The Lamborghini Miura was introduced in 1966.
Lamborghini’s engineering team developed the Miura prototype, known internally as the P400, during the mid-1960s. Giampaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and test driver Bob Wallace pursued a road car with racing-car levels of performance, even though company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini generally preferred refined grand tourers.
A bodyless rolling chassis appeared at the 1965 Turin Auto Show. The completed prototype, styled by Marcello Gandini at Bertone, made its public debut at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. The response was so enthusiastic that Lamborghini approved production, and the car became one of the defining supercars of its era.
The Miura is especially significant because its transverse, rear-mid-engine layout helped establish the basic architecture later used by many high-performance road cars. Its 3.9-litre V12 produced about 350 PS in the original P400. Production continued from 1966 to 1973, through P400, P400S and P400SV versions, before the Countach succeeded it.