Lamborghini Miura P400 S, 1969
Lamborghini Miura
Lamborghini Miura•
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Chassis No.: 3802
Auction: Monterey 2018
Auction date: August 25, 2018
Lot No.: F114
$1,155,000 | Sold
- Exterior: Red
- Interior: Gray
- The second Miura P400S produced
- The earliest Miura S known to exist
- Unrestored
- Engine no. 2541
- Production no. 277
- 1 of 140 produced
- The only known Miura with clear window louvers
- Original Rosso Corsa Red paint and Skay Nero interior
- Original Pirelli CN12 tires
- Quad cam 3.9/370 HP V-12 engine
- 5-speed manual gearbox
- Chrome window trim
- Power windows
- 28,613 original miles, metric odometer reads 46,045 kilometers
Serial No. 3802, this unrestored 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S is the second produced that year of a scant 140 S models built and No. 277 of a total Miura production of 764. The Miura created a sensation in bare chassis form at the 1965 Turin Auto Show, but its story begins two years earlier, when Lamborghini displayed a new V-12 engine beside a front-engined prototype chassis. While the prototype failed to impress the “cognoscenti,” the engine attracted enough attention that Lamborghini commissioned Carrozzeria Touring to build bodies for what would become the highly successful 350GT.
Designed by former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, the V-12 was essentially a racing engine of short-stroke, big-bore architecture using four overhead cams, six twin-choke Weber carburetors and dry-sump oiling to achieve a low profile. The V-12 easily produced 400 HP in early testing, but when Ferruccio Lamborghini directed Bizzarrini to detune it in service to reliability and cost control, the veteran engineer quit, and Lamborghini tasked 24-year-old Giampaolo Dallara to complete the development.
A prodigal graduate of the aeronautical engineering program at the famed Polytechnical Institute of Milan, Dallara worked closely with two other brilliant young talents—Paolo Stanzani, a graduate engineer from the University of Bologna, and New Zealander Bob Wallace, a former Ferrari and Maserati test driver—to complete the engine and adapt it for use in the 350GT. One evening after production had commenced on the 350 GT, Dallara, Stanzani and Wallace gathered for drinks in the Palace Hotel bar in Modena; when they left, they had the beginnings of a mid-engine grand-touring car resembling a contemporary Group 7 racer.
The trio soon presented Lamborghini with a completed design that would become the world’s first mid-engined road-going sports car. The design reflected the young Dallara’s brilliance: a two-passenger platform elegantly devised in three main sections front to back with side and center boxed sections generously perforated to save weight yet strong enough to provide the needed rigidity for high-performance handling. After seeing the concept, a delighted Lamborghini enthusiastically approved the project, and after an intense period of development and final styling revisions by Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, the finished prototype amazed the assembled at the 1966 Geneva show.
In a brazen act of showmanship, Lamborghini then had Wallace drive the prototype into Monaco’s Casino Square on the eve of the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, drawing an enthralled crowd when the V-12’s sonorous exhaust note echoed off the surrounding buildings. Discovered several years ago in long-term storage, Autotelaio n. 3802 remains unrestored, retaining the original Rosso Corsa paint and Skay Nero interior; even the Pirelli Cinturato CN12 tires are factory originals. Perhaps its most interesting feature is the tinted clear-plastic rear-window louvers that were in place when the car was first discovered in storage; to this day it is the only known example with that feature.
As an S model, this Miura’s original Pirelli Cinturatos are 70-series versions fitted to Cromodora alloy knock-off wheels. It is powered by the 370 HP version of the four-cam 3.9L V-12 engine with larger 30 mm intake-port diameters and refined combustion chambers, backed by a 5-speed manual transaxle. Looking past the chromed window surrounds introduced on the S model, the interior shows the upgraded upholstery and paneling, power windows, improved ventilation and new switchgear that also denote the S.
This rare opportunity to own a highly original, unrestored example of Lamborghini’s original supercar is made even more attractive by its low odometer reading of 46,045 kilometers, equaling 28,613 miles.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/336493/1969-lamborghini-miura-p400-s/
