A moving art with a dream for the track.
The Lamborghini Miura goes down in automobile history as one of most breathtaking and stunning car ever made. Its speed and glorious sound from the trend setting mid-mounted flat 12 backs up its looks. But what if all that wasn’t enough?
That’s what late Bob Wallace, former chief test driver for Lamborghini from the early 60's to the mid 70's thought as well. As a man who surrounded his life working with some of the most legendary racecars in history. When he joined the company of Sant’ Agata, he envisioned Ferruccio Lamborghini’s finest creation as a race car. Ferruccio Lamborghini however, have no interest in having any of his cars in competition but seeing the racing passion in the New Zealander. He allowed Bob to experiment by providing him a Miura chassis, an SV spec engine, full access to the workshop and tools, and provide funding on research and development for Bob’s new project. The result is the Miura Jota SVR.
The car first went through a crash diet. The glass windows were replaced with plastic, interior stripped down to the bare essentials, the pop-up headlights on the stock Miura was ditched for fixed units, new wider wheels made of magnesium, and body panels made out of a new alloy called Avional that was used in aircraft construction but also in motorsport. Bob also integrated Avional in the chassis by replacing sections of the floor with the lightweight alloy.
To improve handling, apart from the wider wheels to accommodate fatter rubber, new suspension was fitted and the stock fuel tank was split into two smaller ones mounted at the door sills like the Ford GT40 for better center of gravity. Because the new position of the fuel tanks, extra vents were cut into the front fenders to assist cooling. Aerodynamic enhancements such as a giant front splitter and a new rear spoiler mounted on the top of the rear hatch to improve downforce that plaques the stock Miura.
The flat 12 also got a makeover, with new cams, fully electronic ignition, and have a higher compression ratio. The engine also received race car style dry-sump lubrication which do away the need of an oil pan which provide many benefits include further weight saving and prevent oil starvation during high speed cornering. The engine is rated at around 440 hp and can hit 450 hp at maximum tune.
Due to financial downfall at Lamborghini, Bob had to put an end to his project. Sadly, the car was later destroyed in an accident by a mechanic. But Bob’s effort wasn’t all for nothing, some wealthy Lamborghini clients have heard about the existence of Bob’s creation and asked Lamborghini to convert their Miuras to the spec of Bob’s Miura. For an undisclosed price, Lamborghini agreed and a handful of Miuras were converted as a way to commemorate a piece of a less known history of Lamborghini.
This is one the current releases by the Tomica Premium line that made my jaw drop in awe when it was first released. The curves of the prettiest Lamborghini ever is executed nicely with an opening rear hatch to show the reworked flat 12. It’s a great car to get into collecting Tomica Premium and beginning of an addiction.
That’s all for now. Ciao.