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After successfully negotiating a future home
for it, Marios Kritikos arrived at the
factory with his Range Rover and trailer,
loaded it and drove away. |
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Forty three years after its Turin Motor Show debut the
one-and-only 1965 Turin Salon Lamborghini Miura chassis,
designed by chassis genius Gian Paolo Dallara, and which
was significantly 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chassis survives, together with unpublished period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, as well as
photos of the chassis 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
restorer 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. Veloce Publishing Ltd will
publish "The Lamborghini Miura Bible" by Joe Sackey in
January 2009.
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