| The Lamborghini Miura was the world's first true | | | | were even more extensive changes to the basic |
| mass-production, mid-engine super car when it was | | | | Miura design. The interior was completely stripped, and |
| introduced for 1966. It was a striking blend, offering the | | | | the floor was made of aluminum instead of steel. |
| styling and mechanical configuration of the era's | | | | What's more, the suspension was modified to |
| wildest, all-out endurance-racing machines, all rolled into | | | | accommodate wide wheels and tires, the |
| a package that was reasonably streetable.But for all | | | | front-mounted fuel tank was replaced by a tank in |
| the Miura's obvious race-car underpinnings, Lamborghini | | | | each door sill, and the engine got extensive |
| never fielded a competition version of the car. Of | | | | modifications that increased output of the Miura S's |
| course, it wasn't that the idea of putting its pioneering | | | | engine by 48 hp, to 418.Adding it all up, the Jota was |
| exotic on the track hadn't occurred to anyone. Plenty | | | | obviously a thrilling car, and it stirred the imagination as |
| of people within the company hoped they'd eventually | | | | to what was possible with the basic Miura |
| be called on to prepare a Miura for such use.Foremost | | | | components. But Wallace knew all along it would be a |
| among those competition proponents was | | | | waste of time to argue that the cash-strapped |
| Lamborghini's chief development driver Bob Wallace. | | | | manufacturer should go racing with it.Soon after the |
| From the beginning, he'd been championing the idea. | | | | only Jota was built, Lamborghini put the car up for sale. |
| But resources within Lamborghini were chronically | | | | The floundering automaker simply couldn't afford to |
| limited in those early days -- the former tractor | | | | have assets tied up in what was considered an |
| manufacturer had built its first production automobile | | | | esoteric experiment. According to Wallace, the Jota |
| just three years before the Miura's | | | | was purchased by a rich industrialist in Brescia.Shortly |
| introduction.Throughout the Miura's production run, | | | | thereafter, the wealthy owner's mechanic destroyed |
| Wallace played with the idea of a racing version. In | | | | the car in a fiery crash. And thus in one quick flash |
| 1970, this culminated in the Jota, a company-funded, | | | | ended the short, bright life of the ultimate |
| one-off "toy" he built in the Lamborghini shop. The car | | | | Miura.Fortunately, super-car fans can draw some |
| differed from stock Miuras most obviously in styling | | | | consolation from the fact that the Jota legend was |
| revisions that included broader fenders, a prominent | | | | perpetuated in a number of Miura-based replicas -- |
| front spoiler, air vents behind the front wheel wells, and | | | | several of which were reportedly built by Lamborghini |
| fixed instead of pop-up headlights.Beneath the surface | | | | itself at the request of customers. |