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| Ex-Shah of Iran Lamborghini Miura SVJ
returns to Sant’ Agata after 33 year absence |
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| (Published on 6/3/2004) |
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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.
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. |
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