Colouring in the picture

Lamborghini is an Italian company, and Italy is a colourful place. The production records we've decoded for you here are taken straight from the handwritten factory notes written in a hurry over 40 years ago, so don't expect consistency of colour or material names (bleu can also be blu, skay - vinyl - can be skai, Rosso Acrilico might be Rosso Miura and so on), and the same dealer or client name may be spelt how it sounds to an Italian native, or a temporary staffer, not to a foreigner.

We've obtained the Bertone records too, which are even tougher to decode: Miura buyers tended to change their minds about colours, and options, almost until the moment their car was delivered which caused headaches for the coachbuilder and factory. Several cars were ordered with air conditioning, for example, with dashboards plumbed to accept units which were never fitted. 'GD' sometimes appears next to the interior colours, meaning 'guida a destra', or right hand drive (RHD), but in some cases this was only specified later in the factory records, or not at all. Bertone sometimes delivered a painted and trimmed bodyshell to Lamborghini ready for assembly, only for them to repaint and retrim it differently if the client had changed his mind, or a more impatient client wanted his car first.

It's not a perfect science, and we welcome further first-hand contributions or documentation to help build a clearer picture. The Miura book will include all these updates.


This Register would not exist without help from these generous sources:

Valentino Balboni
Giorgio Santambrogio
Dario Campolunghi
Piet Pulford
Helio Oliveira
Antonio Palacin
Enzo Moruzzi
Bruno Bourras
Marcel Wallenburg
The late Bob Wallace
The late Ubaldo Sgarzi
The late Marcel de Lange