This ultimate Miura SV Speciale just sold for £3.2 million

A Lamborghni Miura was the shock of the day. While some others struggled to make their presale estimates this very special Miura made £3.2m – more than a million over its highest estimate.

Why is this Lambo so special? The metallic gold supercar is a 1971 P400 SV, which makes it the ultimate Miura and one of only 150 SVs ever built. But it also has a Speciale in its name – which makes it far rarer.

The Frenchman who ordered it from Sant’Agata already had a Miura and must have been something of a Miura expert, for he specified a few trick extras like dry sump lubrication and a ZF limited-slip differential. And the only other Miura with those features was Lambo test driver Bob Wallace’s experimental Miura Jota. The Miura Speciale’s alloy V12 delivered 385PS at 7,850rpm – not bad for 1971.

Highest value lot of the sale was, as expected, the 1939 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a Grand Prix winner in the 1930s and former property of King Leopold of Belgium. Gooding & Co billed the supercharged straight-eight powered car as arguably the most important, original and coveted of all competition Bugattis. The auction house was looking for £10m plus, but on the day it went for a still impressive £9.5m.

Two other Bugattis in the Passion of a Lifetime sale went to new owners and, like the Lambo, they cruised past their highest guide prices. A 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante made a spectacular £7.85m against a guide of £7m plus, while a 1928 Type 35C Grand Prix, was equally successful, going for £3.9m against a guide of £3m plus.

The one car of the 15 that didn’t sell on the day? That – incredibly – was a 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, one of the most revered and sought-after cars this country has ever produced. It had come with a guide of £7-9m but that proved too rich. The last DB4 GT Zagato to sell at auction was at the Bonhams Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard sale at Goodwood in 2018, when the ex-Jim Clark car ‘2 VEV’ sold for £10.1 million.

All told, the auction of the 15 cars, all from an exceptional single owner collection, raised £34 million including the premiums, against a pre-sale estimate of £37m – still not a bad day’s work…

Here’s what the cars sold for, including the premium, with presale estimates in brackets:

• 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, sold for £9.535m (£10m plus)
• 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, sold for £7.855m (£7m plus)
• 1955 Aston Martin DB3S, sold for £3.011m (£3-4m)
• 1928 Bugatti Type 35C Grand Prix, sold for £3.935m (£3m plus)
• 1935 Aston Martin Ulster, sold for £1.583m (£1.6-2.2m)
• 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV, sold for £3.207m (£1.6-2m)
• 1919 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost, sold for £1.023m (£1-1.4m)
• 1924 Vauxhall 30-98, sold for £1.247m (£800-1.2m)
• 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America, sold for £709,400 (£700-900,000)
• 1939 Bentley 4.25-litre Cabriolet, sold for £517,500 (£450-600,000)
• 1965 Lamborghini 350 GT, sold for £379,500 (£400-550,000)
• 1959 Lancia Flaminia 250 Sport, sold for £310,500 (£400-500,000)
• 1927 Bentley 3 Litre Speed sports tourer, sold for £345,000 (£350-450,000)
• 1924 Lancia Lambda Torpedo, sold for £391,000 (£320-400,000)

Images courtesy of Gooding & Co.