Personally I don't think this settles anything!
Oh, I think it (the Automotive News feature) does seem to settle at least one thing: the identity of our puzzle car. Let’s look at the facts:
1) The drawings are dated October 16, 1964.
2) Giugiaro refers to these drawings as a “Bizzarrini mid-engine sports car”.
3) The design sports a distinctive Bizzarrini nose, first presented (to the best of my knowledge) a year before, on the Iso Grifo A3/C (which became the Strada in 1964).
Conclusion: Why, in light of all the evidence, are we still referring to the puzzle car as a Miura proposal? Moreover, would Giugiaro have presented a Bizzarrini-looking car to Lamborghini back in 1964? (He may have recycled the overall shape of his Gordon-Keeble design as many as 3 times between 1960-62 but always altered it with styling cues suitable for and peculiar to a given brand.)
The thing is, I keep seeing blogs popping up that take that
alleged Lamborghini connection for granted, while I’ve seen no relevant confirmation from Giugiaro himself. Isn’t this site about presenting “cold hard facts” rather than jumping to conclusions and perpetuating myths?
I have a theory that for whatever reason Giugiaro and Gandini together with Bertone have agreed that as far as history is concerned the Miura was designed by Gandini.
I’m alright with that theory (and I like your Miura / Dino comparison), although – as clichéd as it sounds – I guess we’ll simply never know the whole truth. That said, I’ve managed to find a couple of (alleged) Giugiaro drawings (included; PM me for the link if you feel like contacting the source) accompanied by the following elucidation:
“According to Dick Ruzzin (GM Europe boss who was told this directly by Nuccio Bertone himself), Giugiaro was asked to make sketches for a mid-engined car on the eve of his departure from Bertone to Ghia. Giugiaro was not told that it was intended for a Lamborghini, because Bertone was aware that he was leaving the firm and was afraid that Ghia might get the job of clothing the new mid-engined Lamborghini. When young Marcello Gandini was given the brief, he was allowed to review Giugiaro’s drawings but Gandini asked to see the new Miura chassis (1965 Turin Salon unit) and he proceeded to use both Giugiaro's sketches and the actual chassis to form the body of the new Miura.”
Naturally, I would appreciate it if someone could shed some light on the validity of those sketches (and on the story itself, needless to say).
I simply don't believe Giugiaro did not at least have a major hand in the Miura!
What
I find hard to believe is that you made no mention of the 1964 (or 1965?) Giulia Sport Special (basically Giugiaro’s 2-seater proposal for the Sprint) which introduced the famous “horn-shaped” door pillars, and which – in my eyes, at least – wasn’t a million miles away from the Montreal in general. (Comparison pic below.) This alone would render Gandini’s assertion that “any alleged influence by Giugiaro in [the Miura] is simply not true”, well… not true.
Then, of course, there’s the 1963 Testudo with its “flip-up” headlights which Tuckeroo has already aptly mentioned.
