MARCELLO GANDINI: Father of the Lamborghini Miura

marchello gandini's crowning achievement was the Lamborghini Mira which some consider to be the most beautiful car ever made while it wasn't the first model to Bear the Raging Bull it was the one that truly set the emerging makeupart and thrust the young designer into the spotlight the mirror was just one of many iconic cars that come from his pen during his decades long career he designed some of the most important automobiles in history and spearhead of the aesthetic of an entire generation welcome to another episode of Industry icons marchello Gand was born in Turin on August 26th 1938 mere weeks before jetto Zorro and a few months after Leonardo fante Marco his father worked in the pharmaceutical industry though music was his true passion in addition to his day job he also made a living as an orchest rator Marco nudged his son to follow in his footsteps from the age of four marchello began learning to play the piano he grew to resent this as he told top gears Jason Barlo years later while the other kids were playing outside marchello was stuck at home his head buried in sheet music marchello's interest took him down another path he Lifelong Love of cars and design took root at an early age the book marchello gandini ma of design B gumine says that he spotted a cord on one occasion it was unlike anything he'd seen on the road in the age of running Bor and chrome the cord stood alone it's little wonder why marchell was so taken by it his family also gifted him an erector set with these kids kids could assemble automobiles heavy machinery and everything in between marchello C be realized that design was about much more than Aesthetics what was under the skin became just as if not more impressive to him this appreciation of Art and Science would be perfect for a career in car design gandini took a rather unconventional approach to get into the industry instead of pursuing an education he dropped out and struck it out as a freelancer some jobs were right up his alley a friend hired him to modify his ASCA 1500s for competition giving gandini a taste of what car design could be like other assignments were outside of his comfort zone he dabbled in Furniture Design and even at the interior of the crazy Club a local late night establishment these jobs did much more than put food on the table they broadened his Horizons and helped shape him into a more well-rounded designer soon enough marchillo worked up the confidence to show his drawings to the many coach builders in Turin nothing came of this until a friend got him in touch with Bron nuo the man in charge of the firm already employed a talented designer in jetto jaru although he didn't offer him a job at that point he remained intrigued and told him that they'd be in touch soon gandini would be waiting for quite some time the book mentions that the two of them ran into each other in 1963 Nu apologized for not reaching out but informed him that bringing him on would likely cause xuro to leave the company while this was a disappointing development Neo's earlier encouragement did seem to give gandini more confidence in his abilities in 1965 he landed a job at kazera morazzi later that year nuo got in touch out of the blue and offered him a job Zara was set to leave for Gia and beron needed someone to take his place if gandini took the job then he'd be stepping in as chief designer he wanted to accept it but prior engagements at morazzi prevented him from doing so as a compromise he suggested that he start out working for Bron on a part-time basis on November 1st 1965 marchello gandini began working for the company fulltime the 1966 Geneva Motor Show would be one to remember for the design house for it had three cars scheduled to debut fuo tarini an Italian Jaguar importer commissioned Berton to sty a five- seat Coupe based on the S Type 3.8 the Ft 3.8 as it was known was a largely unsuccessful effort much of this stems from the tall Greenhouse which makes the car feel unbalanced and ponderous the grill is another misstep designers attempted to incorporate a version of Jaguar's Grill the execution leaves much to be desired it isn't tall enough to add a presence like on other models but also isn't wide enough to emphasize the cars with when it compared to the two other bir tone designed cars the ft is lacking in style the second car from them was also a commission Porsche's venerable 356 was set to be replaced by the 911 and with it would go the popular Speedster management decided against developing a direct successor to this variant the 911 was not designed to be a convertible Porsche even brought Carmen in to create one and found that serious compromise would have to be made in order to make it work the rear engine layout meant that there wouldn't be a space to store the top it would have to Simply fold back above the engine similar to the Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet at the 1965 Frankfurt motor show the company unveiled the 911 taret to serve as a compromise of sorts Johnny Von Newman the Brand's distributor in Southern California didn't think that it would saate fans of the 356 Speedster his words carried more weight than your average Porsche dealer the Speedster that had been such a success was the brainchild of he and Max Hoffman if anyone knew what buyers in the region wanted it was him pora still wasn't very receptive to the idea but gave Newman a chance to prove himself it authorized the creation of a single car to serve as a