If you like classic movies, you would not have missed the 1969 flick, The Italian Job, whose remake was the 2003 eponymous movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Jason Statham. And if you have seen The Italian Job, either of them for that matter, you would know the three Mini Coopers in the movies, both of them, are often extolled as being the best part of the film. But there was another car in the ’69 movie that made quite an impression on the viewers, and this was the orange Lamborghini Miura, which is seen and destroyed in the first few minutes of the movie itself.
Small, gorgeously built, and from a time when Lamborghinis were more flowy than edgy, the Miura is an undeniable classic and one that comes way more expensive than the Lambos of today. While the Miura may have been a flagship, being an exclusive car from an exclusive brand, not many of these were made. This is why each of them comes highly prized and priced today.
But let’s talk about that gleaming orange Lamborghini Miura from The Italian Job, and where it is today. Because no car has ever looked this good, as it drove down the Great St. Bernard pass between Switzerland and Italy…
The Story & History Of The Miura
It is said that the Miura was designed by Lamborghini’s engineering team in their spare time because the boss, Ferruccio Lamborghini preferred GT cars over and above the race cars that Enzo Ferrari churned out.
And when the engineers, Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace presented their prototype to Ferruccio Lamborghini as the P400, he gave them free rein, blown over by the design and the performance, equally.
And so the Miura came to be, the first supercar with a rear mid-engined two-seat layout, something which other supercars have followed as a mantra ever since. Introduced in 1966, the Miura remained in production till 1973 in different forms and some 764 of these came into existence. All came powered by the 3.9-liter V12 although Lamborghini could coax out different power from different versions of the car. It was also the fastest production car of its time.
The 1966-1969 P400 jetted 345 horses, and 275 of these beauties sold, despite the premium price of $20,000 back then. The car in The Italian Job is one of the P400 models from 1968 and one that took the audience’s collective breath away…
The Two Lamborghini Miuras In The Italian Job
Yes, you read it right. There were two Miuras used in this movie. One was that beautiful orange 1968 Miura P400 that is driven by Rossano Brazzi through the Great St. Bernard pass, which connects Switzerland to Italy.
The other Miura is the one that collides with a bulldozer strategically placed by the mafia, with the baddies pushing the wreck down a ravine, and basically created the whole movie plot. The production company, Paramount, found an orange Miura that had been wrecked in the Middle East and used it to show the wrecked movie car. Destroying an expensive Lamborghini did not make sense to anyone.
Then Lamborghini stepped in and provided that gorgeous orange car for the hero shots, the one which basically told people that this was the car to have, everything else was simply not good enough. After the production wrapped, this car passed through many, many owners into obscurity.
To trace the history, after the shooting wrapped, this car was sold to a dealership in Rome, and then it changed hands some four times, getting a bit lost in the process, and losing a bit of its shine. Fun fact: in 2005, the car was repurchased by the son of the original dealer, Norbetto Ferreti, before it moved on again. It was finally discovered in 2018, in the hands of car-collector Iain Tyrrell. By then, the car was not in that sparkling condition it once was…
Presenting, The Italian Job Lamborghini Miura
Fritz Kaiser, the founder of The Classic Car Trust, decided to get the car on a hunch. Although he was unsure about it because of a lack of paper trail, he had a feeling this was the movie car. So he bought the car for around $500,000, and then it went to Polo Storico, which is Lamborghini’s very own heritage restoration division because let’s face it, not only are Lambos expensive, the value goes sky high when it’s a classic. Today, the average value of a '60s Miura is well over $1 million.
In due course, it was ascertained that this Miura bore chassis #3586, and was the same one used in The Italian Job, produced by Paramount Pictures. This happened in 2019, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the movie, so double celebrations.
Luckily for the new owner, the Miura has not been driven all that much and bore only 11,800 miles. It had also undergone an engine replacement, authentic, of course. The 1968 Miura was also the only year when the Arancio Orange exterior was paired with white leather seats, although for the movie, to avoid staining, the seats had been swapped out for black ones.
Today, this iconic Miura has been restored to its former glory. And it may have found a forever home with its car collector and movie buff of an owner, Liechtenstein man Fritz Kaiser.
Sources: CarandDriver, TheDrive