A car famous for a short screen appearance that finishes with (spoiler alert!) being crashed into a bulldozer and pushed off a cliff might seem an odd choice to publicise the opening of a new supercar dealership. But, if the owner is right, this is the actual Lamborghini Miura that starred in the opening credits of The Italian Job.
You thought Lambo would do modest?
Of course I was going to attend the official opening of Lamborghini Manchester to see it! As movie moments go the Miura's scene-setting cameo in the original 1969 film is up there; how many lifelong obsessions with fast cars have been inspired by watching Rossano Brazzi coolly pilot a Miura up an Alpine pass, shades in place, fag in hand? If you're going to have a fleeting, non-speaking role that ends in fiery death before the film even gets going Brazzi and the Miura certainly pulled it off with impeccable style. Hell, in this context even Matt Monro's crooning seems cool.
It's almost immaterial that it doesn't end well. For those fleeting minutes you're sitting there in the Alpine sunshine alongside Brazzi, gazing on an incredible vista framed by the Miura's sweeping bodywork and living the dream. Not sitting on the living room floor on a wet Sunday afternoon with nothing better to do. A more perfect advert for the Miura and, indeed, the spirit of Lamborghini couldn't have been imagined in Ferruccio's wildest dreams.
Is this the car? Iain Tyrrell of Cheshire Classic Cars has bet the farm on it being so. He certainly knows his Lamborghinis and through a painstaking process of elimination, cross referencing of Miura production in the year the film was made and forensic examination of those opening credits reckons this is the only car built that year, in that colour and with a white leather interior as per the film car. It would seem two were used in the filming but this would be the one we see Brazzi steering up the St Bernard. If so he reckons it could treble the value of the car, meaning it's very much in his interests to sell its story!
Certainly then a nice thing for Lamborghini Manchester to have in the window for the official opening of its new Stockport dealership. And temptation enough for this particular car nut to make the short trip over the M62 to see it in the metal. You can probably guess what I was humming as I drove home too.
Best supercar movie cameo ever? It gets my vote. Any better suggestions?