3516. Converted to SV lookalike by Omicron Engineering as featured in the magazine Supercar Classics years ago.
Wasn't it to differentiate the Bertone numbers from the Lamborghini factory number or something? Is it covered in the Miura Bible, and if so what page?
I can't say I know, I'm curious myself, I researched this years ago and never got a definitive answer. Theories abound though.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Do you know the date of this edition of Hobby magazine, Joe? Grace Bumbry's Miura with the mirrors on may well be production #272. Also looks like one of those mirrors has moved to the driver's side door on the car today.
Sorry to have to correct you Olivier, but 187 was not the first Miura to have 100 added to the number. An earlier contender for that is 185. I believe 100 may have been added to the numbers when body bucks were changed. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'd have to check my archives, today I am spending time with a great classic Lamborghini instead! BTW I have always loved that particular period image, so evocative. This is great to know but it still doesn't explain the reason why 100 units were suddenly added to the numbers progression...
Dealer: JAECKEL-Bumbry LUGANO, The car was directly delivered to the owners Grace Jaeckel-Bumbry a well known Opera-Singer. The car was featured in a Arcticle of "Hobby" Issue 23/67, 15.11.1967 by writter Willi Lanek who was a friend of the Couple. They took the car delivered at the factory and drove it to Switzerland with Export Plates EE-2507.
Thank you. I was looking for the date of the later Hobby magazine with 3072 pictured as in that post here. Trying to ascertain whether the car with the mirrors on the bonnet is production #43 or #272.
Yes, Miura 185 has body 285 and chassis #3513, RHD built for Sultan of Brunei. It is known that Miura 182 has Bertone body 182. Do you know if Miura 183 has body 183 or 283 ? Similarly do you know if Miura 184 has body 184 or 284 ? Close to narrowing down when Bertone added 100 to the body number : 183, 184 or 185.
Looking at more recent pictures of 3513's chassis at the front it has late S, not early S features. Were these done at the factory?
3513 was updated to P400S when returned by Sultan of Brunei to factory for Borletti air-conditioning to be installed in 1970. Additional chassis bracing to late S spec fitted during full restoration in 2012.
Mystery solved ! Found image of Miura 184 ID plate showing body number 184 on miura-svj.c0m Therefore 185 appears to be the first Miura to which Bertone added 100 to the body number, making it 285.
3513 was delivered to the Sultan in Rosso Eurolac, was the color changed to green at this point or later on? Excellent, now we can work on why the addition of 100 units?
The colour was changed later. When the supplying dealer was eventually asked by the Sultan to sell it they had difficulty finding a buyer and changed it to yellow in the hope of attracting more interest. A subsequent owner changed it to a non-original rosso and it was finally changed to green when fully restored. Now that 185 appears to be the first Miura with 100 added to Bertone body number, plus the factory recording it as the first Miura to have 70-section tyres and revised suspension to suit, plus previous indications from some P400 owners of dimensional differences in clamshells, would all seem to confirm that the body bucks were changed at 185/285 to allow for the tyre and suspension changes. Adding 100 to the body number may just be an arbitrary Italian 1960’s way of noting the change point.
Thank you for the confirmation on the sequence of the car's color changes. I agree it does appear to be the first Miura with 100 added to the Bertone production number. I doubt the body bucks were changed at 185/285 as the car used the same 7 x 15 Campagnolos used by all P400 and P400S and the section change of the tires was minor, all of which was well-accommodated within the body-shell of a P400 or P400S. Objectively speaking, is there anything recorded with period images or documents that confirms this one way or another if they changed the bucks at this point? I'm not sure Lamborghini formally marked any of it's ongoing production changes and upgrades on it's ID plates. Meanwhile, with the proviso that I cannot confirm anything at all, I was told by an ex-factory worker that the extra 100 units materialized simply to help the manufacturer qualify for the minimum number required for an Italian production grant. The time period does coincide with the era in which Lamborghini began to struggle financially. Has anyone else heard this expolanation?
It wouldn't necessarily have been a case of Lamborghini recording a change on the ID plates as such, since the Miura ID plate merely incorporates the number of the Bertone body which had been fitted. Something had triggered Bertone to suddenly add 100 to the body number. Bearing in mind the large number of Miura body and trim components which were stamped with the body number by Bertone it was a significant change for them to implement. Ferruccio was great at marketing and prone to exaggeration and may have wanted to inflate the numbers, but since cars are more readily recognised by chassis number in the outside world, as opposed to the world of Miura fans, it would have been easier and better for him to have Marchesi add 1oo to the number on the chassis plate. Then again, for any authority wanting to check how many were produced they only had to check the factory build number records which ran consecutively and didn't jump by 100 . But it's all guesswork and it would be great if some period confirmation of the reason could be established.
My friend has checked : #3072 is clearly Bertone #372 and prod #272 in all locations, it also uses 1.0mm, that fact is clarified. Thus it still doesn't solve the equation. So far, we have no evidence that #3072 was crashed before March-April 1968, when the Paramount production bought the wrecked Miura, but we know the resurrection delivery of Prod#272 VIN #3072 was 27/12/1968. Crossing several infos and knowing the factory process which was to take a new car coming from Bertone to fit it with original engine & welding the original VIN plate, it is hard to believe that Grace Bumbry waited 9 months to get her new Miura. Thus, it leads to believe that Prod #43 was crashed later in middle of 1968, or even in fall, don't you thing ? If this is the case, then we can remove #3072 from the race to be the Wrecked car of IJ.... as the one bought was already wrecked in Q1 1968. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Bob Wallace crashed during a test a Miura end 1967. Early 1968, Ing Giordano also crashed a Miura and died in the accident on the Bologna loop...
Thanks, Olivier for checking this, taking the pics and posting them etc. Did you check if the engine number 1220 is in the car? How long did a Miura take to make? Was there any sort of waiting list for Miuras in 1968?
Is there nothing in the Factory records regarding these cars? Other than 3072, there are no other cars on the register at this time with details of a new car being made using the same chassis number, old engine and a new production number.
Olivier, Bob Wallace told me that he could only recall one serious accident in a Miura going fast in the wet, he was the passenger accompanying the client post-service, the car was written off and he sustained a broken pelvis. The car was driven by none other than F1 driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise. This appears to be Miura 3108, Giallo / Bleu, engine number 1298, production number 56. Incidentally Beltoise separately confirms this story in an interview published in 2001: Funny story. I bought it from the singer Christophe. It was sublime but, in 1967, I had a road accident with this car....I haven t had an accident for years but when I was crazy and young, I pulverized my Miura. I was in Italy. The road was straight. It was raining. I aquaplaned. No more car...
my friend made the pics, he is in Belgium... I'm in Canada... There was a waiting list of +/- 4 to 6 months, but when a client crashed his car and was coming to the factory, he was passing in priority, like it happened so many times and as declared by Ubaldo Sgarzi and Ingrid Pussich.
some cars were made with exactly same Bertone body number.... all depends on how the car was paid by the client... and it should match the delivery to the accounting book ! These cars were not recorded... as they were paid cash... I crossed these infos from Sgarzi, Stanzani and Wallace.
