more important, I am not sorry for you. And I never will be. Which sentence do you mean? Please be precise. Or are you again posting while driving?

Waiting for confirmation. As I said, I don't doubt that you had a role in the transaction.

Sure. Why should I? I am not a Miura owner, and, by the way: you are not a Miura owner as well. You have to be satisfied with an Espada Series 3. Great car, by the way, but not an important car like a Miura.

See above.

Great. The best role sometimes (??? why sometimes???) is to work in the shadow. But why are you here in this forum, constantly trying to show people how important you are? That is ridiculous. I fear that my approach isn't that miserable.

To state clearly: your photos of the Miuras at Retromobile - appreciated. Your recent info about Azzurro Mexico - much appreciated. Unfortunately, most of your posts are not that interesting.

What do you want to say here? And why the "smiley"? I don't get it.

 

Todt’s newly restored Miura SV is a beauty. I like the colors but I am biased. The car sits high in the rear and front. Talking to a Miura restoration expert it’s not an easy fix as new springs will do that. The wheel color may be a bit off in tone and sheen, but it’s hard to tell as the camera changes the true color. I been told the right color and sheen is what’s in the pics I attached that have a less of a bright gold tone and are more dull (4906). Attached are both car’s wheels pics for comparison. Also it seems as the metal mesh inside the air duct in the sill seems as it’s been painted gold instead of black? See the attached pic.
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The carbs are stained. I’am surprised that the carbs were’nt zinc electroplated and rebuilt using newly plated hardware. The Weber’s are a work of art and are beautiful when properly gone through with all correct plated hardware installed.

 

This is exactly what i was thinking

 

I leave you with your "well intentioned & positive thoughts", have a great day

 

LC3929, we both know who is a empty barrel here ha ha ha, better let it go, too much negative energy, just by reading ONE SINGLE post of nameche i just got SICK allready.. this guy is sooo terrible.. this wannabe is a NOTHING but now i stop about this guy.. better back on topic..

 

I'll repeat: You are not what you claim to be, I guess. In my eyes, you are not a current multiple Lamborghini owner. Because if you were, you would now run to your garage and make photos.

You also claim how many Miuras you sold in the last years. Can we believe? I'll let it go as RPMMarcus suggested...

 

The gold painted metal mesh in the air duct is increidible... like they just sprayed all over the place with even not taking it apart.. and agree, body stance is way too high, it will look SOO much better at the right hight.. i wonder how the interior is done, sorry to say but i am not impressed about this restoration, i mean polo storico, top money paid, i think then you would not expect this kind of things..

 

He was involved in ONE sale, Tods SV and everybody on this forum knew this car was for sale by-no names-some one on the forum here. I seen a add where he states he has miura P400 P400S and SV for sale all “off market” cars well.. Lets ask he knows another SV for sale.. a “off market” car... Yes i know a few too, if we offer 3.000.000,- euro’s ha ha ha but lets stop, mr bigmouth like you call him is THE PERFECT NAME

 

Also the airfilter is not even mounted proper.. these carbs should look NEW, like you say, a work of art, the first thing you see when you open up the back..
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Vince,

You nailed it. That being said, we don't know if to meet deadlines or the actual show date they rushed a few items which will be later addressed. As we ALL know here, restoration is an on-going process of perfecting details. I have never publicly shown a car fully restored by Curated or managed by us, but I know sometimes in our world of artisans and scarce part supplies, things take longer than expected.

In defense of Olivier, I don't know of his actual role/title within Polo Storico but I know he is well respected within the factory and has been an incredible resource and aide to myself and a few collectors I know. Specific to my relationships with Lamborghini and executive management.

While, it is known Olivier has a business incentive, I can personally attest that this is not his driving nature or end goal. I have been involved in numerous large transactions where Olivier has simply been an asset. While sometimes he may rub people the wrong way, his intentions are good.

We can all agree that Polo Storico has had a few "growing pains" but I really believe they will sort out the issues and will do whatever we can to support a factory backed certification program.

 

John, thanks for the response! Always great to hear from you on the forum.

I should probably clarify my points a bit, as it seems that some are attacking Olivier personally, and that was neither my intent nor my purpose. I do respect Olivier as a person, and for the work that he does, which I recognize is sometimes thankless. A re-read of my comments will demonstrate that I never attacked him personally, and don't condone it. My comments were solely focused on business details related to Miura restorations, and it is in that area that I do believe constructive criticism can serve an important purpose. Granted, I am just a "hobbyist." I am not in this business professionally. But, given the rarity and costs associated with these cars, as an owner, it's not prudent to be a mere hobbyist anymore. Any approach to a restoration or repair must be taken as one does in business. And it's there that my comments were directed.

Retromobile is a very large, important show with many international visitors and press. Personally, if I were presenting at a stand, and noticed that the rocker panel grilles on one of my presenting cars were painted gold, let's just say the next day of the 7-day show, they would be painted black and my crew would be very tired from a lack of sleep that evening. But, again, that's just me. Because after all, the stand is there for a business purpose-to show off restoration work and advertise for new business, and I would want to advertise the highest quality work possible or not advertise at all. Alternatively, if I didn't notice the error on the grilles, that would be a big problem as well.

