RESTORING THE LEGEND
The whereabouts of The Italian Job Miura have long been rumoured, but it was only when the car came into the possession of one-time Olympian, former chairman of the Red Bull Sauber Petronas F1 team and founder of the Classic Car Trust (classiccartrust.com) Fritz Kaiser that its provenance was confirmed.
“I collect iconic ’50s and ’60s sports cars,” says Kaiser. “I had a Cisitalia 202 as a cornerstone at the beginning of the collection, and at the end I wanted a Miura. I began searching for one four years ago and looked at 20-25 cars, but wanted one with important history – then I saw this. The dealer claimed it was The Italian Job car but couldn’t prove it. I did enough pre-purchase homework to feel confident and bought it, but didn’t think it would take a year to finish the job!
“The key people in this process were Antonio Ghini and Corrado Lopresto. Antonio introduced me to Enzo Moruzzi, who gave us a living testimony to go with the evidence Corrado found in the Lamborghini archives at Polo Storico. The seats were always the centre of the discussions: there is a handwritten note from Moruzzi saying ‘put the seats back in’ – and this was the only car in that period finished in that specification.”
Lamborghini went through the case with a fine-tooth comb before the official confirmation was issued in March 2019, and Kaiser embarked on a sensitive restoration: “In collaboration with Polo Storico we had to decide the correct way to restore the car. It would have been wrong to make everything new. I wanted to retain all of the original elements of the car – and here I could trust Corrado, he is passionate about detail.”
The chassis, body and drivetrain were rebuilt, but the patina of the all-important interior was carefully preserved. Since completion, and despite the car’s value (estimated to be three times the €1m a top P400 would usually fetch), Kaiser has driven the Miura on the road as well as attending key events worldwide: “I enjoyed taking it to Pebble Beach – it was great to see how many people knew and loved the car. To me its value is not the money, it is its importance in the history of Lamborghini – this is the car that made the company famous. It’s fun, it’s beautiful, it’s wonderful to drive and I’m proud to own it.”