The Lamborghini Miura is a sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1966 and 1973. The car was the first supercar with a rear mid-engined two-seat layout, although the concept was first seen in a production road car with René Bonnet’s Matra Djet, introduced in 1964. This layout has since become the standard for high-performance sports and supercars. When released, it was the fastest production road car.

The Miura was originally conceived by Lamborghini’s engineering team, which designed the car in its spare time against the wishes[citation needed] of company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini, who preferred powerful yet sedate grand touring cars over the race car-derived machines produced by local rival Ferrari.

The Miura’s rolling chassis was unveiled at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, and the P400 prototype made its debut at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. It was well received by visitors to the show and the motoring press alike, who were all impressed by Marcello Gandini’s elegant styling and the car’s revolutionary mid-engined design.

Lamborghini’s flagship, the Miura received periodic updates and remained in production until 1973. A year later the Countach entered the company’s lineup, amid tumultuous financial times for the company.

During 1965, Lamborghini’s three top engineers, Giampaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace put their own time into developing a prototype car known as the P400. The engineers envisioned a road car with racing pedigree, one which could win on the track and be driven on the road by enthusiasts.

The three men worked on its design at night, hoping to convince company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini such a vehicle would neither be too expensive nor distract from the company’s focus. When finally brought aboard, Lamborghini gave his engineers a free hand in the belief the P400 was a potentially valuable marketing tool, if nothing more.

The earliest model of the Miura was known as the P400. It was powered by a version of the 3.9 L Lamborghini V12 engine used in the 400GT at the time. The engine was mounted transversely and produced 350 PS (257 kW; 345 hp). Exactly 275 P400s were produced between 1966 and 1969 – a success for Lamborghini despite its then-steep price of US$20,000 (equivalent to $180,390 in 2022).

The Lamborghini lamp has been transferred one by one to the Fiat 850.