feasibility study although he'd be funding the project out of his own Pockets the company would have the final word on whether or not it got the green light Newman went to bertona with a brief which had the Porsche 9911 Roadster concept ready in time for the show the two parties agreed that it should share No resemblance to a standard Porsche and it definitely shows it trads in the exposed upright headlamps for a quartet of bulbs partially hidden behind a cover the outermost lights are partially exposed to flash oncoming traffic when additional illumination is needed the covers don't pop up but slide down into the bodyw work they also give the Roadster a distinctive front-end signature gandii would incorporate headlight covers into many of his future designs to achieve the same effect Berton also modified the interior the five gaug is removed from behind the steering wheel and it arranged in a t pattern on the dash and CER panel while this lowers the cowl height it also requires the driver to take their eyes off the road in order to read the information this dial on the passenger side is especially concerned turning it's well out of the way and partially obscured by the dash development dragged on for 9 months work didn't wrap up until mirror hours before the show last minute finishes will become a pattern for Bretton the car generated some Buzz at Geneva but with an estimated price of just under $88,000 there wasn't any serious interest extensive modifications to the interior and exterior shot the price into the stratosphere meanwhile Porsche had the 911 Target on display in its own section that car had a sticker price of $ 6,170 The Way Forward was clear a convertible 911 as appealing a prospect as it was simply wasn't viable the Jag and Porsche pilled in comparison to the true star of Geneva the mirror Lamborghini had made a bit of Headway in the automotive world with the 350 GT the touring Coupe gave Ferrari some healthy competition but engineer Johan Paulo delara wanted to make something more extreme prior to coming to Lamborghini he worked for Ferrari and Maserati brand with stored racing programs Mid Engine cars had become the norm of the circuit but the layout hadn't really trickled down to production Vehicles Enzo Ferrari didn't think that his customers would have the skills to keep a mid-engine car on the road delar was free to experiment at Lamborghini the likes of the Ford GT40 and Ferrari 330p would have been obvious Inspirations but he was motivated by another unlikely car the Mini Cooper journalist Winston Goodfellow spoke with doara about the miror development he went on to say quote the original idea was to use that min's ingenious front-wheel drive engine and transmission and place it behind the driver to make a mid-engine car after developing the concept for some time he went to ferio and asked if he was interested in getting more parts for mini so that they could build the cards at scale the boss had a better idea instead of putting out a part spin special he wanted them to take the idea to another level he allowed Delora and fellow Engineers Paulo stanzani and Bob Wallace to work on a proof of concept it would used the same bizer designed V12 from the 350 GT but it would be mounted transversely behind the seats it brought the weights Inward and freed up enough space for a 5-ft cargo area at the back of the car they spent 6 months working on the engineering drawings and a prototype was completed soon after Lamborghini asked keria Turing to skin the C in September of 1965 the two entities had worked together on the 350 GT so they hoped that this collaboration would produce equally pleasing results Turing produced two asymmetrical skill models with each side showing a different designed making for four designs in total none of them impressed fio with the turn motoro approaching the company decided to put the beard chassis on display it debuted bearing the tp400 moniker the name short for a transversal posteriori is Italian for a rear transversal it seemed like reps from every coach builder in town came by to have a look herton was the only firm that didn't stop by during the initial Rush would fuchi asked what took so long nuo said that he wanted to wait for the crows to disperse fio then asked do you not wish to design the body for my new car nuia responded I will pin the perfect shoe to fit such a wonderful foot several factors played into fero's decision to go with Bron thly keria Turing was on shaky Financial ground and Neo's company seemed to be the safer betet they were also practically the only cult builder in town without any major ties to Ferrari perhaps the aspect that stood out the most was the sheer quality of their work ferio took a liking to the Alfa Romeo kanduru and saw a design of that caliber for his car he didn't realize that jaro the man who styled that car had left the company some time ago and in his place was a relative newcomer who hadn't really proven himself in the industry there was also the issue of time Lamborghini needed the car ready for for the Geneva Auto Show which was a mirror 4 months away the aggressive deadline forced Berton to kick the development process into high gear engineer Pierro stroba made a package drawing of the chassis on the 20th of December gandini no doubt sweating out the strict time restraint hashed out the profile directly on top of them orthogonal drawings were completed on Christmas Eve and a few days later the design was approved nerton was said to have had significant input on the