|
|
|
Miura ILZRO ZN75 Spyder |
Last updated May 21, 2001 |
||
       |
1968 MIURA P400 ROADSTER ILZRO ZN75
History of the ZN 75 ILZRO is the corporate research and development activity of the lead and zinc industry worldwide which had, by 1966, developed new alloys, coating system, plating systems, techniques for use of our metals by the automotive industry which needed a dramatic "vehicle" to introduce these developments to a broad segment of the automotive industry, not simply to the few people with whom our industry had worked but to the industry at large domestically and internationally. In the fall of 1966, a budget to develop the concept was provided. Since the car was principally intended for Detroit and for U.S. automotive makers, it was desirable to obtain the advice of a senior stylist from one of the major automobile companies who could serve as a consultant and advisor. Mr. John Foster a senior stylist of the Ford Motor Company agreed to serve with us on a consulting basis In a way that would not conflict with his principal duties with Ford Motor Company. One of the early concepts was to modify a Ford Mustang which, at that time, was being acclaimed as a breakthrough in automotive styling. During the course of the study, we were advised by senior representatives of the Ford Motor Company that it would be unacceptable to them to take a Ford vehicle and restyle it for general showing. At the same time consideration was given to styling a new car to be presented to the automotive industry. It was considered that this would have drawbacks if we might anticipate a new design of one of the three major companies which would be to our detriment By early 1968, Mr. John Foster felt that the best approach would be to take the exciting Lamborghini Miura which was acclaimed at that time as the most beautiful and dramatic new sports car ever to be produced. Through ILZRO's Italian member, Monteponi & Montevecchio, an approach was made to Mr. Nuccio Bertone to identify his willingness to work with us to restyle the Miura utilizing the lead and zinc industry's materials. With initial acceptance of the idea, John Foster and the writer flew to Italy to met with Nuccio Bertone and with Paolo Stanzani, then manager of the Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini. Mr. Bertone was most gracious in his welcome and agreed to our concept provided, of course, that the Lamborghini people would also agree to our proposed project. Subsequent to the Bertone meeting in Torino., we visited Stanzani in S'Agata to offer our proposal. By this time, Lamborghini and Bertone had built their Spider, the Miura roadster which was shown early in 1968 at the Brussels Motor Show. Quoting from Box and Crumps book,"'The History of Lamborghini", "The roadster appeared shorter in its wheelbase which was merely an illusion due to the absent roof line but from any angle this Lamborghini was a fabulous looking car." Stanzani did not want us to modify a production Miura but offered to sell us the Miura Spider to rework. His offer was accepted, and Foster and I returned to Torino to tell Nuccio Bertone and an agreement was made to set up a team including stylists from Carrozzeria Bertone, Mr. Foster and the writer. The concept was now about to be realized to use the most beautiful sports car in the world as the means for presenting all the new technical developments resulting from ILZRO's research and development activities over the past ten years. Ken Altrofer of he ILZRO staff was set up as project manager to bring together component parts which would have been made for what was to be called the ZN 75 from all over the world. This was truly an international show car made up of parts fabricated by ILZRO's member companies worldwide. The scheduling was a fantastic job. It needed the cooperation of the people from Lamborghini and we had an utterly fantastic working relationship with Nuccio Bertone who is to be congratulated for his kindness, cooperation and styling genius. We must add to that the ideas and concepts of John Foster showing what would be acceptable to Detroit since the car was originally intended to present our concepts to Detroit. It was also planned but in 1969, we had not realized that there would be full participation of ILZRO's members worldwide in presenting the car globally. In late May, the car was completed and a private showing was held at a villa in Torino to representatives of the Italian automotive industry. It was a very proud day as the car was already, in its first showing, a classic and an outstanding beauty. The car utilized zinc alloys in cast and wrought form (extrusions, forgings and sheet) to provide the trim on the car including fender moldings, wheel covers, grilles, mounts for the retracting headlamps, the front and rear bumpers, and moldings around the windows and aft engine component. The original carburetors, cast in aluminum, were replaced by zinc carburetors. ILZRO's engineering alloys were used to provide castings for valve covers, oil pumps and filters, transmission covers and the like. The trim and moldings in