General Introduction

The Lamborghini Miura is a trend setter sports car. This car was manufactured by the Lamborghini Company from 1966 till 1973. This car was a trendsetter in the sense it made the place for sports cars in the then existing market. Sports cars were not in before the success of this model. The Lamborghini Miura had a mid-engined layout. It is one of the best two seater super cars till date. The company and especially the earlier models are the ones which are responsible for creating a trend for super cars. Before that the market of these super and sports car was very small.

Design

The Lamborghini Miura’s chassis were launched in 1965 in the Turin Motor show. Even though the body was not shown at that time, the car was an instant success and the company received many orders. The body of the Lamborghini Miura was designed by Marcello Gandini from Bertone. The car was finally launched in 1966 in Geneva Motor Show. The designing was excellently done and got instant fame. The engine was an unusual type for its time. The trunk was small and was located towards the rear of the super car just behind the engine. The car was costly as compared to the other cars of its time. People paid more to own this car as with other good things the designing of the car was done perfectly. It was a very attractive and nice looking car. Super car fans liked it the instant it was launched.

Engine

The engine of Lamborghini Miura has a configuration of 60 degrees V12, DOHC. The engine displacement is around 3929 cc. 350 bhp at 7000 rmp (base), 370 bhp at 7700 rmp (S) and 385 bhp at 7850 rmp (SV) versions are available. They have a power of 261 kW, 276 kW and 287 kW respectively). The engine is a very important segment of a sports car. The success and performance of a sports car is very much dependent on its engine. Miura was lucky in this regard.

Different Models Of Lamborghini Miura

The P400

P400 is one of the earliest models of Miura. It was powered with 3.9 L V12 engine. It had a power of 350 hp. The production of this model started in 1966 and continued till 1969. It was a very pricey model as compared to the contemporary models. It was priced at USD20, 000. Most of the Miura engines had such a system that the gear box shared the engine oil for the lubrication of both. This was a short coming of the model as due to this reason the oil change had to be done more frequently.

The P400S

The P440S Miura is more commonly known as the Miura S. This version was introduced in 1968. It had a more powerful engine as compared to the previous version. The interiors was also revised but not to that extent. The production of this model continued till 1971.

The P400SV

Lamborghini Miura P400SV with its added eye brows in the model gained instant success. The engine‘s capability was also enhanced again in this model. The performance improved to yet another stage with this version of Lamborghini Miura.

Other Models

P400 Jota, P400 SV/J, Roadster and P400 SVJ spider are the other versions.

The only problem with the early Miura models was that due to the use of a special type of carburetors, they sometimes caught fire. Ferrari suffered through the same problem. Still, in 2004 this car was ranked very high among the best sorts cars of 1960s and 1970s. Sports car international included Lamborghini Miura in the top ten list of Sports cars of all times.

Performance

The performance of Lamborghini Miura was exceptional. It attained the top speed of 288 km/hour or 179 miles per hour. It accelerated from 0-100 km/h in about 5.5 seconds. It completed a quarter of a mile in about 14 seconds. All these parameters prove that the car was very good as far as the performance is concerned. A Lamborghini Miura concept car was presented in 2006 at the Museum of Television and Radio. Although many new models have already come in the market and gained success, the Lamborghini Miura is still liked by the sports cars fans as being one of the best sports cars.