Lamborghini
January 13th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
43 years after its Turin Show debut the one-and-only 1965 Turin Salon Lamborghini Miura chassis, designed by chassis genius Gian Paolo Dallara, and the raging bull company’s first-ever transverse mid-mounted V12 engine (0293) has been acquired by Los Angeles based collectors.
The iconic show chassis had been stored for the past 30 years in Cyprus by that country’s original Lamborghini concessionaire, Marios Kritikos. While visiting the Lamborghini factory in 1977, Mr. Kritikos took a fancy to the historic show unit. After successfully negotiating a future home for it, he arrived at the factory with his Range Rover and trailer, loaded it and drove away. That was in April of 1978. The original invoice for the chassis survives, together with unpublished period photographs of the chassis being built in 1965, on display at the December, 1965 Turin Salon, and at the Lamborghini factory in July, 1966. Mr. Kritikos documented his collection of the car on April 7th, 1978.
The 1965 Turin Salon Miura represents the very first mid-engined supercar theme for all marques, and is rightly considered to be the Holy Grail from which all road going supercars descend. Its re-emergence represents the most important Lamborghini discovery to date.
Thirty years later, in December of 2008 representing both parties and facilitating the transaction were Miura specialists Joe Sackey and Gary Bobileff. Only one month after its discovery it has been imported to the US and now resides in the restoration facility of world-renowned Gary Bobileff, where it will undergo a complete refurbishment to bring it to its former show glory.
The last time the general public saw this automotive icon was 43 years ago on display at the Turin Salon. It will make its USA debut in the summer of 2009. Details to be announced.
December 8th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The 2009 NZ Classic Car magazine Yearbook is on the shelves now, so grab your copy today.
In this special issue we have a tribute to the Lamborghini Espada, and a guide to finding and restoring a Ford Mustang. We have a whole Best of British: Past and Present section featuring Rolls Royce, Jaguar and Aston Martin. We have some great pictures from the local sports racing scene in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s and get an opinion on the best racing driver of all time. We also consult with Meguiar’s to bring you a guide on keeping your classic gleaming through the summer. All this and more special news, reviews and technical support to keep you informed on the world of classic motoring.
December 8th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
At the recent Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini surprised everyone by unveiling the four-seater¨Estoque — almost exactly 40 years after it introduced the Espada, its first four-seater GT
Fresh from the astonishing debut of the Miura in 1966, Ferruccio Lamborghini gave permission for his talented team to work up a genuine four-seater car.
Ferruccio’s brief was simple and to the point — “I want to build the Italian Rolls-Royce!”
In order to achieve his boss’ wish, Giampaulo Dallara, Lamborghini’s head engineer, started with a long wheelbase version of the Miura’s steel platform chassis. Dallara initially planned a mid-engined car — which would give him luggage space both front and rear — although mounting the Lamborghini V12 engine transversely, as in the Miura, was not an option as the engine was too large. Apparently rejecting a front engine placement, Dallara’s solution was to hack the Miura’s V12 in half to produce a 1964.5cc slant-six. This engine, he reasoned, could then be hung over the new car’s rear axle line. Dallara’s concept allowed the resulting car to be relatively compact, provided a four-seat cabin and ample luggage space.
Read the rest of this entry »December 4th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Many classic car owners think their vehicle is unique for one reason or another, but it still remains a rarity to find a true one-of-one car. This 1968 Lamborghini Miura Roadster recently advertised for sale in the states is an example of a totally unique vehicle. It was built for the 1968 Brussels Motor Show, with coachwork done by Bertone. The Miura Roadster features an open top with larger air intakes integrated into a rollover hoop. The rear of the car was also reshaped with a larger spoiler and unique taillights. The car was recently restored to its original condition including its beautiful metallic blue paint. For sale now the price is unknown but it will be quite a bit more than the estimated $330,000 ($619,000 NZ) cost of restoration.
August 6th, 2008 by NZCC Editor
Like the dinosaur, European supercars are in danger of becoming extinct. Currently, Europe’s auto manufacturers are locked in a deadly battle with environmentalists who point out that, with their massively powerful engines, supercars are pumping out as much as 2-3 times as much carbon dioxide as more standard cars.
These spoil sports — sorry, environmentalists — reckon that there is no place for the supercar in a world battling untoward emissions and climate change.
Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini are experiencing an uphill fight as they argue that the cars they produce are iconic vehicles that combine classic design with state-of-the-art technology — technology that could even help to save the environment in the long term. Either way, very few so-called supercars are pressed into service as daily drivers, so their overall contribution to CO2 emissions is very small.
However, the EU proposes to legislate for a decrease in CO2 emissions from cars to an average of 120g @ km by 2012 — currently the average is 160 grams.
This is potentially going to harm many supercars, most of which can squirt out as much as 200-500 grams a kilometre.
For smaller manufacturers there is some relief — those that produce less than 10,000 vehicles a year will be allowed to negotiate their own targets with the EU big-wigs. That lets smaller niche manufacturers — such as Lotus and Morgan — off the hook and would also throw a life-line to newly independent Aston Martin.
However, that won’t be much help to Porsche, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini as they are all part of larger auto groups — so, for instance, Ferrari wouldn’t have the opportunity to set their own emission standards as they’d be lumped in with the much larger volume of vehicles produced by their parent company, Fiat.
What does the future hold for the supercar? Electric power? An electrically powered Ferrari would be a bit hard to swallow — the whirr of electric motors isn’t going to stir the blood quite as efficiently as the howl of a petrol-powered V12 at full noise!
In the meantime, the German and Italian auto makers are arguing strongly against these new proposals — let’s just hope that common sense prevails. It would be a less interesting world without Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and Maserati sports cars — we can’t all afford to own one, but we can at least admire them from a distance.
Of course, there is another solution if the worse comes to the worse — ship all the world’s supercars to New Zealand. We’ll look after them for all those well-heeled, supercar-owning Euros — then they can nip down here for a few days every year and thrash them around one of our race-tracks before heading off home. It’s not such a daft idea, ‘supercar resorts’ already exist in the US and Spain for just such activities — so why not here?
The world would be a poorer place without cars like the Ferrari Enzo
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