Another Miura has surfaced for sale this week. This one is the same model and year as the P400S we featured a little over a week ago. While not as dramatic in silver, this example for sale in California has had a recent engine rebuild and comes with an interesting history.

1969 Lamborghini Miura P400S

Chassis 4039 is a standard production, normal P400S (Miura S) built and sold in both production and model year, 1969. It is one of only 338 similar examples built and the 357th sequential Miura out of a total production run of just 763 examples of all three versions (P400, S & SV.). The initial order for the car was internal (not assigned to a particular client) and the car completed under Job or Sequence no. 357 on April 17th, 1969. The car remains in the original delivery color combination of Argento Metalico (light metallic silver) and standard black interior. The original engine which remains with this particular example to day is No. 30357.

The car is listed by Lamborghini records as destination Torino and the car was in fact delivered new and sold by LAMBERAUTO an official agent in Torino:

Lamborauto Service S.N.C. di Messori Riccardo
Via Antonio Canova, 20
10126 Torino
011 6965477

LAMBERAUTO remains an active dealer to this day under the direction of Sig. Messori Riccardo and their showroom remains near the city center business district on the left bank of the Po river. They were at the time a prominent dealer and official servicing agent for Lamborghinis but primarily noted today for the service work as well as being an official FORD service center.

Peter Coltrin photographed the car at the Turin Motor Show later in 1969 and in and around the Parco Cavalieri di Vittori Veneto for an unpublished magazine article. The photos remain today in the Peter Coltrin Collection and as far as as currently known have not ever been published. This Miura had been registered to the current owner for the past twelve years in Tokyo, Japan until a sale and purchase by our company last week. Japanese registry records provided two additional clues on this Miura's earlier history prior to our purchase. The year of first registration in Japan was "SHOWA 54, Year of the Sheep" which translates to 1979!

The car was first registered for the road in June of 1979. It was registered to the last Japanese owner in January of 2000; "HEISEI 12, Year of the Dragon." The car had original Italian ownership documents that were surrendered to obtain Japanese import and registration documents in early 1979 and the car is believed to have been flown rather than shipped by ocean as departure city was Milan to Tokyo rather than Genoa to Tokyo. While Genoa had a decent size airport, Milan as a departure city is usually and indicator of a flight.

The first and possibly only Italian owner's name and contact details are still missing. The other two Japanese owners are both known. It would appear at this time that Miura S, s/n 4039 has had only three owner's from new and remains one of the least known, seen or discussed examples to come to market in some time.

Miura S, s/n 4039 is a fully "matching numbers" example with no rust or accident history, coupled with an ultra-short chain of ownership and careful care and maintenance by each previous owner. It is an ultra-original example with a recent rebuild and break-in time only on the engine and gearbox. Additional research continues regarding this Miura's early history and possible use during the 1969 Turin Motor Show.

The last Miura we featured was up for sale at $650,000. This particular car undercuts that figure by just a bit, but is still solidly in the heart of where Miura values currently lie. If someone could confirm that this was the Turin Motor Show car, that would certainly add a bit of appeal for collectors.

-Paul