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Photography by Jeremy Cliff
I first learned of this story through our friend, the incredibly talented Jeremy Cliff, whose photos accompany this article. William Nielsen’s got an incredible story and I’m honored that he chose Petrolicious to help tell it.
Ted Gushue: Start from the top. What exactly is this Miura?
William Nielsen: It’s a 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 that has been in my family since 1970. It was my grandmother’s cousin’s car and he lives in the same time I grew up in, so we were the closest family.
TG: What town is that?
WN: Evanston, Illinois.
TG: It’s a pretty bold move to live in the middle of Illinois with a Miura back in the Seventies.
WN: He was an electrical engineer for an alarm company and he didn’t have any family, he wasn’t married, so he’d always been a car guy from 16 onward. Him and his buddies were into buying cheap cars, working on them. As his career developed, he was shopping around for a better car. He had his eyes on a Ferrari, but his boss bought a Ferrari, and he was like, “I got to get something else”.
His buddies, the Ulrich brothers, they had an auto shop. They initially tipped him off. “Hey, we know this guy from Wisconsin. He’s going to be in town with this Lamborghini Miura and another gentleman that has a Maserati Ghibli”. They set up a race between these two cars. “You should come out and watch these two cars race.”
The Miura won, the story goes, and that settled that. It turned out the guy who owned it was interested in selling, so over the next few months they worked out a deal. The other funny part was, he bought the car and the Ulrich brothers, after he bought it, they felt kind of bad because they were like, “We knew it kind of needed some work. Now that you have it, we’ll help you work on it.”
TG: Yeah, good guys.
WN: He had it, and the next town over in Skokie, and that’s the town he worked in, and he would drive it to work every day. Obviously not in the winter, but he enjoyed working on it, making his own modifications. He worked at an alarm company, so he put a car alarm on it, put it together himself. I don’t know if you’ve seen pictures, but he modified the covers to the carburetor, fabricated his own, so those are a cool feature that I think looks better than what Lamborghini did.
TG: Very cool. When did the car get parked?
WN: Around late ’80s, ’88, ’89, he pulled it into his garage to work on the brakes, and I think he was doing some clutch work too, and the project got stalled. I’m not sure if it was getting parked, I know his mom passed away around that time. It was maybe for a variety of reasons it got stalled.
TG: Sure.
WN: That was about that time, it had to be around then, I can’t remember specifically, but I had been in it driving when I was around six or so. I was born in ’84. For the rest of my life it was just this thing in the garage that as a kid I’d always want to go see it.
TG: Yeah, of course.
WN: I always thought it was cool, but some people in the family kind of … You know how it is, some people just don’t get it or they’re not into it.
TG: So what was the impetus to get it out of the barn? Tell me about how that came about.
WN: About two years ago his health was deteriorating. His siblings were trying to take care of things, he’s still alive now, but they were trying to prepare for his potential passing in the coming years. It would be easier to take care of a lot of that stuff, like how things get divvied up, while he’s still around. They were trying to figure out what to do with the car and thinking about selling it, and I spoke up for it. “Hey, this is a really special thing that’s been in the family. It’s important to me. Let’s not just sell this to the first guy who walks by.”
No one in the family really knew the value of it. I knew it had more value than they did, but even I didn’t even know the true value of it or whatever. I reached out to my friend Cam who I’ve been friends for a while, I know him, he works on cars and stuff. I reached out to him and, “Hey, my family’s got that car.”
In-laws reached out to him, the family’s kind of like, “Hey, if you want to deal with it, the car is yours. We’re trying to unload his stuff.” They gave it to me and Cam and I worked out a deal. I wanted to stay involved in the process. “Hey, I don’t want to just sell this. I don’t even want to just sell this to you. I don’t know a ton about cars, but I want to bring this thing back to life.”
TG: Yeah, this is an important family heirloom.
