Most modern cars are used to rather shorter service intervals, but given that the Lamborghini Miura SVJ built for the Shah of Iran has covered barely 5,000 km from new, it was in remarkably fine fettle when it returned last month to the Lamborghini factory for the first time in over 30 years.
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This Miura SVJ, the first of just four built by the factory for VIP clients, cost nearly twice as much as the contemporary Miura SV on which it was based. Unlike the original Miura Jota which inspired this car’s styling, the SVJ was intended purely for road use as a louder, faster and more extravagant version of the standard SV. Former factory test driver and development engineer Bob Wallace recalls “the Shah wanted something special and we built it for him” and he remembers delivering the car, complete with bespoke studded Pirelli snow tyres, personally to St. Moritz where the Shah kept a winter residence. The factory’s “Certificato d’Origine” shows numerous special features including straight-through exhausts, racing style fuel filler, added air intakes front and rear, chin spoiler, up-rated engine and a flamboyant white leather interior. The Shah’s nephew recalls graduating after Military college and being offered the pick of his uncle’s 3,000 car strong collection as a reward, “except the SVJ” he laughs.
After the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Shah’s cars were siezed by the new Government and the SVJ remained in storage until sold, with nine other cars, to a Dubai businessman in the mid 1990s.
In March 1997 the SVJ was auctioned by Bonhams in Geneva where it set a new world record for the Lamborghini marque, knocked down for $497,500 to Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage for his growing car collection. After a year of negotiation, Bonhams again brokered the sale of the car at the end of 2003, this time from Mr. Cage to a collector based in England with a soft spot for this car and its history. Bonhams arranged to have the car returned to the Lamborghini factory on his behalf where it has just been carefully checked by the factory’s recently inaugurated restoration department, being signed off by one of the team who originally built it back in 1971 – factory test driver Valentino Balboni.
This uniquely historical Lamborghini – probably the most important of all the cars to leave the St. Agata factory – makes its European public debut at the Louis Vuitton Concours d’Elegance in England on 4th/ 5th June.
For further information please contact;
Simon Kidston
[email protected]
Tel. +41 22 300 31 60
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All photos/Text: Bonhams SA Copyright