The Super-Rare Lamborghini He Found at the End of an Oregon Dirt Road

Jeff Meier, a 62-year-old automotive consultant living in Los Angeles, on his 1969 Lamborghini Miura S, as told to A.J. Baime.

In 2000, I was visiting relatives in Oregon. My aunt told me about this guy who owned an old orange Lamborghini. I asked, “What model?” She said, “How would I know?” I was curious. My sister knew everyone in this little town, and she was able to find him. He lived on an 800-acre ranch. There was this long dirt road, and a shack that looked deserted. I knocked on the door and this hunched-over man came out.

He asked, “Hey, son, how can I help you?” I said, “I’m visiting from out of town. I’m a car guy. I heard you’re a car guy.” He said, “Come on in.”

His name was Earl, and he started telling stories. I asked about a photo of this orange Lamborghini on his refrigerator. He led me to his garage, pulled a tarp away, and there was this Miura. I could not believe my eyes. This is an incredibly rare vehicle. It has been called the father of all supercars, and the most beautiful car of all time. It is also the car that put Lamborghini on the map.

As the story goes, back in the 1960s, Ferruccio Lamborghini was just a couple years in business as a car manufacturer in Italy. He had made his money building tractors. He had young guys working for him and they wanted to go racing. They designed this chassis and engine, and through a series of events, this car went into production with a body built by the coachbuilder Bertone. [A coachbuilder is a designer and builder of car bodies.]

When the Miura debuted in 1966, it was as if a spaceship had landed. It was the most outrageous and extravagant thing—a mid-engine, transverse-mounted V-12 race car with a streetcar body. It was the fastest car in the world. All kinds of celebrities bought Miuras—Miles Davis, Twiggy the model. [Lamborghini ended up building 763 Miuras between 1966 and 1972, according to the company’s website.]

I have been involved in cars my entire life. When I was growing up, my father owned an auto repair shop. When I was 20, I got a dream job caretaking a collection of vintage cars. The job paid $5 an hour, but I would have done it for free. I have been involved with vintage autos ever since. When I discovered Earl’s Miura, I knew it was one of the finest unrestored original examples I had ever seen. It was amazing because existing cars typically had rust problems, or they’d been in accidents, or they’ve had engine fires. This car had none of that. And it was an S version, with more horsepower and nuanced styling.

I asked Earl how he had gotten it. He had been an engineer who purchased this car as a retirement gift to himself from a Chicago dealership in 1970. He had driven it out to Oregon. From the time he bought the car to when I first saw it, he was the only person who had driven it. The car had 16,000 miles on it, and it still had its original set of tires. It was a true needle-in-a-haystack scenario.

Earl refused to sell me the car, but I kept in touch. When he died in 2005, I was notified by the estate, and I was able to acquire the Miura at market price. In a 10-year period, I took the car from being a “barn find” to a first-in-class winner at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance [widely regarded as the most prestigious vintage car show in the world] in California.

What is it like to drive this car? The Miura sits so low to the ground that when you look out your window you are looking at the wheels of the cars around you. The high-revving engine is right behind you. The music from this 12-cylinder, the mechanical sounds of the transmission, it is all hard to describe. It is just magical.

The marketplace has spoken and, at least for now, it’s showing preference for hybrids and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) over battery electrics. That makes Toyota’s foot dragging on EVs (and full speed ahead on hybrids) look fairly wise, though the timeline along a bumpy road still gets us to full electrification by 2035.

Italian supercar producer Lamborghini, in business since 1963, is also proceeding, incrementally, toward battery power. In an interview, Federico Foschini , Lamborghini’s chief global marketing and sales officer, talked about the new Urus SE plug-in hybrid the company showed at its lounge in New York on Monday.

The Urus SE interior gets a larger centre screen and other updates.
Lamborghini

The Urus SE SUV will sell for US$258,000 in the U.S. (the company’s biggest market) when it goes on sale internationally in the first quarter of 2025, Foschini says.

“We’re using the contribution from the electric motor and battery to not only lower emissions but also to boost performance,” he says. “Next year, all three of our models [the others are the Revuelto, a PHEV from launch, and the continuation of the Huracán] will be available as PHEVs.”

The Euro-spec Urus SE will have a stated 37 miles of electric-only range, thanks to a 192-horsepower electric motor and a 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery, but that distance will probably be less in stricter U.S. federal testing. In electric mode, the SE can reach 81 miles per hour. With the 4-litre 620-horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine engaged, the picture is quite different. With 789 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque on tap, the SE—as big as it is—can reach 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and attain 193 mph. It’s marginally faster than the Urus S, but also slightly under the cutting-edge Urus Performante model. Lamborghini says the SE reduces emissions by 80% compared to a standard Urus.

Lamborghini’s Urus plans are a little complicated. The company’s order books are full through 2025, but after that it plans to ditch the S and Performante models and produce only the SE. That’s only for a year, however, because the all-electric Urus should arrive by 2029.

Lamborghini’s Federico Foschini with the Urus SE in New York.
Lamborghini

Thanks to the electric motor, the Urus SE offers all-wheel drive. The motor is situated inside the eight-speed automatic transmission, and it acts as a booster for the V8 but it can also drive the wheels on its own. The electric torque-vectoring system distributes power to the wheels that need it for improved cornering. The Urus SE has six driving modes, with variations that give a total of 11 performance options. There are carbon ceramic brakes front and rear.

To distinguish it, the Urus SE gets a new “floating” hood design and a new grille, headlights with matrix LED technology and a new lighting signature, and a redesigned bumper. There are more than 100 bodywork styling options, and 47 interior color combinations, with four embroidery types. The rear liftgate has also been restyled, with lights that connect the tail light clusters. The rear diffuser was redesigned to give 35% more downforce (compared to the Urus S) and keep the car on the road.

The Urus represents about 60% of U.S. Lamborghini sales, Foschini says, and in the early years 80% of buyers were new to the brand. Now it’s down to 70%because, as Foschini says, some happy Urus owners have upgraded to the Performante model. Lamborghini sold 3,000 cars last year in the U.S., where it has 44 dealers. Global sales were 10,112, the first time the marque went into five figures.

The average Urus buyer is 45 years old, though it’s 10 years younger in China and 10 years older in Japan. Only 10% are women, though that percentage is increasing.

“The customer base is widening, thanks to the broad appeal of the Urus—it’s a very usable car,” Foschini says. “The new buyers are successful in business, appreciate the technology, the performance, the unconventional design, and the fun-to-drive nature of the Urus.”

Maserati has two SUVs in its lineup, the Levante and the smaller Grecale. But Foschini says Lamborghini has no such plans. “A smaller SUV is not consistent with the positioning of our brand,” he says. “It’s not what we need in our portfolio now.”

It’s unclear exactly when Lamborghini will become an all-battery-electric brand. Foschini says that the Italian automaker is working with Volkswagen Group partner Porsche on e-fuel, synthetic and renewably made gasoline that could presumably extend the brand’s internal-combustion identity. But now, e-fuel is very expensive to make as it relies on wind power and captured carbon dioxide.

During Monterey Car Week in 2023, Lamborghini showed the Lanzador , a 2+2 electric concept car with high ground clearance that is headed for production. “This is the right electric vehicle for us,” Foschini says. “And the production version will look better than the concept.” The Lanzador, Lamborghini’s fourth model, should arrive in 2028.

The Super-Rare Lamborghini He Found at the End of an Oregon Dirt Road

Jeff Meier’s 1969 Miura S was preserved in original condition on a rural ranch and is a model some call ‘the most beautiful car of all time’