Lamborghini's Le Mans racer that never was

Last year we featured an incredibly menacing Lamborghini Jota created by Mihai Tarus, a 3D automotive artist based in Italy. Now, he’s raised the bar again with this stunning render of a Lamborghini Miura LM 400 endurance prototype, accompanied by a great little story of, what if…?

During the 1960s endurance sports car racing ruled, and entries from Ferrari, Ford, Porsche and Shelby dominated around the world. However, the ultimate prize was the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

At the end of 1969, 3 years into the production of the Miura, Ferruccio Lamborghini felt that he had the pedigree to enter the fight. He decided that two Miuras would need to be prepared to run at the Circuit de la Sarthe, in western France, although with his company in financial dire straits, he knew he’d need a sponsor. He struck gold with Cynar, a popular Italian amaro apéritif, that wanted to challenge Martini, both in the drinks industry and at motorsport’s highest level.

Developing a car capable of tackling the event proved to be a tougher task than expected for Lamborghini. Reliability issues with the Miura’s engine, historically prone to carburetor fires, delayed the project by a year. Then, unbeknown to Lamborghini, Le Mans would soon announce that from 1972, engines would be limited to 3 litres – another problem for the Bizzarrini-powered 4 litre V12. That was the final nail in the coffin – Lamborghini concluded that they could not invest more time and money into developing a new engine. The two prototypes never reached Le Mans.

Images © Mihal Tarus / Federico Ciuffolini