Back in the early Seventies Automobili Lamborghini SpA was building one of the most beautiful exotic road cars ever, the sensual looking Miura, powered by a large 4-Liter V12 engine mounted transversally behind the driver and passenger this was the car that caused major headaches over at the competition from Maranello.
At that time Bob Wallace was the chief test driver over at Sant’Agata, and he had an urge for speed … and racing, however the late Ferruccio always resisted spending a fortune to have one of this cars officially raced … but that didn’t hold back Bob Wallace too long.
In 1970 Bob was allowed to use all the factory tooling and actual car parts to create a special car … after hours and during the weekend, Ferruccio did notice the passion Bob Wallace had about creating a race car but didn’t want it to interfere with day to day business.
Bob Wallace took chassis number 5084 and installed engine number 30744 into it, but he didn’t stop there … as a race car to full Appendix J specifications Bob wanted to make his Miura as light as possible. The chassis was modified heavily to shed weight, the engine was tuned to a massive 440 bhp at 8,500rpm and the entire bodywork was rebuilt from Avional … a light alloy usually found in the aircraft industry … Bob even went as far as redesigning the looks of his car.
Sure the Miura Jota looked like a regular Miura with some wide fenders and wings, but if you look closely you will notice not many parts of a factory original bodywork are still present, the front received fixed headlights behind plexi covers to have a better airflow around the car, the corners up front receive small fins that increase down force at speed, there are two massive air vents in the front hood and a quick fuel filler. On the side we notice riveted door panels and plastic side windows with a sliding section to allow some fresh air into the cockpit that might become rather hot with that large V12 engine just inches behind your back.
At the rear we see very wide fenders over the massively wide center lock racing wheels (Dunlop tires were used at first, later on Pirelli tires would be tested on the original Miura Jota) and a quartet of massive exhaust pipes peek through the lower section of the rear hood, which also features additional air vents to keep everything cool.
Sadly the original Bob Wallace built Lamborghini Miura Jota was sold by the factory … it would later be involved in a serious accident that caused this one-off to catch fire … the Bull was completely lost and could not be restored anymore … so it seemed we would never be able to admire the Miura Jota anymore … until an avid enthusiast from the United Kingdom made a brand new Jota for himself.
Starting out with an old Miura bought in the US Piet Pulford invested 15 years and an enormous amount of money to recreate the legend … he even had Bob Wallace himself put together an engine as close to original Jota specs as possible … how’s that for attention to detail.
As a side note … this new Miura Jota recreation took part of the 50th Anniversary Grande Giro event during which it was driven on the Italian roads … imagine the thundering sound of this car to frighten onlookers in those picturesque villages along the route.
So we can enjoy the sight of this beautiful Miura Jota from time to time as it attends several of the more important events these days … but if you really want to be able to admire this car every day in the comfort of your own home I found the perfect solution for you : MR Collection!
That’s right, it has been long overdue … but finally someone took up the gauntlet and created a nicely detailed 1/18 scale model of this one of a kind Lamborghini Miura Jota … Italian based MR Collection already had the 1/43 scale model (as did Minichamps by the way) but if you are like me and prefer larger 1/18 scale models you have been looking to get your hands on this one for ages.
The resin scale model shown on these photos is probably the first, hand made production prototype, and despite a few small errors it does look very impressive if you ask me … do keep in mind MR Collection 1/18 resin scale models do not feature any opening parts … but the models I have on display around the house usually do have the doors and hoods closed anyway so I don’t really find ‘sealed resin’ to be a problem … I’m getting this one, that’s for sure.
