The 1967 Lamborghini Miura Invented the Mid-Engine Supercar and Did It Perfectly the First Time
Three engineers at Lamborghini — Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace — built the Miura’s chassis on their own time, without official company authorization, because they believed that a mid-engine sports car was the right direction and that the best way to convince Ferruccio Lamborghini was to show him one rather than explain it to him. They were correct. Lamborghini approved the project. Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, 26 years old, styled the body. The result was unveiled at the 1966 Geneva Show as a rolling chassis and sold as a complete car the following year.
The Miura’s transversely mounted 3.9-liter V12 — sharing the engine block with the transmission in a single unit, a packaging solution that would influence supercar design for decades — produced 350 horsepower in the P400 variant and allowed a wheelbase short enough that the proportions Gandini drew could be realized. The car was 41.5 inches tall. Its hood line was lower than the roof of a standard briefcase. The proportions that made the Miura beautiful were directly consequent on the engineering decision to mount the engine transversely behind the driver.
The Driving Experience
The Miura’s reputation is more complicated than its appearance suggests. The aerodynamics produce front-end lift at high speed — the nose wants to rise above 150 miles per hour, a consequence of the shape rather than the designer’s intention — that requires steady nerves and a light touch on the throttle. The fuel systems on the early cars could lean out under hard cornering as fuel surged away from the carburetors, a problem that was addressed through the development of the P400 S and P400 SV variants.
The SV — the final development of the Miura, approximately 150 of which were built — separated the engine and transmission lubrication systems, addressed the aerodynamic lift through front-end modifications, and produced the most complete version of the original concept. It is also the most valuable, a relationship between final-development specification and collector desirability that holds across most great Italian cars of the period.
Driving a Miura requires the specific adaptation that all great vintage cars demand: the knowledge that the car was designed around the performance envelope of its era, that tire compounds and chassis development have moved the limits substantially since 1967, and that the car rewards the driver who adapts to its character rather than imposing contemporary expectations on it. Within those terms, the Miura is magnificent — the V12 sound at full throttle through a tunnel is one of the great automotive experiences remaining in the world.
The Market
Miura values have escalated with the broader Italian supercar collector market. A properly documented P400 S in good condition asks $2.5 million to $3.5 million. The SV commands premiums that push the best examples above $4 million. Cars with documented racing history or notable ownership provenance are beyond published price guides.
The specialist infrastructure for Miura maintenance is real but concentrated. Lamborghini Polo Storico provides official restoration support. Specialists in Italy and the United Kingdom who have worked on these cars for decades are the practical alternative. The cars are not maintenance-free, and the corrosion protection on Italian coachwork of the period requires attention that is specialized and expensive.
What cannot be argued is the Miura’s historical position. It defined the shape that all subsequent supercars would reference — mid-engine, low, wide, dramatically proportioned — and it defined that shape so completely on the first attempt that sixty years of subsequent development has not produced a better realization of it.