Some Background: The Lamborghini Miura

It is difficult to overemphasize the significance of the Lamborghini Miura. Few cars have stunned, inspired and otherwise incurred the use of superlatives. Much has been written about the car: its beauty, the circumstances surrounding its creation, its flaws and its idiosyncrasies. There are many opinions and detailed accounts of the model’s evolution (I am especially fond of the book by Marchet and Coltrin), but what is the most striking to me is the way in which it redefined an entire genre of car. It was fresh and revolutionary, technically and aesthetically, and impossibly beautiful: aggressive yet delicate at the same time, with a minimum of fussy details or trendy features (save perhaps the garish colors and heavy use of closely spaced black parallel lines). Today, they are highly sought after, and have played a pivotal role in establishing Lamborghini as we know it today.

I however, have always been ambivalent about the Miura. My father purchased one years and years before I was born and he still owns it, but I have never seen it run, and have only seen it three times in my life between 1990 and 2006. It has a long and colorful story associated with it, and as a result, the Miura has developed an almost mythical status for me. I grew up knowing that we had one, but never saw it, let alone rode in it. For me, the car existed only as two binders full of photographs and several files of receipts outlining decades of snafus, lawsuits, misappropriated funds, and other dramatic debacles.

News and Updates:

As always, updates on the restoration are coming somewhat regularly. 10 April 2008: We have decided to perform a cosmetic SV conversion and I managed to track down a set of SV tail lamps (no small feat). Click here to read about the SV tail light saga. 22 February 2008: Work has been continuing and there are pictures on the page for week 50. The bottom end assembly is underway and the rear brake calipers have been assembled. The reproduction 9" wheels from the United Kingdom have finally arrived, and so too have the crusty used distributors (the original ones got lost during the car's extensive shuffling). I finally aesthetically made over the site to replace the admittedly crude presentation of the old one. Thanks to a class I'm taking, I learned a number of useful tricks to make this thing look not quite so basic. Let me know what you think of it or if you have any suggestions. Also, I've made a few Miura T-shirts in various colours (orange, yellow, red, lime green of course, white, but no more black) and sizes (M-XL). Contact me if you are interested in acquiring one. Special thanks to my friend Paul who was able to turn a photograph I took into the appropriate vector-based image to be printed on the shirts. Quantities are quite limited. To the right, you'll find the proof image, and a picture of the finished shirts. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at dtscott@stanford.edu