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JIM SMART . May 20, 2022 . All Feature Vehicles

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Lamborghini Helped Birth the Supercar in the ’60s

Lamborghini has long been a name associated with some of the most exotic sports cars in the world, and it’s often been said Lamborghini gave birth to the supercar.

Did you know the car is an integral part of Audi and the Volkswagen Group of today? It wasn’t always this way, though. More than 50 years ago, Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini was a successful Italian industrialist who was also a mechanical engineer specializing in farm implements, small utilitarian city automobiles, fast cars, heating and air conditioning systems and a host of other innovations that would thrive in Italy’s bustling post World War II economy.

“It’s often been said That Lamborghini gave Birth to the supercar.”

This is Jerry Brubaker’s ’71 Lamborghini Miura (P400S) in single-stage red and gold urethane meticulously applied by Junior’s House of Color in Los Angeles. Jerry purchased this Miura from the estate of a Beverly Hills car collector. It’d been shown at Monterey in 2006 at the Italian Concorso where stylist Mercello Gandini had autographed the passenger side door during the only trip he ever made to the United States, according to Jerry. More remarkable was Gandini’s age when he designed the Lamborghini body at Bertone, just 22 at the time. This is #4832, which makes it the 603rd Miura built. Bucked and assembled on St. Patrick’s Day in 1971, this is a Bertone body and wears Bertone badging. “What makes this car significant,” Jerry comments, “is both S and SV features though the first SV was built May eleventh, nineteen seventy-one.” For Jerry Brubaker, this leaves a lot of unanswered questions about Miura production.

As Lamborghini amassed wealth during the ’50s with his innovations, he was in a better position to pursue his true vision, high-performance cars. Lamborghini had a passion for racing, and he possessed quite a collection of fast cars consisting of Alfa Romeos, Mercedes Benzes, Jaguars, Maseratis and Lancias. There came a moment when he concluded most exotic high performance competition cars were too harsh for the street and he decided that there needed to be something more user friendly.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and so it was that Lamborghini saw a market for a race car turned street car with real street amenities and comfort, primarily based on his frustrating experiences with Ferrari. He didn’t like the chronic maintenance nature of race cars sold as street cars. There was very little time to enjoy automotive exotica like Ferrari because they were always laid up in the shop. When Lamborghini took his frustrations to Enzo Ferrari, he was swiftly dismissed by an imposing ego and condescension, which rocketed his hot Italian blood to a constructive boil. He was going to find a way to do it better than Ferrari, and he did.

Gandini’s talents shine here with a buttery smooth fastback roofline, sport slats, air extractors, cooling scoops and more. Beneath the epidermis are dual oil sumps for the engine and transaxle, wider wheel widths up from 7.0 to 7.5 inches in front and 7 inches to 9 inches aft, revised rocker cover trim, air conditioning, SV upgrades and more. The ’71 Miura is the ultimate evolution of the Miura series at 3.9L, 380 hp, 286 ft-lbs of torque, 10.7:1 compression, five-speed transaxle, large Girling disc brakes, tight rack-and-pinion steering and a top speed of around 185 mph.

Lamborghini took his troublesome Ferrari 250GT and worked with its driveline himself to get a better understanding of its shortcomings and how to correct them. As he worked with his GT, he became more and more aware of his own abilities and wondered how he could build a better exotic Italian personal luxury touring car of his own. His belief: Don’t get mad; do it better. So he looked to his own resources and set about developing a plan to build a better exotic personal luxury sports car, and Automobili Lamborghini of Sant’Agata Bolognese was born.

Lamborghini’s plan was to design and build a hot supercar for the street that could take on any road course in the world, yet also be comfortable transportation for those who didn’t have to ask “how much?” Lamborghini understood he could build a great road car that was better than Ferrari and could both compete and be a pleasure to drive on a weekend getaway. He also understood he could make a boatload of money doing it.

