[bsa_pro_ad_space id=14]
Many generations of car guys watched in disbelief as the orange Miura that shows up to drop jaws as it drives down one of Italy’s many strips of winding road in the opening minutes of the classic 1969 movie ’The Italian Job’ never exits that tunnel in one piece. The good news is that the car we see traversing the Grand Saint Bernard Pass survived the filming and here’s what’s even better: the car that was considered to be the one used during filming was certified by Lamborghini as being genuine and then was restored by the Italian company’s Polo Storico department that specializes in nut-and-bolt restorations.
Can a car roar its way into the folklore of motion pictures after appearing on screen for a grand total of four minutes? If that car is Lamborghini’s first mid-engined car, the Miura, then the answer is yes. Granted, it helps that the said movie isn’t some C-rated afterthought of a movie that barely made its way on home video but a masterpiece starring Michael Caine and a trifecta of Minis that were so iconic they got a reboot by the time the BMW-engineered Mini Cooper was launched in the early noughties.
But the Miura remains the unsung four-wheeled hero of that movie and, now, that very P400, chassis #3586, is shiny and its leather sparkling. Having said that, everything is else is as it’ should be: the driving position is still unpleasant, and the bulky center console with those six Jaeger dials looks notoriously out of place. Did they forget about it and just added the whole thing at once before sending the first finished car to the Geneva Auto Show in 1966? Does it matter? Well, not really. You tend to not question cult classics.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=15]