the cockpit were wrought zinc alloys including the steering wheel made from zinc plate. To set off the trim components, the car was painted in a complex metallic golden green paint with a black paint base. The dark green color served as a perfect background for the zinc trim system which was used on the car. A major feature of the car was the zinc trim system which included, as mentioned above, sheet extrusions and die castings. The interior of the car was done in green suede with lead panels to provide sound attenuation for road noise. Comparing, a standard production Miura with the ZN 75, was to compare two beautiful women -one with and one without makeup. The Zn 75 became a classic car even during its first showing. There was no comparison in the beauty of the Zn 75 compared to production Miuras appearing in the same exhibit which happened in Montreal and in presentations in Australia. After the car was finally completed and the details attended to following the Torino showing, the car was flown to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the exhibit for presentation of the ZN75 and its components was to be accomplished. There is an interesting styling note to be pointed out here. In Box and Crump's book on "The History of Lamborghini" they state that"The roadster appeared shorter in its wheelbase which was merely an illusion due to the absent roof line but from any angle this Lamborghini was a fabulous looking car." The reason the car appeared foreshortened was that the original paint system applied to the original Miura was a light blue metallic paint. The rocker panel and air scope were painted white. It was a broad paint and It was for this broad paint that the car appeared foreshortened not the roof line. When we looked at the car again in Cincinnati, we noticed that the car again appeared foreshortened rather than a long, low, sleek vehicle. At that point, I noted that the rocker panel which now was a chrome plated zinc extrusion appeared to be the same white, bright colored paint which again made the car seem foreshortened. At that time, I had the grooves in the extrusion painted with the body color to give the appearance of a series of bright and dark lines. This simple styling feature then lengthened the car out and took away the apparent stubbiness into the paint. Once the exhibit was completed, the car was taken to Detroit where several formal Presentations were made at the Sheraton Hotel and the Engineering Society in Detroit. The car was also taken to each of the major motor companies where It was shown to engineers, stylists, and senior automotive executives. The response was excellent. Many people said that it was the most beautiful materials car that they had ever seen. In early 1970, It was shown at the SAE Show in Detroit, followed by the Body Engineers Show in California. It was also taken to Montreal for the Montreal Automotive Exposition, where it was acclaimed as the most beautiful car in the show. It was flown to England where it was exhibited to all the U.K. automotive manufacturers. It appeared on a feature show on the BBC. Following the U.K. presentations, which included not only the automotive manufacturers, but also the London auto show, the car was flown back to the U.S., where it went on to other major cities. It also was shown at the Science Museum in Toronto. After shows in the Far West, the car was loaded into a container and shipped by sea to Japan where again made tours of all the automotive manufacturers in Japan, appearing on Japanese television. After completion of the Japanese tour, the car was again loaded in a container and shipped to Australia where it was shown in Sydney and Melbourne, visiting GM, Ford, Chrysler and Vauxhall, finally returning to Sydney for the International Auto Exposition held there. After completion of the Australian tour, the car was again loaded on board ship and taken to Europe where it was shown to major automobile companies in Europe. After completion of all of its shows, the car was returned to the U.S. and subsequently purchased by the author as high bidder for the car. After presentation the car was restored to operating condition for use as a road car. Early in 1978, it was decided to present the car again to the automotive industry in Detroit. As always, it received outstanding acclaim as a fantastically beautiful car with streams of visitors seeing it at every facility in which the car appeared. Approximately $200,000. (1969 dollars) was put into the ZN 75 program. The contributions of Nuccio Bertone and John Foster were of tremendous importance in producing such a beautiful vehicle which has received such acclaim worldwide. It attracted the attention as we had planned and developed interest in our materials and served as a reminder that the lead and zinc industry were alive, imaginative and creative. As stated before, wherever the car was shown, it was agreed that it was the most beautiful materials car ever developed. Bertone's styling of the Miura has achieved acclaim everywhere and the ZN 75 is the pinnacle of that success in styling and