Miura at sixty: the proportions of an idea

A mechanical decision can determine the entire image of a car. The Lamborghini Miura’s placement of its V12 behind the seats gave Marcello Gandini at Bertone a different set of proportions to work with.

Presented in 1966, the car brought that engineering arrangement into a low, flowing body. Its headlight details and rear louvres supplied smaller signatures, but the relationship between cabin and engine remained fundamental.

The sixtieth anniversary in 2026 offered a reason to reconsider that connection without reducing the car to performance figures.

The Miura’s lasting interest lies in the coherence between a technical proposition and an immediately recognisable shape. A change in where the engine lived altered what the car could look like, helping establish a visual vocabulary that subsequent mid-engined road cars would develop in their own ways.