

The second, whose identity is not known, was a wreck that had reputedly been returned to the factory after an accident in the Middle East. The first – which is possibly #3586 – appears in all the driving shots. What is certain is that two different Miuras were used for filming. Sadly, Harris died in August 2012, after a 53-year career in films. The main film crew was shooting elsewhere, so the job was delegated to a second unit consisting of a skeleton crew directed by John Harris. Even the 2001 book The Making Of The Italian Job, which contains interviews from numerous people associated with the film, is sketchy on this part. Whatever the outcome, it’s a fascinating story.ĮXACTLY WHAT went on during the few days spent filming the opening scenes of The Italian Job has never been clear. But read on, examine the evidence, and make up your own mind.
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It has to be said that there are a number of dissenters who claim that this is not the movie car, and Octane cannot definitively say that it is. That dashtop is a crucial piece of evidence in the case for this being the car from The Italian Job, and we’ll come to it later. In fact, looking at the condition of the dashtop, I would say that the car has been garaged for most of its life, because it has not been damaged by exposure to sunlight.’ The electrical equipment, underbody finishes – all the things that naturally age – are time-warp undisturbed.

In this car it’s all consistent and factory-spec, including every bit of carpet, and shows very little wear. ‘The interior trim in early P400 Miuras was of poor quality, and certainly not built to last decades.
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The engine block was replaced in the 2000s because it had cracked – we still have it – but the owner was extremely well connected with the factory and managed to obtain the last brand-new Miura SV block, which is in the car now. ‘The body had a respray just a few years ago but otherwise it’s not had major restoration. ‘Although we bought the car in France, it has been in Italy for almost all its life, and I’m convinced that the 19,000km recorded on the odometer are genuine,’ Iain continues. We had a very limited window of opportunity, and the process was all very James Bond-ish: I was escorted down to a secret underground carpark in Paris to view it. ‘A friend of mine, Keith Ashworth, and I bought the car as a joint project. IAIN TYRRELL, proprietor of Cheshire Classic Cars and a Lamborghini specialist for some 30 years, acquired what he believes is The Italian Job Miura in 2014. Amazingly, though, the actual car being driven in that sequence has never been identified. The idea of smashing up one of the most beautiful supercars ever made will cause Octane readers physical pain – and the Miura was very much a new model when The Italian Job was filmed during the summer of 1968. Love it or loathe it, you can’t forget that opening scene. Certainly it’s hard to think of another movie with a cast list so eclectic that it ranges from Noel Coward to Benny Hill, via Michael Caine. Many people adore the film some are less enthusiastic a few find it excruciating. It’s a sequence familiar to tens of millions of Britons, and millions more across the globe the result of countless Christmas-time and holiday repeats on television since The Italian Job was released in 1969. As the crumpled, smoking remains of the Lamborghini are pushed down the mountainside, a Mafia boss throws a wreath after it, with bitter irony. The car roars into a tunnel… and then there’s a horrendous crash, which, we soon discover, is because the Mafia have hidden a huge bulldozer inside the tunnel.
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We see its driver – a typically dapper Italian silver fox, wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette – deftly hurling it around the mountain hairpins, to the soundtrack of Matt Monro crooning On Days Like These. A bright orange Lamborghini spears across an elegant viaduct in the Italian Alps. IT’S ONE OF the most evocative openings to a movie ever made. Now the mystery may have been solved Words: Mark Dixon. Prove that the length of the two midline segmets, one connecting the midpoints of sides $A_8A_1, A_4A_5$, and the other connecting sides $A_2A_3, A_6A_7$ are equal.For decades, the identity of the Lamborghini used in one of the most famous opening scenes in movie history has remained unknown. Let $A_1A_2\dots A_8$ be a cyclic octagon.
