The legendary Lamborghini which made cinematic history for its role in the opening scene of Italian Job has been found almost half a century later, and is now reportedly worth £1 million.
The Lamborghini Miura cruises through the Alps in the 1969 film, before disappearing into a tunnel and exploding into a ball of flames.
The wreckage is dragged out of the tunnel by a mafia-controlled bulldozer, then pushed off the cliff and left to roll down the mountainside.
The classic car, which many believed had never recovered from its ordeal, has now resurfaced in pristine condition, according to the Mail on Sunday.
Now thought to be worth more than £1 million, the car was tracked down by two British businessmen.
The car's new co-owner, Iain Tyrrell, received a tip-off at Christmas that the Miura had been spotted. He was invited to see the vehicle, and was given three hours to verify it.
“I was initially sceptical because no one had seen it for 46 years. But my source was a credible one so I started to pursue it,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“It was all very James Bond-ish, I had to go to Paris to inspect the car in a secret underground car park.”
Mr Tyrrell was told that The Italian Job’s opening sequence was shot using two cars, both supplied by Lamborghini, but only one of them was destroyed in the filming, while the other remained intact.
Mr Tyrrell, who owns Cheshire Classic Cars, said: “The Italian Job Lamborghini is the holy grail of supercars precisely because no one knew what happened to it after the film.
“After inspecting the car, there is no doubt in my mind that it is the Miura from The Italian Job.”
Mr Tyrrell and his friend and co-owner, Keith Ashworth, plan to display the Lamborghini around the world.
Top Gear magazine voted it the "coolest car in the world" in 2004.