beauty. Although the car is now 10 ears old, its ageless and beautiful. It has been described as the outstanding example of Italian automotive sculpture. With its travels worldwide, many more miles were put on the car in traveling than appear on the odometer. This one single vehicle has probably been seen by more people than any other automobile that has ever been built through its appearance at automotive shows worldwide, its presentations worldwide, and its many appearances on television in the countries were it was shown. The preceding information, kindly provided by Eric Melanson, was written by Shrade F. Radtke, Executive Vice President, International Lead Zinc Research Organization, Inc. in approximately June of 1980 as he was preparing to donate the vehicle and take a tax deduction. He had taken personal possession of the ZN75 in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was the high bidder for the car, after having headed up the entire project and over seeing every detail and showing of it. The car was finally donated to the Boston Museum of Transportation in February of 1981. The appraised value at the time, by Synthetex Inc. (Who had just refurbished it), was $186,000. FOOTNOTE: The ZN 75 was available from the museum for approximately $50,000. at one point. It later was restored for the museum by board member J. Geils (of Band fame) at his Ferrari restoration shop and sold at an under-advertised auction for $200,000. 3498 was offered at an auction at the Nurnburgring by either Coys or Christies, after which it was purchased by the English Portman group, who wanted to start a Lamborghini museum. 3498 was up for auction (RM lot #115B) in August 2002 in Monterey California. Bidding went to US$320,000, but did not sell. 3498 then offered for sale for US$385,000 by RM Cars / Symbolic Motors. 3498 was then purchased by a collector in Pennsylvania and listed for sale by one of his dealerships in 2004. As of Septemebr 26th 2004, #3498 has been sold from its home in Pennsylvania to a French collector based in Marseilles. Owned by a Ferrari/Porsche collector of note, the Spyder was his only Lamborghini and it was sold to make room for his growing collection. Although speculation runs rife about the new owner's possible intent to return the car to its original 1968 Brussels show specification, the car's new owner confirmed today via phone that it is indeed likely that it will remain in its remanufactured Zinc configuration. Documentation exists showing that many of the ZN75's components were hand-designed by Nuccio Bertone himself at the request of the car's then-owner, Shrade Radtke. Thus, 3498 has significant historical value in its current guise and will likely be left as is. Regardless, the Miura Spyder exists as the only genuine open top Miura, and is the only works one-off Miura in existence, easily making it the most valuable Miura extant. The sales pice has been noted as "in the region of half-a-million U.S. dollars". February 6th 2007 - The famed one-off Miura is back in California after flying in from France via England. This Miura went down in history as the first Lamborghini to break the million-dollar barrier when it sold last month to New York property tycoon Adam Gordon. The celebrated automotive icon will be completely restored back to its very original 1968 Brussels Salon configuration by Gary Bobileff with the assistance of Bertone SpA, returning it to its sublime Lamborghini Bertone Miura Roadster guise. The restoration will not commence till 2008, following a full year of research and collaboration with the car's original builders. Meanwhile, this year the famed supercar will be featured in major magazine features on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a final tour of events over the Pebble Beach Car weekend which represent the very last opportunity the public will have to view this icon as the "ZN75". |
|
|
Built in 1968 by Bertone in 1968 this is how the one off show car looked with its beautiful metallic blue paint and magnolia leather interior, the same combination used on the very first 350 GTV. The car never had any form of top or side windows. It did have many detail alterations to the cockpit (note the Espada prototype steering wheel) and rear body work that gave it an interesting appearance. However, the factory had little money to pursue the development of this car and so it never went into production.
The car was sold to the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) of New York, and in 1969 was rebuilt with Bertone's help replacing many parts with Zinc where possible: carburator velocity stacks, inlet manifolds, exhaust system, radiator, oil sump, water pump housing, all water lines, bumpers, grill, steering wheel (note difference from original), switches, door handles, shift lever, hand brake and taillights. Lead was also used as insulation under the floor and in the doors. The interior retrimed in one color, the car was repainted the car this dark metallic green color (shown at left) and used for publicity. It thereafter became known as the ILZRO ZN 75 or ILZRO Spyder.