A classic Lamborghini ‘supercar’ which was owned by Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay and taken for a spin on Top Gear with Richard Hammond is going up for auction – tipped to sell for as much as £2.75million.
The red 1972 Miura P400 SV was bought by pop star Kay at the height of his chart fame and formed part of his vast collection of vintage motors.
The rare Lamborghini – dubbed the first supercar – was one of just 150 models made, with a V12 engine allowing it to go from 0-60mph in just five seconds and reach a top speed of 172mph.
Kay, 54, showed the vehicle off in a 2004 episode of BBC motoring show Top Gear, driving it with Hammond in the passenger seat.
The pop star was filmed saying as he drove: ‘This car was so ahead of its time – it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.’
The red 1972 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV is being auctioned by RM Sotheby’s
Funk band Jamiroquai’s singer Jay Kay, pictured at Windsor Great Park in July 2009, is a former owner of the supercar which has now emerged for sale
Auctioneers have tipped the vehicle to sell for as much as £2.75million
The 177mph car’s V12 engine allows it to go from 0-60mph in just five seconds
Other proud owners of Lamborghini Miuras have included Frank Sinatra and Sir Rod Stewart.
Kay’s old one is being sold by RM Sotheby’s, whose listing reads: ‘It is legend that “supercar” – the title bestowed upon all of today’s highest-performance automobiles – was first applied in print to the Lamborghini Miura.’
The auctioneer quotes English motoring journalist L. J. K. Setright describing a 1,000-mile drive in a then-new Miura from Modena in Italy to English capitan London in 1967.
Setright wrote: ‘The exultant whoop of a thoroughbred V12 is like nothing else in motoring. It is immediate, urgent, peremptory.
‘The Lambo idles at about 800 rpm and a gentle blip up to 2,000 produced a sort of instant quickening of everybody in the square, like a WO calling parade to attention.
‘It might develop 87.5bhp per litre, but from ridiculously low revs it would pull as smoothly and inexorably as a Silver Ghost.
‘Clearly this was going to be an astonishing motor car.’
The London-based auctioneer RM Sotheby’s adds: ‘In the early 1990s the car was purchased by a collector in Hong Kong, who commissioned the Modena Group to complete a full restoration.
‘Afterward the car passed to the noted musician and vintage performance car collector, Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, and in his ownership was featured in a 2004 episode of Top Gear.
Jay Kay was seen driving the Lamborghini in an episode of Top Gear in 2004
The singer has enjoyed chart success with hits such as the single Virtual Insanity in 1996
He was accompanied during his Top Gear drive by the show’s co-presenter Richard Hammond
Jay Kay called the car ‘a wonderful, wonderful thing’ during his Top Gear appearance
The auctioneer’s listing quotes a 1967 magazine review describing the Lamborghini Miura as ‘an astonishing motor car’
Car reviewer L. J. K. Setright said of the vehicle in his 1967 article: ‘The exultant whoop of a thoroughbred V12 is like nothing else in motoring’
Jay Kay himself said in 2004 of the Lamborghini: ‘This car was so ahead of its time’
Other owners of Lamborghini Miuras have included Frank Sinatra and Sir Rod Stewart
This rare Lamborghini Miura was one of just 150 to be manufactured
The vehicle is thought to have been the first to be given the label ‘supercar’
‘Soon thereafter it was acquired from him by the well-known British collector Michael Cotter.’
The auction of the Lamborghini is scheduled to take place in Toronto in Canada on June 1.
Kay previously put three vehicles from his 110-strong collection of supercars up for sale five years ago for a combined £2.5million.
He offered up a 1973 Porsche 911, a 2016 Ferrari F12 and a 2004 Porsche Carrera GT.