design the legend goes that gandini largely ignored his suggestions with the design finished and the Prototype 2 weeks out from being completed gandini took a vacation while he was away nuo made his way over to the studio and made a few changes to the car when gandin returned the finished prototype was in the process of being painted he was taken about but there was no time to reverse the changes this story has since been debunked in the book fellow engineers stroo and priar maintain that no such changes were made to the design Neo's input started and ended with his suggestion to use lighting components from the parts spin moreover gandini didn't go on vacation until the mirror was completely finished and on the way to the event the retractable headlights lie flush with the body to reduce drag and tilt up slightly when activated gandini heated new Cho suggestion to use existing parts and and pulled units from the 850 thin Forks are placed at the top and bottom of the enclosure enthusiasts commonly refer to these as eyelashes because of how they curve onto the body thin bumper strips are located at the front and rear of the car they're deemphasized even further because they're integrated into larger grills you won't find the door handles on the body they're the very bottom slats in the intakes just inboard of the doors the Prototype car had a plexiglass cover over the engine but there were visibility and ventilation issues production cars had louvers that kept the engine dry and preserved the sliver of visibility that remained at the rear we can see the first appearance of a styling feature that both Lamborghini and gandini would utilize heavily in the future the lower half of the rear clip has a hexagonal pattern it's elongated to allow as much airflow as possible gandini went into his thought process a bit more in an interview with a Car and Driver saying that it quote was a way to characterize the functional elements such as the grill and right above this are tail lights that were also borrowed from the Fiat 850 A Roadster version debuted at the 1968 Brussels motor show it received a warm reception but Lamborghini decided not to put it in production it sold the car to the lead zinc research organization which sought a car that they could use to Showcase their lightweight materials the automaker didn't want to give them a car off the line though it was willing to part with the one-off lead zinc dismantled the car repainted it green and replaced many of the stock Parts with zinc Alternatives Lamborghini's discarded concept car was used as a promotional tool for a decade after which it was sold to a private buyer in 1980 the Brookline Museum of Transportation received it as a donation several more owners took possession of the car before it came into the hands of New York property developer Adam Gordon he oversaw an extensive $320,000 restoration that reverted the mirror back to its original specification it earned second place at the 2008 Conor deleg later that year he sold it to a private buyer for an undisclosed price fujio handed Bron another assignment after the mirror project ended he to round out the lineup with a full sizee four seat Cube at the 1967 Geneva Auto Show the company unveiled the maral concept Berton used a modified Mira chassis as a basis lengthening it by 120 mm to accommodate a set of rear seats the new engine freed up even more space well it wasn't really new Engineers chopped the miror 4 L V12 and2 creating a transversely mounted in line six that made 75 horsepower the Goldwing doors are the maral's most distinctive design element they Grant access to both the front and rear seeds just as unusual is the sheer amount of glass it has over 49 ft of the stuff the tall greina house has a way of pulling in the rest of the body making it feel a touch more compact door guards that come from the front end break the mass up and guide the eye around the car they surround it at the widest point giving the brittle material a bit of protection fio was not a fan of the glass doors because they provided the occupants no privacy he even said a lady's legs would be there for all to see a 3D honeycomb pattern can be seen on the louers this continues into the interior it's directly referenced in the dash but can also be seen in the shape of the instrument cluster housing and storage compartment on the passenger side gandini touched on the marzal during a 2018 interview with a Top Gear he said basically the marzal was drifting towards what science fiction writers had been promising with these prototypes a public Declaration was our way of seeing the cars of the future it may have been a bit too avanguard for fuchia but the idea of four seat Lamborghini still intrigued him a more grounded interpretation of these ideas wasn't far off only the car wouldn't be bearing the Raging Bull but the leaping cat John an the editor of the The Daily Telegraph went to Berton and commissioned the Jaguar piranha development lasted 6 months and the piranha made its first appearance at the 1967 London Auto Show the outlandish elements from the marzal have been left on The Cutting Room floor but for the most part the DNA largely remains its sex Ted of headlights has been swapped out for more conventional halogens the front end signature loses some character as a result whereas the marzal was mid- engine the piranha has an frr configuration the door guard is also gone replaced by a character line that follows a similar path even the rear willwell treatment is identical