Can't help picking a few stallions over bulls here.

350GT: justice is done!

Tell me what you think.

I like the first line of the last-but-one paragraph of the Miura v Daytona article...

"... the Miura and Daytona are miles apart, and there's no doubt that they appeal to very different people."


and the acknowledgment at the bottom of that page, set in tiny size, which reads:


"Thanks to Martin Kent, owner of both the Miura and the Daytona."


... btw, Martin is one of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet but he has too many really great cars none of which he's offered to just give to me ...


Overall, I think the Octane articles are well balanced and accurate even when they don't compare like-aged cars. Stephen Ward's Countach is compared with a Ferrari Boxer that's eight years younger even if the writer thought that the Countach was the better car anyway...


But why oh why oh why did the Octane people feature a Diablo that's quite clearly a bit of a mongrel when there are similar aged 96/97 Diablos around to compare to the 96/97 F550?

That Diablo's viola paint was a non-standard colour for the time that car was built and the 2wd Diablos 'only' had the long stack, higher top speed (340kmh) gearbox as standard as far as I know. The short stack, lower top speed (300kmh) box only arrived with the first of the SV variants...

Octane's journalists and researchers shouldn't have chopped out the Lamborghini knowledge source that is LCUK in favour of an owner without a surname he'd admit to... If they'd wanted a mid 90s spec. Diablo (whether SV, VT, Roadster or SE30 even) in London then they do exist, really they do!

So what we have here is a homosexual bull. Clearly with a Napoleon complex, raping a Stallion. Mmm

Perhaps sacrilege, but I thought the Countach looked a bit "understated" (not going to say bland!!) compared to the later ones with vents/wings/spoilers/sills. Probably says more about me that I prefer the anniversary edition to all the others

For anyone that hasn't seen the Octane article, the way I read it is:-

350GT beat 330GT
Muira beat Daytona
Countach beat Boxer
550 beat Diablo
LP670-4 SV drew with 599GTB

So overall victory goes to the Sant'Agata mob. Good result but I'm not entirely happy, as I'd prefer a Diablo to a 550.

Any decent condition, unbuggered-about-with Diablo (older or same age) would kick a 550's sorry ass ...

oops, came over a bit mid-Atlantic there!

We all know that a memorable car will normally 'beat' the almost invisible one in any magazine's test so, perhaps the magazine's writer was just being polite about that viola-coloured muddle of a car?

and the car that 'beat' the Daytona is called a

M i u r a

which is not that difficult to tap in without getting some of the lettres mxied pu!!

It is not only about speed innit?

The Daytona/ Miura write up in Octane was better than most attempts by scribes in the classic car press, who, in the main whine on about 'take off' at 170 mph for the Miura. The two cars are quite different, the Daytona being the last of the line of refined front engined GT's, the Miura was the first roadgoing incarnation of things to come, and, a 'first attempt' at a mid engined Grand Tourer. The underside of the Miura is flat apart from a small incline upwards from the centre of the front axle line forward. The lift off story was supposedly from a French scribe who was given a 'full house' engine spec and came through a tunnel at full chat, on test, into a cross wind which lifted the car into a 'rotate' condition. Anyone around in the early/mid sixties will have been aware that in racing anti- lift 'tabs' were sprouting from the rear of cars such as 250 GTO's, P2/3/4's etc. The 275GTB had a spoiler but the 275GTB4 had to have a long nose added to combat lift. The Miura has a spoiler built into the boot lid, but if it also has a slightly nose down attitude 'lift' is contained and the airflow underneath does not present a problem. The other 'schoolboy howler' nearly all the other write up's I have read over the past 10/15 years state that the gearbox is in the 'sump'. Not so, or mine wasn't when I had the engine out. Missleading quotes like this get magnified by the press and then become 'fact'. I covered circa 25000 miles in my Miura over nearly twenty years, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. A Daytona is a different car altogether, all petrolheads should be grateful that Italy exists!

Please do share as some - if not most - are incredibly interested in fine beasts as the Miura is one.

David: did you have a ride in a Miura and a Daytona? And if so: on which one would you stick the label 'savage and fierce'?

As a longterm Lambo enthusiast the front-engined Fcars do appeal to me: 275, 330, 365. It seemed after the introduction of mid-engined Lamborghini's, Enzo shifted focus on creating mid-engined competitors and kinda lost interest in continuing the 275, 330, 365-bloodline.

Thanks for the reminder! I assume XXV111 is DP? My hair is getting thinner than in the photo, see below for two reasons.
I get very uptight when the great unwashed (scribes in classic car magazines) missrepresent motor cars because I want to know the 'facts', not heresay. I fully understand the Miura and it's a 1966 tour de force of Italian engineering, with some shortcomings, but not that many. The Daytona is the culmination of 21years of development by Enzo, and should be seen in that light. The Miura was put together by four 25 year olds!!!! thankfully Ferruccio let them get on with it and the whole 'GT' concept moved a giant step forward from where we were at that time.
As you will be able to see, from my handle, I'm now back in Enzo's fold listening to 8250 RPM in technicolour with the top down! (Digressing as is my 'wont' I also have a 58 Frogeye 1430/45Weber/Toyota 5 speed in bits, circa 160Bhp/Ton, quite nippy!)