Lamborghini Miura: A Guide To Every Version

Picture a supercar. Whatever came to mind, it’s almost certainly something with two doors, sitting audaciously low to the ground, and with an enormous, many-cylindered engine sitting behind the driver and in front of the rear axle. And the blueprint for whatever car you just imagined was the Lamborghini Miura.

The staggeringly gorgeous Miura blew everyone’s minds when it arrived in 1966, and nearly 60 years later, there are still very few cars that can compete with it for sheer impact and beauty. But just where did the idea for this car come from, and why is its legacy still felt in car circles today?

Origins

Company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini wasn’t interested in building mid-engined cars. A tractor entrepreneur, he started building sports cars largely out of spite after experiencing clutch issues on his Ferrari 250 GTE and subsequent poor customer service from the Ferrari factory.

“Fine,” said Ferruccio. “I’ll make my own elegant front-engined GT cars.” Although possibly not in those exact words. Still, from 1964, that’s exactly what Lamborghini did, in the form of the 350 GT, which was based around an all-new, Giotto Bizzarrini-designed 3.5-litre V12. Indeed, Lambo would keep making big front-engined GTs alongside its mid-engined flagships right up until the late 1970s.

It was only a group of young engineers – and by young, we mean they were all still in their 20s – working after hours on a secretive project, unbeknownst to Ferruccio, that led to the creation of the car that would kickstart a lineage that continues to this day.

The names most associated with the project’s engineering are engine genius Paolo Stanzani, chassis wizard Giampaolo Dallara, and a test driver who, by dint of being from New Zealand rather than Italy, had the far less exotic name of Bob Wallace.

It was at the 1965 Turin Motor Show that Lamborghini rolled out the first fruits of their labours: a bare chassis and drivetrain unlike anything the world had seen before. There had been a couple of mid-engined road cars before – namely the René Bonnet Djet and the De Tomaso Vallelunga – but nothing on this level.

Nestling in the chassis was Lamborghini’s quad-cam V12 in 3.9-litre form, sitting transverse behind the passenger compartment and ahead of the rear axle. Barely four months later, at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, it reappeared, now with a jaw-dropping body by an equally youthful stylist at Bertone, Marcello Gandini.

At this point, the prototype was just called the P400. P stood for ‘posteriore’ – ‘rear’, in reference to the engine’s position relative to the driver – and 400 for 4.0 litres, which was a little cheeky when it was actually a 3.9.

It was such a hit that a green light was given by Ferruccio, and it needed a proper name. Where Lambo’s front-engined GTs, the 350GT and 400GT, still had prosaic alphanumeric names, that simply wouldn’t do for a car like this. The company turned to its badge, featuring a raging bull, a motif Ferruccio had been inspired to feature after visiting a ranch in Spain that bred fighting bulls. The name of the breed of prized cattle that was bred there? Miura.

Over its lifetime and beyond, the Miura would become a cultural icon. It’s featured in dozens of films, most memorably in the opening of The Italian Job (although don’t watch to the end of that sequence if you like Miuras). It’s had a host of celebrity owners, from Jay Kay to Elton John and Twiggy to Miles Davis (he crashed his). Most importantly, though, it laid the groundwork for the modern bedroom wall poster supercar and helped establish Lamborghini as the name to beat for sheer automotive theatre.

P400

The first version of the Miura carried over that P400 name and is, in many people’s eyes, the original supercar. Certainly, it was the first to follow the accepted exotic recipe of a big, powerful engine in the middle of a dramatic, low-slung two-seater body. Its 3.9-litre V12 produced 345bhp, with a five-speed manual sending power to the rear wheels. Borrowing a packaging trick from the original Mini, the engine and gearbox were cast as one single unit, sharing lubrication.

It was claimed to be capable of hitting 172mph, although you’d have to be brave to get there. The shape of the nose, whilst undeniably gorgeous, created dramatic front-end lift at high speeds, something later versions sought to cure – largely unsuccessfully. 0-62mph, meanwhile, took around 6.7 seconds.

While exact production figures are tricky to pin down, Lamborghini itself says that 265 P400s were built between 1966 and 1968.

Roadster

At the 1968 Brussels Motor Show, a one-off Miura Roadster was displayed. Based on the P400, it featured a targa-style open roof, although it had no removable roof panel and was permanently open to the elements.

Despite looking reasonably production-ready, there doesn’t ever seem to have been any intention of putting the Miura Roadster on sale, but the prototype did go on to live an unusual second life: it was acquired by the US-based International Lead Zinc Research Organization, who traipsed it around the trade show circuit as a demonstration of the applications of lead and zinc in car manufacturing.

Having later been relieved of that particularly weird role, the car still exists today and has been fully restored.

