Lamborghini Miura LP400

Lamborghini Miura P400S

Lamborghini Miura

Between 1966 and 1972, Lamborghini built what is now considered to be the first mid-engined, high performance two-seater sports car: the Miura. When it launched, it was the fastest production road car money could buy, with a top speed of 276 km/h (171 mph) and a 0-60 time of 6.7 seconds.

Several different versions of the Miura have been built, amongst which the P400, P400 S, P400 SV, P400 Jota, P400 SV/J, a Roadster and the P400 SV/J Spider - with the last four versions all being one-off versions of the Miura. All versions shared the same engine, however: a 3929cc mid-mounted four-stroke 12-cylinder-V engine.

Despite not being a cheap car (in today's dollars, a P400 would set you back around $114,000), the Miura was a great success for Lamborghini. And to say this great car almost never happened: it was designed in the spare time of Lamborghini's engineering team against the wishes of Ferruccio Lamborghini (the company founder), who wanted the company to evolve towards producing powerful grand touring cars, rather than racecars (probably because of the rivalry with Ferrari).

Anyway, the Miura did make it, and it wrote history. Here are a few pictures to celebrate this beautiful supercar.

... apparently this photographer didn't like the nose ...

... picture of the one-off roadster ...

... it even looks awesome as a toy car! ...

(picture by 5-G)