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The Lamborghini Miura celebrates its 50th anniversary

It was 1966 when the Lamborghini Miura changed the automotive world. With its mid-mounted V12 engine, gorgeous bodywork styled by Marcello Gandini for Bertone, and engineered by Lamborghini’ personnel Gian Paolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani, the two-seater redefined the sports car concept. Ferruccio Lamborghini never revealed what had inspired him to use the name of a breed of extraordinary, tough fighting Miura bulls, a legend of Spanish bullfighting. Certainly for him, a man born under the star sign of Taurus, from which he proudly took a coat of arms that adorned all his industrial activities, christening a car after a fighting bull must have seemed completely natural. Matadors often wrote about the unmistakable gaze of the Miura: the look of a true, astute and strong fighter. The name was therefore not only concise, at just five letters, but also particularly fitting. Work on the Miura proceeded in frenetic earnest. Gandini recounted how between October and February they worked every available hour, seven days a week, in order to meet an unmissable deadline: the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, where the Miura would be the undisputed star. In 2016, 50 years on from the birth of the iconic Miura, Automobili Lamborghini is celebrating this important anniversary with a series of events around the world dedicated to customers and enthusiasts. The celebrations culminated in the Miura Tour from June 8 to 12, the rally which saw Miura owners come to Italy for a 500 km journey through the Italian regions of Emilia, Liguria and Tuscany. The tour saw the participation of twenty of the best surviving examples of the Lamborghini Miura, built between 1966 and 1972, coming from Japan, the US and other European countries for the event. The City of Bologna welcomed the arrival of the vehicles on June 8, where they were put on display in the prestigious setting of Piazza Minghetti. On the morning of June 9, the procession set off towards the company’s headquarters in nearby Sant’Agata Bolognese, where the owners visited the plant and attended the inauguration of the new Lamborghini Museum. That afternoon, the convoy of Miuras continued on to Varano de Melegari, stopping off to visit the engineer who created the Miura, Gian Paolo Dallara. On June 10 the, vehicles set off from Parma towards Viareggio with a stopover in Liguria, in the magnificent setting of Portovenere. On June 11, the Tour reached Tuscany, passing through unique settings such as Lucca and Florence, where the vehicles were put on display until June 12 in his toric Piazza Ognissanti. As part of the celebrations, Automobili Lamborghini sent two Miuras from its Museum along the roads featured in the film The Italian Job, directed by Peter Collinson. Mirroring the opening sequence of the 1969 cult film, the cars traveled up the hairpin bends of state road 27 around Great St. Bernard mountain, in the heart of the Alps: a climb of almost 2,000 meters. During the event, the “fathers” of the Miura met in a warm reunion. This get-together involved engineers Gian Paolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani, who were in charge of the technical side, and Marcello Gandini, who developed the exterior styling for Carrozzeria Bertone. Vehicles from Anas (the government-owned Italian company that builds and maintains roads) and the Polizia Stradale (Highway Patrol) escorted these Lamborghini super sports cars up to the Great St. Bernard Pass, which was opened especially for this event. The new Lamborghini Museum The Lamborghini Museum, opened in 2001 at the company’s headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese near Bologna, has been completely renovated to create an authentic experience that takes visitors on a journey from Lamborghini’s past into the future. Visitors are immediately greeted by the new concept, featuring white floors and gray tones on the walls to bring out the colors of the vehicles on display and the displays, inspired by the brightest colors in Lamborghini’s history. The new Museum was inaugurated on June 9, 2016 in the presence of Stefano Domenicali, Lamborghini’s Chief Executive Officer, coinciding with the arrival at the company of the first stage of the Miura Tour. The visitors’ museum experience is divided into chapters: on entering, they are greeted by the sound of an Aventador and a Huracán roaring by in a typically Emilian setting, immediately immersing them in the unmistakable sound of Lamborghinis in action. They then go on to meet the first vehicle created in Sant’Agata, the 1963 350 GT, and immediately afterwards see the now legendary Miura, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. The area of the Museum dedicated to technology includes, as well as the most famous engines, a history of the brand’s evolution through the models which saw the introduction of the most important technological innovations, such as the Sesto Elemento with its use of carbon fiber and the Asterion’s hybrid design. Still on the ground floor, visitors now take a leap into the future with the Urus, the Lamborghini SUV concept in development for a 2018 debut. On the upper floor there are two main themes: in one, all the main Lamborghini models are on display, starting with the current Aventador and going back to the front-engined classics, while the other area is dedicated to motorsport, with the design and colors reproducing the world of motor racing. The central part of the floor is dedicated to the Miura and its 50 years of history; for this important anniversary, the only example of the roadster model has been put on display, alongside the rolling chassis which demonstrates the refinement and technological innovation of the 1966 chassis. The Lamborghini Museum, which is open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday, also gives visitors the possibility to see the assembly lines for current models (booking required). This is a unique way for Lamborghini enthusiasts to gain a complete understanding of the legendary brand’s history, which today continues on the path of Ferruccio Lamborghini’s original visionary idea.

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