WN: Yeah. “Keep me involved. I don’t want to just call and check in on how you’re doing.” It’s been great. We’ve built this group of people around it. Anything I didn’t know, just kind of, “Hey, who can we get a hold of that we can bring in to help us out?” Our other friend who races off-road buggies, he was doing engine work, mechanical stuff. You know, really taking our time with it, deciding how we want to go about it. So the first couple months, we got it out of the garage, we secured it at another location. Now it’s research time, digging into the story, figuring out where Jay was, that was my relative, where he was in his work, and what do we want to do. Do we totally want to restore it? We eventually we decided, no, we don’t want to do that. It’s worn here because he drove it. We wanted to leave all that stuff.
TG: Yeah. What was the reception like at car week?
WN: Oh, it was great. I had no idea. I’ve never been to car week before, so just being there was great. But then also, the reception, people love the car. We were there, you saw, I can’t remember how many other Miuras there were there, ours was the only one that had a pretty consistent crowd around it. With the fiftieth anniversary, you’re seeing a lot of them everywhere and it was kind of cool to see ours stood out compared to all these more perfect ones. People were really appreciative. The execs from Lamborghini were there, and some of those guys we talked to were there in ’65 working, so it was cool to talk to them and see how excited they are that these little pieces here and there are intact and the way they remember them. Talking to the judges using it as comparisons to other cars.
TG: What’s it like to drive?
WN: It terrifies me. We haven’t replaced the tires yet, so always concerned something could go wrong at any moment it’s kind of squirrel-y. But the noise, I’d say, is the most standout thing to me. I haven’t been in a ton of other cars, but it has a pretty unique purr and cadence to it. Even starting up takes a while to turn over. The first time I remember we got the engine going, we still had the rear end off, the headlights weren’t working, it was night and we were working all day. We got it going and driving around the parking lot was such a crazy feeling.
TG: Do your friends just think you’re the luckiest dude in the world?
WN: They either don’t get think I’m the luckiest dude or they think I’m an asshole.
TG: Some combination of the three, no doubt.
WN: Probably! [laughs] They’re all accurate accounts at this point I suppose. Anybody that wants to see it or come have a ride in it, I’ve been trying to set that up for them. I flew my little cousin out here for the photoshoot with Jeremy Cliff. He’s, let’s see, 14-years old, he’s one of the only other guys in his family who’s interested in cars at all. “Come on, we’re going to do this photo shoot.” I’ve put it out there with friends, family, even people I don’t really know. If you want to see it I’ll make it happen, I want people to enjoy it.
That was probably the best thing about taking it to car week. Being able to share it, seeing people enjoy it is really special.
I have dreamed about this car for years!! My childhood best friend lived 2 houses from the owners. I have sat in it,looked at it,drooled over it,dreamed of it, never forgot it. I was really impressed by it also. William, you are a very lucky man!! I hope you still enjoy it,as I see this article is a few years old. I’m so glad as of a few years ago, it’s still around. Thanks, Erick
I too remember seeing this on CCC and chuckled at Wayne Carini’s disappointment that the old man wouldn’t sell. Frankly I don’t think Jay would have hung onto the Muira for all those years if he was the selling type…. The upside is that the car is original (apart from the owners modifications, for better or worse) which is an even rarer thing than the rarity of this car itself. Any multi-millionaire / Billionaire can buy one of these and pass it through a perfect nut and bolt restoration and without disrespecting the very talented experts who are able to deliver a the better than new result, it’s sad that people can’t just leave a car alone sometimes. I would be happy to buy a blueprint recreation of a Muira if I only had the money but I would have a lot more trouble taking a car like this and erasing the soul that has built up over the last generation or two. Perhaps change the tyres and do a little bodywork fixing if necessary but otherwise I think its a gem left as it is.
