Collection Classics: Elemental Changes
August 1, 2008
Ferruccio Lamborghini had scarcely set up shop when he turned Europe’s burgeoning gran turismo scene upside-down with the Miura chassis, a low-slung engineering marvel built around a transversely mounted V-12 engine. Visitors to the 1965 Turin motor show did not seem to mind that a body had not yet been designed for the car—they placed orders anyway. Even Ferrari compatriot Sergio Pininfarina eyed the avant-garde platform with a combination of lust and envy.
"I [was] suffering from the fact Lamborghini was developing a mechanical layout with a mid-engine, while Ferrari was insisting on the front engine," Pininfarina recalls. "I [told] Ferrari that we should also make a mid-engine car, but he said, ‘No, it is too dangerous for the customers. For racing, yes.’"
Lamborghini’s coachbuilding commission went to Pininfarina’s cross-town rival, Nuccio Bertone, who was anxious to forge a relationship between his carrozzeria and the upstart GT manufacturer from Sant’Agata Bolognese. And so Marcello Gandini, Bertone’s young chief stylist, led the project to a sublime aesthetic result.
But the Miura wasn’t simply an exercise in stunning sheet metal—it came with a 4-liter engine producing 350 hp, 5-speed transmission, fully independent suspension, four disc brakes, and a claimed top speed of 186 mph. When the finished car broke cover at Geneva in 1966, it elicited breathless praise from both sides of the Atlantic. "We vote [the Miura] far and away the most exciting production development since the war," England’s CAR magazine enthused after sampling the prototype. Road & Track seconded that opinion, calling the production Miura "the most exciting, glamorous, and prestigious sports car in the world."
Lamborghini and Bertone followed the Miura with a one-off "Roadster" version that would go on to a second career as the zinc-coated Zn 75. According to Bertone, the Roadster was produced "on the request of one of our clients who, enthusiastic about the Miura, wished to possess a completely original open version of it."
This one-of-a-kind original was unveiled to great fanfare at the 1968 Brussels motor show. The open-air car’s rakish appearance was emphasized with a flattened roll-hoop structure. The doors had no exterior handles, but accessing those inside the cabin was not a problem because the Roadster also had no side glass or roof. Matte-black buttresses framed the exposed engine. Unlike production Miuras, exhaust gasses exited through mesh vents beneath unique taillights. The show car wore an icy shade of metallic blue paint dubbed Peacock, with contrasting rocker panels.
Inside, white leather covered the seats, door panels, lower center console, and the top of the transmission tunnel. Lamborghini relocated rocker switches below the instrument cluster, rather than along the roofline, as on the production cars. The hexagonal steering wheel, with four spokes and a center hub, borrowed its design from the one in Bertone’s Lamborghini Marzal 1967 show car.
"With so few exciting roadsters available these days," reported Road & Track, "it is sad to … report that Bertone says no production is planned for the Miura Roadster. On the other hand, if you’ll rush down to your Lamborghini dealer and demand one, maybe Bertone and Lamborghini could be persuaded." But mass-market demand did not materialize, and even the client who commissioned the Roadster never took delivery.
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