1971 Lamborghini Miura SV #4878

1971 MIURA SV
Chassis #4878
Engine #30644
Prod. #626
25 May 1971

4878: a Tentative History
by Hubert Fabri

Mr Jacques Dembiermont was a thorough and experienced driver who had the means to indulge in his passion but, unlike his close cousin Pierre Noblet, was forbidden by his parents to ever race... Nevertheless, his drives from Lille to his villa on Cap Ferrat are stuff of legend as recalled by his nephew Gregory, the son of P. Noblet.

Having inherited a foundry business, his engineering background enabled him to aptly influence improvements on his often changing stable of fast cars. Typically, he was the first to install disc brakes to his 300SL in the late fifties! His cousin Noblet and him were welcome at the Mercedes-Benz factory (Pierre Noblet was to run a large Mercedes dealership in Lille), and the car mysteriously disappeared for a few hours during one such visit! No doubt the brakes improvement had aroused the curiosity of the D-B engineering team.... Such was Mr Dembiermont's technical foresight...

After a brace of Ferrari berlinettas (oh, so common!..) he bought one of the first Miuras, promptly to add some 80,000 km to it! She was quickly followed by an "S" which underwent the same motoring treatment... Dembiermont's repeated custom with Lamborghini and his technical background had, in the meantime, created a bond with the factory and with Mr. Lamborghini himself.

With his growing experience of the Miura, he could not fail to realize the design shortcomings of the car and in particular of its lubrication system in which engine and gearbox shared sump and oil. The transverse position of the engine further made it prone to oil starvation due to centrifugal effect upon hard cornering.

So, 4878 was quite a special order and her engine was specified to be very potent! Bob Wallace states they fitted the original Jota's block with further refinements: Mr. Dembiermont devised not only a separate oiling system for engine and gearbox, he also had the factory implement a dry sump circuit for the engine which instantly solved the oil starving issue.

After dismantling the engine, it was enlightening to see the quality of the work to achieve this double aim: the passageways between crankcase and gearbox are crudely plugged with welding material while the engine sump is of fabricated plates... External oil lines that run from the heads are alo specific to 4878.

It all seemed to have worked as it is the only car Dambiermont kept beyond a couple of year's hard use, and well into the eighties in fact. I met with Mr. Ciclet, then French importer who also remembered the car very well: hard but well driven, thoroughly maintained.

She then went to a couple of French owners and was sprayed ubiquitous red-orange, Jean Guikas got her for a long while: by far the best Miura he'd driven, he told me!

He sold her to a Norwegian who fell in love with the Miura while honeymooning in a 350GT on the Riviera! He drove her straight home, his wife following in the 350, the story doesn't say how successful his marriage was... But his business wasn't and he was compelled to sell the car at Bonham's auction in 2002. In the meantime he'd found that one of the heads was porous and Guikas supplied him with another one from a later casting batch.

I was terribly tempted by this very special car at Bonham's , but resisted having bought my Freestone & Webb 8L Bentley a few weeks before... A big mistake as she was purchased by someone who tarted up an approximation of her original hue on top of the several layers she'd suffered, had a VERY poor and inefficient "restoration" made by people with obviously no knowledge of where to look to fix those cars... All in waste in fact except for the hike in market price that I had to fork out to prize her away from such inadequacy... But, as they say, "quality remains long after the price is forgotten!" I am not sure Lamborghinis are quality cars though, but they are certainly full of qualities!

So we started all over again... And discovered she'd had a prang at the RH front, had had steel profiles welded atop the corroded ones (!!!), had lost her original bonnet (as well as the head mentioned above), was fitted with the wrong distributor, and the list goes on...

Mssrs Salvioli of Top Motors in Nonantola and Baccheli & Villa of Carrozeria Autosport in Bastiglia are among the best for proper work on Ferraris and Lamborghinis with Salvioli having served most of his career at the Sant'Agata factory. We went through the unpleasant discoveries mentioned to find confirmation that this indeed is a very special Miura... It excites cognoscenti such as them and they relished returning her to her original splendor... A head of the correct period batch is now being fitted and all necessary work done to repair the RH front chassis to original design. The bonnet has been properly "re-skinned" and all traces of chassis corrosion and structural weaknesses eradicated.

