VIN: the Vincenzo Cappeluto / Ferruccio Lamborghini Miura P400 SV chassis 5028

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HISTORY OF CHASSIS 5028

Lamborghini built 147 examples of the Miura SV, 138 of which were left-hand drive.

Chassis 5028 was one of these 138 cars and came with a number of special features at the request of its first owner, Vincenzo Cappeluto.

Cappelluto was a building contractor from Loano in the Savona region of northern Italy. He was a major player in Liguria and also the French Riviera. Later in the 1970’s, Cappeluto went on to establish Eurocraft which manufactured bespoke boats in Vado Ligure.

For his Miura, Sig. Cappeluto requested non-standard headlight eyelashes of the type used on the original P400 and the Miura S. Another rarely seen feature was a long-range 110-litre fuel tank instead of the normal 90-litre unit.

Chassis 5028 was dispatched from the factory on May 25th 1972 and delivered to the Lamborauto dealership in Turin. Its specification comprised Rosso Corsa paint, Oro sills and wheels, a Bleu interior with Natural inserts and air-conditioning.

The red Miura was first registered SV 135096. It remained with Cappeluto until 1973 when chassis 5028 was sold to its second owner, Piero Ferrari of Turin.

In 1974, the car passed to Ferruccio Lamborghini who had recently sold the remaining 49% stake of his troubled auto maker to Rene Leimer. The other 51% had been sold to Leimer’s friend and fellow Swiss industrialist, Georges-Henri Rossetti, in 1972.

After attending technical college, Ferruccio Lamborghini had served as a mechanic during World War 2. When hostilities ended, he began to cobble together tractors from discarded parts found in scrap yards. By 1950, Lamborghini Trattori had become one of the most important agricultural vehicle producers in Italy with an unusually high proportion of components manufactured in-house.

Further expansion into heaters and air-conditioners netted Ferruccio Lamborghini a second fortune.

Part of this was spent on a small fleet of exotic motor cars.

Dissatisfied with the Ferraris he owned and his treatment at Maranello, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to create his own auto maker and build something finer, faster and more reliable than anything that wore the Cavallino Rampante.

Automobili Lamborghini was established in 1963, but by the early 1970s, problems were starting to mount. Neither the expensively developed Urraco or Countach were ready for production and a worldwide financial crisis was beginning to take hold. His tractor company was also in big trouble and trade unionised staff could no longer be laid off.

In addition to selling a stake in his car builder to Rossetti, 1972 also saw Ferruccio Lamborghini sell his tractor company.

Things worsened with the subsequent Oil Crisis that began in late 1973. Twelve months later, Ferruccio Lamborghini had departed his car company altogether.

He purchased chassis 5028 as it represented one of the finest products Automobili Lamborghini had produced. The car was registered on the Bologna plate BO 608732 and it remained in Ferruccio Lamborghini’s collection until his death in 1993.

Since then, chassis 5028 has resided in the collection of Ferruccio’s son, Tonino, and been displayed at the Ferruccio Lamborghini Museo in Funo di Argelato, Bologna.

Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ferruccio Lamborghini Museo - https://www.museolamborghini.com/en/ferruccio-lamborghini-museum/