Find out about the life and works of Ferruccio Lamborghini by his son and grandson at their family museum and driving the one and only Ferruccio’s Miura https://www.cinecars.nl/en/nato-sotto-il-segno-del-toro/
So I watched the story of this car on Chasing Classic Cars. And I’ve always liked this car and as they were panning through some of the shots at the end of the show I noticed they’re showing part of the garage where there’s a window that has an Evanston Community sticker in it and I freaked out and I’m like it’s in Evanston! I live in Evanston! So I go back to watch the episode a little more and I noticed the address is blurred out in every shot except one long shot where they have the address in it on **** Street. The next day I go drive by there with my son in my convertible and we see the house, I went there thinking maybe I could look through the window and at least see it because I’ve never seen one up close. So I park in front and I’m telling my son about this show and I see Jay walking down his walk way from his house and I said “hey I saw you on TV”! So Jay says “yeah I was”! And after talking about the car for a bit he says ”Do you want to see the car”? Duh. (The clouds part. Angels sing) Of course! So we walk over to the garage and we’re talking about how much we love that car and he opens it up and we’re looking at it, and is just gorgeous! Even in its dusty mode. Jay lifts up the back and we see the engine and it’s amazing and then he opens up the bonnet and we’re looking at the luggage area and then he says do you want to sit in it? I’d never thought that would ever happen and I said yes. So I took out any sharp things out of my back pockets so that I wouldn’t hurt anything and sat down and it was like a dream come true. I didn’t care what the condition was in, it was so amazing. Looking at all the gauges and switches with the Italian writing, it was very cool. I could just imagine the sound coming from the engine right behind your head it must have been luscious in it’s day. So then he let my son sit in it and he was impressed. So after talking to Jay a little bit more with my son, I said that I would love to do this as a father-son everyday driver project and would you sell it, and he said no at the time. Well that was okay with me, I saw him one more time before it was gone but I had always intended to go back and ask him again. So one time I went by to look into the garage, and when I looked it was gone. But now I see it here again and the fact that it is still within his family, brings me such a joy. The fact that it is being enjoyed by the relatives of Jay who is such a wonderful person in the little bit that I met him, and for him to be so generous with my son and I I will always appreciate it. Enjoy your travels with your magnificent car. Linas Peckus
So I watched the story of this car on Chasing Classic Cars. And I’ve always liked this car and as they were panning through some of the shots at the end of the show I noticed they’re showing part of the garage where there’s a window that has an Evanston Community sticker in it and I freaked out and I’m like it’s in Evanston! I live in Evanston! So I go back to watch the episode a little more and I noticed the address is blurred out in every shot except one long shot where they have the address in it on **** Street. The next day I go drive by there with my son in my convertible and we see the house, I went there thinking maybe I could look through the window and at least see it because I’ve never seen one up close. So I park in front and I’m telling my son about this show and I see Jay walking down his walk way from his house and I said “hey I saw you on TV”! So Jay says “yeah I was”! And after talking about the car for a bit he says ”Do you want to see the car”? Duh. (The clouds part. Angels sing) Of course! So we walk over to the garage and we’re talking about how much we love that car and he opens it up and we’re looking at it, and is just gorgeous! Even in its dusty mode. Jay lifts up the back and we see the engine and it’s amazing and then he opens up the bonnet and we’re looking at the luggage area and then he says do you want to sit in it? I’d never thought that would ever happen and I said yes. So I took out any sharp things out of my back pockets so that I wouldn’t hurt anything and sat down and it was like a dream come true. I didn’t care what the condition was in, it was so amazing. Looking at all the gauges and switches with the Italian writing, it was very cool. I could just imagine the sound coming from the engine right behind your head it must have been luscious in it’s day. So then he let my son sit in it and he was impressed. So after talking to Jay a little bit more with my son, I said that I would love to do this as a father-son everyday driver project and would you sell it, and he said no at the time. Well that was okay with me, I saw him one more time before it was gone but I had always intended to go back and ask him again. So one time I went by to look into the garage, and when I looked it was gone. But now I see it here again and the fact that it is still within his family, brings me such a joy. The fact that it is being enjoyed by the relatives of Jay who is such a wonderful person in the little bit that I met him, and for him to be so generous with my son and I I will always appreciate it. Enjoy your travels with your magnificent car. Linas Peckus
We shot some driving footage of it during the sunrise shoot, you can see the rest of the pics/video here: http://jeremycliff.com/barn-find-lambo/
Definitely same car that was on Carini’s program 2 years ago. Glad this guy kept it. Carini would have just cleaned it up and flipped it for huge profits. This guy has more the right attitude regarding the car. More of a true enthusiast attitude. Good for him. I hope I get to see the car at a show and meet him.