At Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters in 1965, Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace—three of the company’s top engineers of the era—put the finishing touches to a revolutionary prototype.

It is unlikely that any of the men could have anticipated the ensuing supercar arms race that their incredible new Miura would spark over the coming decades.

The mid/rear-engine platform set a new standard for driving performance, leading the V-12 Lamborghini to be retrospectively hailed “the world’s first supercar”, and creating one of the most enduringly popular sports cars of all time.

First presented as a rolling chassis at the 1965 Turin Auto Show, and later as a prototype that more closely resembled the P400 at the 1966 Geneva International Motor Show, the overwhelmingly positive public reaction to the Miura signalled to company bosses that the supercar simply had to enter production.

The original model enjoyed a production run of 275 units, before a revised Miura...