Lamborghini inv built the asata in 1968 finally bringing the principles introduced with the marsal and PIRA to a production car Alfa Romeo was invited to present a car at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal they in turn gave bertona Julia ch and ask them to work their magic a pair of show cars were sent out to the event over 55 million people attended the show Legend has it that the reception for the Cs was so overwhelming that Alfa Romeo had no choice but to Greenlight them Martin Buckley from classic and sports car theorizes that production was probably in the back of the company's mind the whole time delays and labor disputes pushed the release into 1971 the Alpha Romeo Montreal carried over the main beats but the details have changed considerably the headlight coverings are one such modification classic and sports car states that the ones in the concepts could be adjusted to meet different Li height requirements in different markets on the production car they're purely just for show styling in general has changed with the concept being a bit leaner and curvier and the production car feeling more blunt and solid the chin side windows and faux vents are the major elements that were tweaked the concept also had a set of vents near the base of the windshield that tied into the openings on the side conversely the road cards have a large knocka duct in the hood these changes amp up the aggression at the cost of some finesse the concept may have been the darling of the Expo but the road car was a sess disappointment Alpha Romeo didn't certify the car in the US due to emissions concerns which outright eliminated a major Market the oil crisis struck about halfway through the product cycle Turing coups of all varieties suffered as a result somehow the Montreal endured through 1977 according to Oto week total production was a touch over 3900 1969 saw the debut of the BMW speakup concept its name was in reference to the trick roof and is a portm of the word spider and Coupe basically the front portion slided into the back portion which then goes into the roll bar the Finish pops against the emerald green paint the same treatment is applied to the engine scoop in the hood suggesting immense power the roof was just one part of a very unconventional design for BMW just about the only thing that calls back to the brand is the kidney Grill and even the treatment there is a bit odd it pillows out almost as if it's doubling as a protective bumper flanking it are two horizontal elements BMW model of this vintage used a similar arrangement though again Berton has played with a formula they're lined with the same material and also have a mirror-like finish and just like the Montreal and 911 Roadster that came before the speakup has partially covered headlights unlike those cars they pop up instead of sliding down into the body work a tossable two- seat convertible would have complemented BMW's range of sedans and CPS nicely tragically the autom decided against putting it into production the Alpa Romeo 33 stradali is one of the most beautiful cars ever designed but at a price of $117,000 new the company had trouble selling them of the 18 that were built five were handed out to various coach Builders one went to ital design two went to pen and frina and two went to Berton gandini's firm rebodied one of theirs in 1968 the olifer Romeo Carib is both a design exercise and an engineering study although the mirror was well received upon its debut magazine reviewers found that it had a tendency to lift off the ground at high speeds the caribo was created in part to mitigate that issue its name comes from the Carib Beetle don't worry I'm not going to put it on screen just note that their green and bronze exteriors inspired the paint job the kibo Bucks the 33 stali flowing lines for a chiseled dramatic form language its nose quite literally comes to a point from there the silhouette goes to the rear nearly unimpeded the long exaggerated front overhang and the short blunt rear overhang give the impression that the caribo is slicing through the air while standing still the form is preserved even when the headlights are activated six panels up front flip up in a way that doesn't disrupt things too much they also contrast with the hood scoop it's 165 in Long 70 in wide and under 40 in tall erress would have been a challenge with conventional doors so gandini had to find an alternative solution the answer came in the form of its scissor doors they're hinged at the front and raced straight up I don't think I need to go through how iconic and influential they've become the caribo is one of the most important concept cars in Automotive History it guided gandini philos phos ophy for decades to come and ushered in a new era of car design beron finished out the year with the autoban a112 Runabout Fiat had called on a design house to assist in the development of the 850 spider it saw some success in the market but they wondered what it could be like if it weren't tied down by the rear engine 850s bones bton being familiar with creating midship designs proposed such a configuration for the new car heavy power booat influences are present in The Styling as seen in the angled rollar metallic undercarriage and low winds screen it's almost as if it's ready to spend a Saturday afternoon out in the water at Lake Tahoe the Runabout never saw production but Fiat became convinced of the benefits of the new layout a new car utilizing the lessons learned from the concept turned up in 1972 