This Lamborghini Almost Cost Miles Davis His Life

There will never be another Miles Davis, and Lamborghini will never do a new take on the Miura, but the icons have a history together. And it came to a screeching halt in the fall of 1972, a time that marked a major turning point in the musician's life, both musically and otherwise. On October 11, Davis released "On the Corner," a stunning electronic combination of rock, jazz, and funk that was the logical evolution of his other late '60s/early '70s music. It took some time for listeners to catch up, though, and it debuted to scathing reviews.  Then just 10 days later, he was in a New York hospital recovering from a near-fatal car crash in his Lamborghini Miura.

Of course, it wasn't so much the Miura that was at fault as it was Davis. That's according to James Glickenhaus, who knows a thing or two about exotic sports cars himself and told the story to Road & Track. Glickenhaus, who coincidentally was driving near Davis at the time, said the accident was the result of Davis trying to make a sudden right-hand exit off the West Side Highway from the left lane. The two bags of cocaine in the car may have had something to do with it as well; when Glickenhaus stopped to help, he said, he found them before the cops could and dumped the coke into a nearby sewer.

That's only part of the Miura's story, however. In fact, the car was nearly as important to Lamborghini as Miles Davis was to jazz.

"Supercar" seems to be a term first used to advertise Bentleys back in 1920, but it was the premiere of the Lamborghini Miura in 1966 that brought it back into common use. The Miura made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show that year as the first Lamborghini with a mid-mounted V12 engine — setting the template for a long list of thrillers that includes the Diablo, Countach, Aventador, and even Lamborghini's bonkers 1,001-hp Revuelto.

True, Miles Davis' 1972 Miura didn't make that kind of output, but keep in mind that the first-generation model launched as the world's fastest production car — backed by a top speed approaching 175 mph. And the Davis car could go faster than that, since it was from the third Miura series, the SV, which first met the public in 1971. 

Featuring an upgraded suspension and riding on bigger tires beneath wider wheel arches, the Miura SV also rewarded owners with a separate lubrication system for its five-speed manual gearbox. Changes under the hood included revised camshaft timing, bigger valves on the intake side, and re-engineered carburetor jets that all worked together to bring 385 horsepower to the party; drivers could celebrate by running from 0 to 60 mph in fewer than 6.5 seconds — eventually topping out at 186 mph.

The Miura attracted its share of celebrity attention, too. Beyond Davis, the list of famous former Miura owners includes Eddie Van Halen, Peter Sellers, and Elton John, while the car has had roles in more than 40 movies, including the original 1969 version of "The Italian Job."

Growing up in the pre-Civil Rights era, Miles Davis knew first hand that standing out in the white world could bring the wrong kind of attention: In 1959, he was beaten by police while simply taking a cigarette break from one of his gigs in New York City — and not moving along when told to. Of course, saying that Davis gave exactly zero damns about white expectations would be putting it mildly.

So he had no problems rolling through New York City in the kind of exotic cars he knew could easily get him stopped for DWB (Driving While Black). For example, Davis used one of his first big royalty checks to purchase a Mercedes-Benz 190 SL, a curvaceous and athletic roadster that's the founding member of Mercedes' SL family — which includes the anything-but-subtle 2026 Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 Monogram Series. He also owned a post-war Jaguar, although there are conflicting reports about whether it was an XK120 or an XK140. Either way, the experience was enough to convince him to own an XJS later in life.

Davis' Italian phase began in 1958, when he purchased his first Ferrari. He actually had to go the pre-owned route, as a new product from the Prancing Horse was still out of his budget at the time. Davis would eventually add a Ferrari 275 GTB, a 308 GTS, the Miura, and a Testarossa to his Italian stable.