P400 S

In 1968, the P400 was superseded by the P400 S. Power was up to 365bhp thanks to bigger intake manifolds and revised cam profiles, while top speed was now 175mph. It also received a few extra mod cons in the interior, including power windows and a locking glovebox lid (these, apparently, were the height of luxury in the late ‘60s).

Again, per Lamborghini’s own figures, 338 P400 Ss were built between 1968 and 1971, making it the most numerous variant.

Jota

The Jota was a one-off version of the Miura created by Bob Wallace in 1970 with a view to taking the Miura racing. Its name was the Spanish pronunciation of the letter ‘J’, the FIA’s Appendix J ruleset being the regulations Wallace had in mind.

The list of changes was extensive: the Jota had wild aero and reworked suspension, and the normal steel bodywork was replaced with a lighter aluminium alloy. A high-compression engine, new cams and a less restrictive exhaust system pushed power to around 440bhp, and the original fuel tank was replaced by dual tanks in the door sills for better weight distribution.

Sadly, the one and only original Jota burned to the ground shortly after being sold, when it was crashed near Brescia, Italy, in the early ’70s. There seems to be some disagreement online over who was driving – the car’s intended owner or someone from the dealer handling its sale. While the Jota never went further than an official one-off, a few recreations have been produced.

P400 SV

1971 saw the introduction of the Miura’s final iteration, the P400 SV – ‘Super Veloce’, Italian for ‘Super Fast’. It’s the easiest to distinguish visually, gaining a noticeably wider rear track and losing the distinctive ‘eyelash’ strakes around the headlights that earlier models had. The taillights were also different units. Revised cam timing and new carburetors took power up to 385bhp, upping the quoted top speed to 185mph.

The final handful of SVs also ditched the unusual shared casing for the engine and gearbox, separating them into a more conventional layout. Finally, the SV was the first Miura to get the option of air conditioning, which came as standard on US-market cars.

Lambo says that 150 SVs were produced until Miura production wrapped up altogether in 1973, making it the rarest of the three series production versions. The curvaceous Miura was succeeded by the wedge-tastic Countach.

SV/J

Following the demise of the original Jota prototype and the introduction of the SV, six Miuras were converted to so-called SV/J spec by the factory. These gained the Jota’s reworked suspension and hotter engine, as well as some of its aero package. A few more have been unofficially converted to this spec, plus another one by the Lamborghini factory in the ’80s.

SVR

Remember how we mentioned that a few Miuras were converted to SV/J spec? Well, one owner, German Heinz Staber, wanted something similar in after he crashed his Miura S in 1974. By then, though, the Miura – and all the necessary parts – were out of production, so Lamborghini politely told him it wouldn’t be possible.

Undeterred, Staver set about sourcing parts himself, including the brakes from a Porsche 917. In 1975, he turned up at the Lambo factory with a large wad of cash and a list of desired specs.

Some time between eight and 18 months later (depending on who you ask), Lamborghini had created this for him: the SVR. It was essentially an SVJ turned up to 11, and the closest thing in existence to the original Jota.

Soon after it was completed, Staber sold the one and only Miura SVR to Japan, where it lives to this day as part of the collection owned by legendary high-end Tokyo dealership Bingo Sports. Between 2017 and 2018, it was fully restored by the Lamborghini factory. 

Millechiodi

An ‘unofficial’ one off but one that’s nonetheless been embraced by Lamborghini, which fully certified it in 2020, the Millechiodi is a Jota-inspired one-off. It was created in 1975 by the same employees of Milan’s Lamborghini dealership that had owned the original Miura Jota before its untimely demise.

As well as an engine in a similar spec to the Jota and its distinctive front lip spoiler, the Millechiodi also features unique upswept rear bodywork. Its name means ‘1000 nails’, a reference to the many visible rivets used in the construction of its new body.

SV/J Spider

Perhaps the most mysterious Miura derivative, a car known as the SV/J Spider, popped up on Lamborghini’s stand at the 1981 Geneva Motor Show, some eight years after Miura production had ended. 

Converted from an earlier Miura chassis, it featured the SV/J upgrades, a targa-style open roof and an extremely early ’80s bodykit. Many at the time apparently assumed it signalled a run of converted Miura Spiders, but it was apparently just a one-off created for Lambo’s Swiss importer. The car still exists today, albeit thankfully shorn of that bodykit.

Miura Concept

In 2006, to celebrate the Miura’s 40th birthday, Lamborghini rolled out a retro-styled Miura Concept based on the then-current Murcielago and featuring its 6.5-litre V12 – still a direct descendant of the 3.9-litre that the original had used all those decades ago.

Although it didn’t look too far-fetched for production, Lamborghini was very clear at the time that it was just a one-off to celebrate 40 years of its original mid-engined flagship and that retro design was not part of its plan.

The company has only revisited one of its past models since, with 2021’s reborn Countach, and current design boss Mitja Borkert has told Car Throttle that the company won’t be going retro again for the foreseeable future.