Lamborghini Miura: Getting under the skin of the original supercar – car pictures of the week
Innovative, exotic, motorsport-inspired, impossibly aspirational. There can be almost no doubt, the Miura is the original supercar
This is genesis for supercar-kind, surely? No single model can be so inexorably crowned the Rosetta Stone of a segment as the Lamborghini Miura to that most evocative of all types of car, the supercar. In our new Evo Eras series, we’re tracking the development of the supercar over the decades and, while we also explored other models that have played a significant part in the supercar genus, it can only be the Miura that can rightfully be crowned supercar #1. Its astonishing construction and packaging warranted the full Evo Anatomy photography treatment, by Dean Smith.
In issue 346 of evo, we quite literally get under the skin of the Miura. What is now a timeless icon was an extracurricular project on the part of its creators, who were trying to convince their boss to go racing. The Miura would be the only car in its lineage to house its Bizzarrini-designed V12 transversely, as inspired by the original Mini.
The chassis in which the V12 was mounted was the creation of three young engineers, whose names will likely prick the ears of any enthusiast: Giampaolo Dallara, Bob Wallace and Paolo Stanzani, all under 30 years of age at the time. The finishing touch was of course what everyone knows and adores the Miura for perhaps most: its design. We can thank a young Marcello Gandini for that.
Read an excerpt from John Barker’s piece in evo 346, which you can still order online or pick up from the newstand, below:
‘The whole Miura project had been executed at breakneck speed, from initial thoughts in 1964 to delivering the first customer car on December 29, 1966. As such, early customers became unwitting development drivers, but it’s an illustration of how much people loved the Miura and how much goodwill there was towards the company that very many owners were happy to keep bringing their cars back for reworks and updates. Ferruccio ensured that his customers were well looked after, giving credence to the story that it was the poor service he’d received from Ferrari as a customer that spurred him into becoming a car maker.’ – John Barker, evo editor-at-large.