I have been criticized in the past for being a perfectionist, but that has served me well in my business. Perhaps I expect too much, and I can accept that. I just feel that allowing Polo to experience "growing pains" on a customer's budget, especially one with a premium attached, when it was this company that built these cars in the first place, and should be able to get it right without such errors, especially after three years of business, is unacceptable. In my opinion, the factory should get it absolutely right, or stop until it can.

 

100% agree, i still can’t believe these errors.. deadline or no deadline, this is not gass monkey’s at Discovery channel and the gold painted rocker panel grills have nothing to do with time, same for the carbs or use of correct colours.. i don’t want to be negative but i just ask myself the question is it worth the money to go to Polo..

 

Getting back to restoration details, if anyone here has searched, the interior kick panel courtesy lights for a P400 are "unobtanium". They are not reproduced, and they are impossible to find (if anyone here disagrees, and knows where to find them, please let me know as I would love to know the source). These lights were only shared with the Fiat 850 Spider, and although Fiat produced many of those cars, unfortunately they are rare these days as well! The plastic used to originally make these lenses was sub-standard, and they were very prone to cracking when mounting and yellowing with time and bulb heat. Some of you may have seen this with existing P400 examples. As a result, many P400's will have incorrect Ferrari rocker or other courtesy lights installed. Others will have original lights, but the lenses are cracked and yellowed. Here are some photos of the light and what they look like...the part number is 4132097 and the marking on the front of the lens says "SIRIO 5R":
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Since these are unavailable, and wanting to address this problem, I undertook the simple process of manufacturing new lenses. First, I created a professional silicone mold from a good, original exemplar lens:
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Here is the mold just after completion, with the original exemplar lens used to cast the parts shown:
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Next, a professional clear resin is poured into the squeeze mold, weighted, and introduced into a pressure pot:
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The pressure chamber is then secured and set at 60 p.s.i for curing:
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After curing, the mold is removed and separated-the new lens is ready for electrical components:
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I will post some photos of the new lenses tomorrow after I get home. I will be making a batch of them. The new lenses are much stronger than the original ones (3,500 psi tensile strength) and will not crack upon installation or from heat. They are also UV resistant and will not yellow over time as the original ones did.

The electrical connectors for these lights consist of four pieces of beryllium copper, two nylon washers, and two copper rivets. I have sourced all of these parts as well.

I will also post the finished products when complete. As I have a few original lights with broken lenses, I will be installing the original electrical connectors back into those with the new lenses. Once I run out, I will install new electrical components into the remaining new lenses.

 

Phantastic. Hats off!

 

That weber carb looks FANTASTIC what kind of treadment had it exactly?

 

It’s a type of galvantic treatment that the carburetors had originally when manufactured. Not all Webers in the day had this treatment, but the carburetors on the Miuras did. You can see it in vintage photos. With time, heat, fuel and cleaning the coating eventually dulls and wears off. So, they will only look this gold for a few months...after engine break-in and tuning they will be more dull already. That’s why it can’t be seen on many unrestored cars except for sometimes in the crevasses.

 

Thanks, great info! I am sure when your car is ready there will be no errors to find! Great work!

 

No problem. If you take a look at the carburetors from this P400, car 3216, otherwise known by Joe as the "Miura that Time Forgot," a well-documented, original car still owned by the original owner in California (what I would refer to as a "reference car"), you can see on the #7 barrel of the rear passenger carburetor that the coating has dulled a little from heat and use, and has actually been scraped off in one spot which I circled. You can also see the correct red color on the air cleaner bases. Another cool fact is that the factory, after the engine was broken in and carburetors had been tuned, would paint a small red dot on each carburetor to signify that it's been adjusted.

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It is a chemical treatment called Alodine 1200.

It consists in a chemical treatment conversion in a bath using hexavalent chrome, in order to produce complexe oxydes strats.

Due to the restriction of use of hexavalent chrome, this treatment is unfortunately no longer authorized in some countries (containing chrome IV and so, not fulfilling RoHs rules).

Depending of the time you put your part in the bath of Alodine 1200 (1200S) the resulatnt color will go from a clear protective coat up to an olive / yellow green finish as on the original Miura carburetors.

The preparation, the cleaning ot your part is a major starting point before doing any Alodine 1200 treatment. (if not, the final color can be very far from the finish you are initially expecting...)

 

Wow, thanks Bruno! I knew it was a treatment, but I did not know the exact details of the chemicals used.

Your post also explains why some shops may not be able to have the treatment done. In the US, for example, the lead Weber restorers are a place called Pierce Manifolds in Gilroy, California (6 hours north of me and very close to Pebble Beach). They actually purchased one of the original carburetor flow test benches from Weber after they closed and do amazing work. They do not use the treatment, probably because of California's strict Air Resources Board rules.