We decided to depart from originality in one area: as I found the black interior somber and dull, I decided to replace it with a much more appropriate and elegant "Testa di Moro" leather with light carpets. It is in perfect harmony with the unusual gold of the paintwork. This was expertly executed by Mr Paratella, the gentleman who actually trimmed Miuras in the period! I am glad I did the change.

The quality of the workmanship, mechanical and cosmetic, is absolutely superb wherever one looks and graces this most harmonious of body clothing this most remarkable drivetrain... I've had several very different cars restored over the years in different countries from 1933 Alfa Monza to pre and post-war Bentleys to road and GP Bugattis, so can safely say I have a broad experience of the process and I am stunned by this restoration: The Italians are so natural at doing it!

Now, is she better than new? I don't know as I didn't look too critically when I first sat in a Miura... This was at the 1967 Belgian motorfair and I was 15 at the time! Philippe de Barsy, who became a noted motoring journalist, was tackling the demonstration drives to would-be customers and, just as he had taken me for my first over-200km/hr ride in a 350GT the previous year, he was kind enough to take the passionate (and probably pestering!) kid I was again in the Miura...

This Demo-drive took nearly 40 years to turn me into an owner... Which obviously raises the important question: how is she to drive? The honest answer is I don't know much yet as winter is upon us with its damaging salt and grit... I had had a brief, cautious 60km spell around the Modenese workshop, on narrow roads bordered with unwelcoming ditches, before she was shipped to Belgium on her way to England. And I finally got behind the wheel for over 200km in sunny and freezing weather last week. First impression is of a wide car, the widest I've driven, not surprising with the transverse V12.

She has a delightful engine with a seemingly infinite power-band (but I am running in @4000rpm and temperatures were so low...), a terribly heavy clutch and very long gearchange throws, no surmise to a wieldy car... But, surprisingly, one gets used to the "monkey-esque" driving position while steering seems light and precise. Brakes appear mushy, though but I didn't need to use them much...

No much feel about handling or predictability at these cautious speeds either, I will have to wait for the return of more clement weather. But, in the meantime, she graces my garage and feasts my eyes!