the Fiat x19 some aspects of the Runabout carried over such as the 128 pinnings the wedge profile while not as Extreme as What was seen on the concept largely made the cut its SE pillar is also reminiscent of the aggressive rollar Keen observers might notice some minor additions namely doors a top and a full-size front screen its top is of particular interest in this regard the American Market had always been a critical one for convertibles but in the late' 60s and early '70s there was a real real possibility that they'd be banned outright to skirt this potential regulation the x19 left the factory with a removable top instead of a fully retractable roof although those rules never came to the setup ended up being in the car's benefit it had similar structural rigidity to a closed body car beron sought to add lancha to its ever expanding Rolodex the automaker usually went with pin and ferna and zagato for its styling needs and hadn't yet give new chos firm a chance he thought the best course of action would be to show lancho what they were missing out on it began to working on a car without lant's knowledge simply showing the company a concept wouldn't be enough beron needed to make a statement the name early on was Strat limite or the limit of the stratosphere marello and his team took this in stride and brainstormed the ways in which they could push the envelope this philosophy was carried out in terms of the car Dimensions the Stratos hf0 was just 33 in tall not only that it takes the caribo all dramatic stance even further another will can fit on the front overhang with plenty of room to spare the Bodywork takes an aggressive angle at the rear wheel and establishes the floor without ring out the main line is absolutely vital to the car it tapers down the length of the body which propels the car's momentum forward and makes it seem as if it's going downhill the way the rear kicks up to meet it seals the deal it makes a perfect Arrow which is just enough to push the body forward everything comes second to the pure form including the headlights the zero has neither conventional pop-ups nor gandini style light covers instead it uses tin bulbs arranged in a strip at the very tip of the nose this black portion is a stepping pad used to ease entry into the cockpit access is granted through the windshield it flips upward revealing a set of nearly vertical seats and a face up steering wheel once the occupants are in place the driver tilts it in a position ergonomics are understandably compromised the column sits between the driver's legs and the wheel itself comes up well past the knees with the design finalized it was now time for Bron to present it to their unsuspecting clients The Story Goes that nuo drove the car to their headquarters and attempted to go into a restricted area he was denied entry but rather than turn around he simply drove under the barrier gate the guards were probably too dump struck to do anything about it nuo was able to get a meeting with lano's big wigs and convinced them to take the project on the agf led to the 1973 Stratos one of the most successful rally CS of all time Lamborghini sought to replace the mirror with with a car that employed the Lessons Learned with the ALF Romeo caribo this was realized in 1971 with a kunach LP 500 prototype its silhouette is literally a wedge arching continuously from the bumper to the rear duck the front end is somewhat reminiscent of that of the hfz a tree with vents are housed here and the kach word Mark is also thrown in to keep the design relatively symmetrical the car has lots of tumble home its Greenhouse tapers inward so aggressively that the glass doesn't have a chance to curve along with it resulting in windows that are nearly flat buttresses are created as the pillars meet the tail lights their highest point and you can always count on a gandini design to have interesting wheel Arch treatment visibility was so abysmal that beron needed to reinvent the wheel so to speak instead of installing rear viiew mirrors they placed a periscope mirror in the interior it's angled toward the driver and is positioned directly in front of an opening on the roof this didn't prove to be a very effective solution as the driver would have to take their eyes off the road in order to use it when the projection model broke cover in 1974 it had small round mirrors attached to the wings other modifications include massive vents on the shoulders Naka ducks on the body sides and a more pronounced front bumper Berton always eager to forge new relationships with automakers began working with BMW on the 2200 TI garish show car gandini said that the name came from a German ski resort and went on to say that it quote evoked dreams of winter sports and alapine elegans most of the cars that we've looked at thus far have been at the bleeding edge of design and therefore bore a little of resemblance to the other models in their respective ranges with the garish Berton aimed for a stronger link between those two worlds gandini said that they wanted to stay true to BMW's design language while sprinkling in a bit of their trademark flare the company had used the kidney girl in some form since 1933 interpretations in the past had have been tall wide ornate and everything in between the garish centerpiece is truly oneof a kind there are vertical angular hexagons that protrude from the body historic models have either had mesh inserts or thin Forks as accents there don't seem to be any inserts here this contrasts with the chromed