Lamborghini Miura chosen and featured in the company's newly created badge. The car gained the worldwide attention of automotive enthusiasts when it was chosen for the opening sequence of the original 1969 version of "The Italian Job". In press interviews of the time Ferruccio Lamborghini was reticent about his precise birth date, but stressed that he was born under the star sign Taurus the bull. The earliest model of the Miura was known as the P400 (for "Posteriore 4 litri"). It was powered by a version of the 3.9 L Lamborghini V12 engine used in the 400GT at the time. The engine
V12 engine each piston can be smaller, lighter, and with a shorter stroke. Exhaust system tuning is also much more difficult on a crossplane V8 than a V12, so racing cars with V8 engines often use a complicated "bundle of snakes" exhaust system, or a flat-plane crankshaft which causes severe engine vibration and noise. This is not important in a race car if all-out performance is the only goal. Since cost and fuel economy are usually important even in luxury and racing cars, the V12 has been largely phased out in favor of engines with fewer cylinders. Engines are often designed around