Lamborghini Miura owned by 19-year-old student sells for approximately $2.1 million

A 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 S with unique looks and an interesting back story sold for $2,095,000 at an RM Sotheby's auction held in California in conjunction with the recent Monterey Car Week.

Launched at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, the Miura established the line of Lamborghini V-12 supercars that would follow the Aventador (and, soon, its successor) today. Its sleek Bertone styling and transverse mid-engine layout helped Lamborghini gain fame.

This particular example (chassis #4671) is a late Series II P400 S model with a strengthened frame, improved cooling, larger Venturi Weber carburetors, ported intake manifolds and cylinder heads, CV joint rear axle, more hardcore so-called "transitional" performance upgrades, such as brakes on the Miura SV model.

Chassis No. 4671 was imported to the U.S. by a 19-year-old Iranian college student attending the University of California, Berkeley. Her parents purchased the car, took delivery of it at the Lamborghini factory, and instructed their daughter to sell the car upon its arrival in the U.S., as listed, presumably as a means of extracting money from Iran amid political instability in the country prior to the 1979 revolution.

The daughter apparently did not sell the car, and from the repair bills included in the car's file, she drove it for approximately two years. It was then damaged in a fender bender and parked in a warehouse in the California Bay Area for over 40 years.

The current owner acquired the car in 2019 and had it repaired. The crash damage has been repaired and the Miura is now driveable, but the original gray and white paint (with blue interior) has now been replaced by bare metal bodywork, which, according to the listing, is still present on the door jambs and front bulkheads.

The final sales price is in line with expectations of $1.8 million to $2.2 million. This price is not surprising considering that last year a low-mileage Miura SV - arguably a more desirable model - was listed for $3.2 million. The same cannot be said for the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition, which sold for $1.6 million at the same auction.

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