perimeter and gives it more pop the profile hats traced to the door stops that Berton had become known for take note of the shark nose beaked Hood angular cabin and sloping third box this was a shift from the BMWs of the 60s the new class for instance had upright screens and a level lower box even the tried andrue Hoffmeister King has been toyed with the angle is more shallow to keep with the new lines above it is a strange grill that shrinks the pillar and retains some of the air of older models the hexagonal screen at the rear adds a bit of depth in the right conditions it allows for intriguing interactions between light and Shadow Bon's 911 Roadster seems to have inspired the gar mish's interior various controls are arranged on a vertical panel near the dashboard thankfully the gauges are behind the steering wheel where they belong the high beams AC and radio can be adjusted by the driver without them having to take their eyes off the road last but certainly not least is the glove box it pops open like a drawer and even holds a mirror passengers could be certain that they were ready for any occasion the garish directly previewed the e125 series and inspired the look of many other BMWs after its debut at the Geneva motor show it vanished Without a Trace decades later BMW design director Adrien van hoyon found a faded photograph of the car and perused the company's archived for more information one might expect to find a wealth of material and such an iconic concept but he only came away with a few more images Hoon decided to take on the ambitious task of replicating the garish with gandini's permission of course he assembled a small team comprised of members of his design staff as well as a few employees from BMW classic even with this additional Manpower and knowledge there were still many areas that they were unclear on after all the team only had a few photographs to work from to fill these gaps the company Enlisted the help of its creator gandini pulled critical details for memory such as the shade of the champagne metallic paint the garish Recreation made its debut in 2019 according to rodent track gandi said that he had a hard time distinguishing it from the original the car is now part of BMW's classic collection Maserati commissioned Bron to design a successor to the guia Dal jibi the formula is the same but the execution is all gandini it also points to the changing tastes of the 1970s take note of the chiseled character line flush door handle and stretched dloo the theme of a symmetry also continues in the hoodin a long opening stops as it meets the crease on the right side it continues higher up near the base of the windshield pillar grills features that we've seen a few times before are used to extend the greenhouse the cams and's tail lights were fixed to a glass panel it almost appears as if they're floating in midair the overall shape of the housing calls back to the citran Kamar another bird tone design Maserati andil the cams in on the eve of the oil crisis production lasted into 1982 but only 435 examples were built Berton created the Trap concept car for the ailing NSU brand according to Audi Club it was shorter than a Lamborghini urraco while having four fullsize seats this packaging was thanks in large part to the placement of its engine the front seats are placed very close together which frees up additional leg room for the rear seats a rotary power plant is nestled into between them The Styling calls back to the production lancha Stratos with its wraparound front screen and cab for it design again the details are what set it apart circles seem to be the prevailing theme here there's a set in the hood and another pair just behind the window even the door handles are nestled inside of roundhills a car like the trapes would have surely put NSU back of the map the damage inflicted by the row 80 was too much to overcome though and the brand soon with away Lamborghini had high hopes for the uraco its Mid Engine 2 plus2 911 fighter they expected to sell 2,000 a year but four years in only a few hundred had been constructed the automaker then turned his attention toward its successor Berton was called upon once again the Bravo hardly resembled the oraco p300 that it started out as its pillars are smoked and blend in with the glass creating the most seamless front screen that we've seen thus far the AP pillar crease continues into the sheet metal bodyc color louvers tie into a similar pattern on the hood the retractable headlights are disguised in the process and those magnesium rotary D wheels would eventually make their way to the flagship Countach Lamborghini had every intention of seeing the Bravo through the concept was not a foam and plas theine mockup it was a fully functional prototype that received over 40,000 test miles journalists got their hands on it and raved about the driving Dynamics rod and track went as far as to say that it was the car the Orco should have been perhaps the Bravo could have been the S success that Lamborghini was hoping for the dreaded oil crisis put an end to these Ambitions fuchia was forced to sell the company the new owners had no interest in bringing the Bravo to Market a more focused two Suiter based in the oraco seemed like a better bet to them I ironically the Lamborghini silhouette would go on to become one of their rarest serious production cars 54 were built between 1976 and 1979 its successor the yala saw greater sale success Ferrari which had a long-standing relationship with pin inferna