Back in the early Seventies the Lamborghini Miura was the closest thing to a street legal race car you could buy, but when the late Bob Wallace turned one of these beautiful super cars into a track ready Miura Jota things changed considerably for those that owned a factory standard Miura and wanted to have something different.
After a lot of persuasion the one of a kind Miura Jota, chassis number 5084 with engine 30744, was sold on February 8. 1972 to InterAuto in Brescia for an undisclosed amount of money … only to be destroyed in an accident with a mechanic behind the wheel. The Miura Jota 5084 was lost forever as the remains were too far gone to ever be restored … however many years later a very close replica would be built on another Miura chassis by UK owner Piet Pulford.
After several owners were left empty handed by the loss of the original Miura Jota and the reluctance of the factory to create another one the next best thing was offered to these fortunate enthusiasts, a modified Miura with Jota inspired design with fixed headlights and several air vents cut into the bodywork, some even had a dry sump lubrication system to allow very hard cornering without the risk of ‘oil starvation’ of that expensive V12 engine.
The factory built Jota replica would be called Miura SVJ, and only four or five were officially built … however there were several, more elaborate replicas made too, not really factory original cars but more customized Miura … some perhaps not a beautiful as original, but at least one was almost as impressive as the original Jota … the 1968 Miura SVR, which is listed for sale in Japan at the time of writing.
Back in 1968 a green Lamborghini Miura chassis number 3781 left the factory doors with engine 2511 heading to Germany, to Heinz E. Steber who enjoyed the car for several years until he got inspired by the track prepared Miura Jota … so in 1975 he convinced Hubert Hahne to have the factory rebuild his Miura into the impressive Miura SVR we know today.
It took the factory until April 1976 to complete the transformation from Miura into Miura SVR … the bodywork was heavily modified and widened to get the Jota looks, to make sure the fenders were nicely filled a set of massive BBS wheels with central locks were mounted, at the rear a pair of Pirelli P7R got installed at 345/35ZR15 … the same size to be used on the Countach S models.
To make sure these wide tires would remain as flat as possible on the street a true race suspension using Koni dampers got fitted together with Girling disk brakes usually found on the Porsche 917 to make sure this Raging Bull could stop even faster than she could accelerate.
And this Miura SVR was fast, a lot faster than original thanks to a dry sump conversion, modified cams and Weber carburetors with open funnels, protected by a mesh to avoid dirt getting into the engine, with a 3920cc displacement and an ‘open’ exhaust system this engine would produce enough power to propel this 1,330 kg Miura to speeds way beyond the limits on the open road.
To keep the Miura SVR stable at high speeds the typical chin spoiler was added to the front while a Countach inspired wing was mounted on the roof of this red beauty … much like the wing found on the first Walter Wolf Countach, the white one with a similar roof wing.
Inside the original brown seats were replaced with a pair of black Recaro racing seats and four-point racing harness seat belts to keep the driver strapped in during his high speed stints while he could listen to a Blaupunkt audio system … or even better, that V12 engine just behind his back.
About 40 years ago this truly unique Miura SVR was sold to a collector in Japan for a rumored amount of $550,000 … a lot of money back in the late Seventies, the car would remain in the hands of the same person during her stay in Japan … where Miura 3781 went through a complete, three year restoration that has just been finished a few years ago and that included changing the interior into this gold imitation leather we see today.
At the time of writing this one of a kind Miura SVR was listed for sale by Bingosports … price on demand only, but with the real Jota lost forever and the recreation Jota in the UK not being listed for sale … this SVR is the next best thing, so don’t expect it to be cheap.