In 1965, Lamborghini took its P400 prototype race car and developed it for street use. At the time, the P400 had a monocoque platform with a screaming transverse 3.9L V-12 engine/transmission package and a very sophisticated steering, suspension and braking system when it was rolled out at the Turin Salon in 1965. However, Lamborghini didn’t have a body to sell with the platform. Running out of precious time, Lamborghini looked to Bertone, in particular stylist Marcello Gandini, to give birth to a slippery body to fit over the P400 platform. When Lamborghini unveiled the P400, known as the Miura (meaning “fighting bulls”), at the Geneva Auto Show in 1966, the press and public were overwhelmed. It was the beginning of an improvement-oriented Mirua production run that ran through 1971 with a total of 763 built.

The ’68 Miura’s interior in rich Le Mans Blue leather welcomes you with more space than you’d expect from a ride like this. Like what you see here? Bobileff Motorcar Company doesn’t farm out its restoration. It’s all performed here including the interior, which is a sea of freshly minted leather against Pistachio Verde. The Lamborghini cockpit spreads out around you with twin pod instrumentation in true European style. A sport steering wheel feels good to hold in your hands. It’s splined into a manual rack that offers crisp pinpoint steering thanks to close assistance from fully independent dual transverse wishbones with coil springs, hydraulic shocks and sway bars. Twin bucket seats wrap around and support you like no other. For its time, the Miura was one of the greatest supercars in the world.

Before you are two impeccable examples of what Lamborghini was building more than four decades ago. In no way were these assembly line automobiles, but instead each was hand-built one at a time as an exotic sport touring luxury car for the very affluent. Bobileff Motorcar Company in San Diego has methodically applied its talents to #3919, a ’68 Miura P400 in striking Pistachio Verde as well as Jerry Burbaker’s ’71 Miura P400S with SV features, #4832 in red and gold.

Lambo Miura Facts

Produced from 1966-72
Miura P400 from 1966-68
Miura P400S from 1968-71
Miura P400SV from 1971-72
Body designed by Bertone’s Marcello Gandini
Monocoque body and platform
Core body and platform in steel
Tilt front end and rearend in aluminum

Suspension/Brakes

Fully independent suspension with dual transverse wishbones with coil springs and hydraulic shocks fore and aft, with sway bars fore and aft
Four-wheel Girling ventilated disc brakes with twin power boosters and master cylinders in two separate systems for safety

Dimensions/Weight

Overall Length: 172.53 inches
Overall Width: 69.95 inches
Overall Height: 41.27 inches
Front Track: 55.49 inches
Rear Track: 60.56 inches
Vehicle Weight: 2,745 pounds
Weight Distribution: 44/46% front/rear

Engine/Transmission

3.9L DOHC V-12

. Horsepower Torque Compression

P400: 350 hp @ 7,000 rpm 262 ft/lb @ 5,000 rpm 9.5:1
P400S: 360 hp @ 7,700 rpm 286 ft/lb @ 5,500 rpm 10.7:1
P400SV: 380 hp @ 7,700 rpm 286 ft/lbs @ 5,500 rpm 10.7:1
Weber IDL40 3C 3V downdraft carburetors x 4
Electric fuel pump
Four chain/sprocket-driven mechanical camshafts with bucket tappets
Water cooled with two radiators and electric fans in front
Twin Marelli distributors
Wet sump lubrication on P400, P400S, P400SV
Engine and transmission share lubrication with wet sump system
Dry sump lubrication on P400SVJ
Five-speed transaxle with hydraulic clutch

Market Value

$20,000 to $30,000 in 1966-72
$500,000 to $800,000 in 2013-14

Lambo Did You Know?

0-100 mph in 6.50 seconds
185 mph top speed
24-gallon fuel tank
4 gallons of engine oil
4 gallons of engine coolant
13 mpg average
Conceived and developed by a maker of farm implements and economy cars
Lamborghini engineers Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace breathed life into the P400 turned Muira