Tuning the Italian Job Miura-Iain Tyrrell

Well , hello there .

I'm Ian Tyrell , and we're in the workshop of Cheshire Classic cars .

Today I'm gonna be tuning a particular make and model of car , but also one that's very special for another reason .

I'm going to be tuning the engine just with a rubber hose and a screwdriver .

Nothing more than that .

The the Lamborghini Mirra .

The car in question as a model was a cen , Really ?

It was launched in 1966 .

Uh , the it was really rocked the world in terms of , uh , what was perceived as a car .

It was the first car to actually be called a supercar as a as a model .

And it was had the most beautiful styling and a real thoroughbred V 12 engine mounted in the middle .

So I'm gonna be tweaking this and setting it up .

But there's something very special about this individual car .

So let's take a look .

So we know that the Mura as a model is special , but what makes this particular car special ?

Indeed , it's basically a combination of two things .

First of all , this car has been completely off the radar .

It's been out of the public domain for a great number of years .

It's been locked away in private collections and the car is very , very , very original .

It's never really had a full restoration .

For example , it's done 19,000 kilometres since 1968 which is an extremely low mileage .

And the car just is beautiful in the way that everything is original , even the carpets , the same ones from new things like that .

But there's there's one other thing that really , really sets this car apart , and that is that it's been authenticated .

It's been researched .

It's been checked out , etcetera in terms of dates , colours , specifications .

And it's pretty conclusive that this is the car that was used in the film the Italian job .

In the opening sequence , they used two cars .

One of them was loaned by a Lamborghini for three days at the end of June 1968 and the other one was an already wrecked car that was used as the smashed up version in the digger later on in the opening sequence .

So that makes this car the best of the best , potentially So let's get to work .

Let's start tuning the engine .

We've removed the rear bodywork here the clamshell , as we call it , to gain access to the engine and the car Bretter .

So here the car is seen with the original air philtres on it to cover over the top of the car , Bretter to stop things dropping in them and stop dust and things getting inside the engine .

And so we're going to take these off now and then we'll get to work .

The first section of the tuna consists of making sure what I would call a basic balance .

So to make sure that all four Carretta because on this engine you have four Carretta , each with three chokes as they're called in them , or tubes running through them one per cylinder , 34 to 12 .

Of course , we're going to start by just balancing all four car bretter , so they're actually pretty well , letting the same amount of air in as an average of each car .

Bretter three chokes and make sure that they're sort of roughly in synchronisation with each other for the moment .

Now that we've done that , what I'm doing now is actually going around each Carretta chope .

All of the 12 Carretta chokes , and each one has what's called an idle mixture .

Screw which if you unscrew the screw , it lets more fuel into each cylinder , which causes it to run more rich .

And if you turn the screw in , it causes it to run more weak , and a weak mixture can be heard by sort of popping and crackling back .

That's why I'm listening with the tube to see exactly what's going on inside each venturi .

And if it's running rich , you get a hissing noise through the top of the car .

And so what I'm doing here is striking the perfect balance , just using using my ear to hear when each cylinder is is firing optimally .

So having got the car , Bretter basically in sync with each other , having gone around the idle mixtures and make sure that they're pretty well spot on now what I'm doing is zooming in on each car , Bretter , and making sure that the three chokes on each Carretta are also in synchronisation with each other .

So , for example , you might have one strong choke on each carb and two weak chokes , and they have to be brought up to the same level of suction or air being sucked in as the other one .

So I'm now going around what are called the air Corrector screws and adjusting them on each Carretta .

Having done all that , I now go around and fine tune the car bras in synchronisation again with each other .

Now that we've got all three in each car working together and we have the end result , we have an engine that's firing evenly on 12 cylinders .

And to prove the point , I'm going to balance a £1 coin on its edge on top of the engine while it's ticking over and bear in mind .

This isn't a modern fuel injected engine with everything balanced by a computer and all the rest of it .

This is simply nuts and bolts that are doing this .

Nothing more complex than that .

So there we have it at one of the motoring legends tuned up , ready to be enjoyed on the road .

And who knows ?

It might end up at the great Saint Bernard pass again one day