	*Miura P400 SV*		Last updated Jan 12, 2006
	This is the factory-installed dry sump engine of 4878. The block is claimed to be that of the original Jota as confirmed by the 2002 fax below from Bob Wallace. These 3 bottom photos Copyright © 2004 Graeme Bryant		1971 MIURA SV Chassis #4878 Engine #30644 Prod. #626 25 May 1971 4878: a Tentative History by Hubert Fabri Mr Jacques Dembiermont was a thorough and experienced driver who had the means to indulge in his passion but, unlike his close cousin Pierre Noblet, was forbidden by his parents to ever race... Nevertheless, his drives from Lille to his villa on Cap Ferrat are stuff of legend as recalled by his nephew Gregory, the son of P. Noblet. Having inherited a foundry business, his engineering background enabled him to aptly influence improvements on his often changing stable of fast cars. Typically, he was the first to install disc brakes to his 300SL in the late fifties! His cousin Noblet and him were welcome at the Mercedes-Benz factory (Pierre Noblet was to run a large Mercedes dealership in Lille), and the car mysteriously disappeared for a few hours during one such visit! No doubt the brakes improvement had aroused the curiosity of the D-B engineering team.... Such was Mr Dembiermont's technical foresight... After a brace of Ferrari berlinettas (oh, so common!..) he bought one of the first Miuras, promptly to add some 80,000 km to it! She was quickly followed by an "S" which underwent the same motoring treatment... Dembiermont's repeated custom with Lamborghini and his technical background had, in the meantime, created a bond with the factory and with Mr. Lamborghini himself. With his growing experience of the Miura, he could not fail to realize the design shortcomings of the car and in particular of its lubrication system in which engine and gearbox shared sump and oil. The transverse position of the engine further made it prone to oil starvation due to centrifugal effect upon hard cornering. So, 4878 was quite a special order and her engine was specified to be very potent! Bob Wallace states they fitted the original Jota's block with further refinements: Mr. Dembiermont devised not only a separate oiling system for engine and gearbox, he also had the factory implement a dry sump circuit for the engine which instantly solved the oil starving issue. After dismantling the engine, it was enlightening to see the quality of the work to achieve this double aim: the passageways between crankcase and gearbox are crudely plugged with welding material while the engine sump is of fabricated plates... External oil lines that run from the heads are alo specific to 4878. It all seemed to have worked as it is the only car Dambiermont kept beyond a couple of year's hard use, and well into the eighties in fact. I met with Mr. Ciclet, then French importer who also remembered the car very well: hard but well driven, thoroughly maintained. She then went to a couple of French owners and was sprayed ubiquitous red-orange, Jean Guikas got her for a long while: by far the best Miura he'd driven, he told me! He sold her to a Norwegian who fell in love with the Miura while honeymooning in a 350GT on the Riviera! He drove her straight home, his wife following in the 350, the story doesn't say how successful his marriage was... But his business wasn't and he was compelled to sell the car at Bonham's auction in 2002. In the meantime he'd found that one of the heads was porous and Guikas supplied him with another one from a later casting batch. I was terribly tempted by this very special car at Bonham's , but resisted having bought my Freestone & Webb 8L Bentley a few weeks before... A big mistake as she was purchased by someone who tarted up an approximation of her original hue on top of the several layers she'd suffered, had a VERY poor and inefficient "restoration" made by people with obviously no knowledge of where to look to fix those cars... All in waste in fact except for the hike in market price that I had to fork out to prize her away from such inadequacy... But, as they say, "quality remains long after the price is forgotten!" I am not sure Lamborghinis are quality cars though, but they are certainly full of qualities! So we started all over again... And discovered she'd had a prang at the RH front, had had steel profiles welded atop the corroded ones (!!!), had lost her original bonnet (as well as the head mentioned above), was fitted with the wrong distributor, and the list goes on... Mssrs Salvioli of Top Motors in Nonantola and Baccheli & Villa of Carrozeria Autosport in Bastiglia are among the best for proper work on Ferraris and Lamborghinis with Salvioli having served most of his career at the Sant'Agata factory. We went through the unpleasant discoveries mentioned to find confirmation that this indeed is a very special Miura... It excites cognoscenti such as them and they relished returning her to her original splendor... A head of the correct period batch is now being fitted and all necessary work done to repair the RH front chassis to original design. The bonnet has been properly "re-skinned" and all traces of chassis corrosion and structural weaknesses eradicated. We decided to depart from originality in one area: as I found the black interior somber and dull, I decided to replace it with a much more appropriate and elegant "Testa di Moro" leather with light carpets. It is in perfect harmony with the unusual gold of the paintwork. This was expertly executed by Mr Paratella, the gentleman who actually trimmed Miuras in the period! I am glad I did the change. The quality of the workmanship, mechanical and cosmetic, is absolutely superb wherever one looks and graces this most harmonious of body clothing this most remarkable drivetrain... I've had several very different cars restored over the years in different countries from 1933 Alfa Monza to pre and post-war Bentleys to road and GP Bugattis, so can safely say I have a broad experience of the process and I am stunned by this restoration: The Italians are so natural at doing it! Now, is she better than new? I don't know as I didn't look too critically when I first sat in a Miura... This was at the 1967 Belgian motorfair and I was 15 at the time! Philippe de Barsy, who became a noted motoring journalist, was tackling the demonstration drives to would-be customers and, just as he had taken me for my first over-200km/hr ride in a 350GT the previous year, he was kind enough to take the passionate (and probably pestering!) kid I was again in the Miura... This Demo-drive took nearly 40 years to turn me into an owner... Which obviously raises the important question: how is she to drive? The honest answer is I don't know much yet as winter is upon us with its damaging salt and grit... I had had a brief, cautious 60km spell around the Modenese workshop, on narrow roads bordered with unwelcoming ditches, before she was shipped to Belgium on her way to England. And I finally got behind the wheel for over 200km in sunny and freezing weather last week. First impression is of a wide car, the widest I've driven, not surprising with the transverse V12. She has a delightful engine with a seemingly infinite power-band (but I am running in @4000rpm and temperatures were so low...), a terribly heavy clutch and very long gearchange throws, no surmise to a wieldy car... But, surprisingly, one gets used to the "monkey-esque" driving position while steering seems light and precise. Brakes appear mushy, though but I didn't need to use them much... No much feel about handling or predictability at these cautious speeds either, I will have to wait for the return of more clement weather. But, in the meantime, she graces my garage and feasts my eyes!