looked to Berton to style the 308 GT4 the design house sought to strengthen its relationship with the automaker by showing what it could do if it were given a free hand in a concept car the 308 GT4 rainbow bears the Prancing horse but otherwise hardly resembles your typical Ferrari this was very intentional gandini said I didn't see much point in designing a Ferrari concept that looked like a Ferrari as the designers in pin and finina and others were very much capable of doing so if we had to do a concept on a Ferrari base I believed that we needed to look at something that would be radically different from what would be expected like the speak up the rainbow used to folding roof here it tilts back and goes into a slot just ahead of the rollar rodent track says that this happens in roughly 2 seconds the rainbows seem to be a bit too adventurous for Ferrari Berton would never again style a car for the automaker the coach Builder used its second 33 stali as the basis for the Alpha Romeo Navajo its futuristic Bodywork is made entirely from fiberglass contributing to a curve weight of under 2,000 lb the headlights don't pop out of the hood but out from the wings this gives it an unusual almost alien-like front-end signature many of gandini's designs have some sort of line that goes across the body perimeter the Navajo makes use of a thick orange line that gives the silver car a splash of color more of it can be found on the massive spoiler the treatment of the wraparound screen is reminiscent of that of the Bravo in the way that it motions into the Bodywork it's even more extreme here and almost makes the Navajo look like a spacecraft out of a 1980 sci-fi flck in 1977 Berton collaborated with reliant on the fw11 project it was a four-door liftback with a tall cabin and large Windows according to Keri italiani it was originally envisioned as a successor to the Turkish anadol Reliant was also considering it as a replacement for its citar four prototypes were constructed before the project was cancelled traces of the fw11 would show up in the xjs based Jaguar Ascot concept the fascia is also similar to that of the Ferrari rainbow with a wide Grill asymmetrical logo and trick headlights Jager passed on this car gandini developed the design further in 1979 when Berton received a brief from Volvo according to an article from Top Gear it was assigned to restyle the homely 343 hatchback compared to the rest of the company's range the tundra may as well have been from a different planet Volvo's corporate Grill is low and off center the A and C pillars are darkened giving the impression of a floating roof the tundra rolls in the overall dimensions and opts for softer surfacing it seemed like the shot on the arm that the brown was looking for but Volvo rejected it it was far from dead though it finally saw the light of day in 1982 in the form of the cetron BX the front end has a bit in common with the tundra the grill is on the lower part of the section leaving the headlights turn indicators and offset badge as the only elements up top the wheel Arch treatment is similar as well with the main body line going through the front ones and above the rear ones the ones in the back have a pinch of gandini flare it covers a bit of it and boops upward it diverges from the others a bit around back it enlarges the greenhouse by darkening a chunk of the sea pillar and uses two square lights to visually widen the car the BX is by far gandini's most successful model it was offered from 1982 to 1993 and in that span citen sold over 2 million of them the man himself will be long gone by the time it actually came to market the Mazda Cosmo Lucy and in 929 were the final cars done under es skans after more than 15 years of Ron gandini stepped down as chief of design and went freelance there was no shortage of work Lamborghini looked his way for a cach replacement the car known internally as the p132 was very much an evolution of what it was set to succeed angular styling and massive shoulder vents transfer over to the new model the canopy takes on a teardrop shape as it tapers toward the deck emphasizing the hips and highlighting the engine partway through development the company fell under the control of Chrysler the harsh lines were ired out over subsequent design studies and the 1990 Diablo was a sve machine in comparison soon after leaving the p132 project gandini was invited to submit a proposal for the chetta maroder v16t classic driver states that his original design for the Diablo was used as a basis for the car there are some links between the two models such as the lighting elements on the lower clip pop-up location and sloping window line there are also a few differences take these buttresses for instance on the Prototype they stretch all the way back to the deck the louvers continue up past these creating geometric pillars that call back to the features from cars like the marzal and garish this wasn't quite the taste of company head claudo zampi the production car combined elements and ideas from all of those cars in 2001 stola presented him with a chance to revisit one of his most iconic designs the company was known for among other things its expertise in prototyping it wanted to show the advantages of its newly developed epoxy resin which it claimed was Superior to standard modeling clay the Stratos inspired stola S31 was intended to do just that lancha still had the rights to the name s81 signified the 81st birthday of company founder Alfredo stola while the car has an eye toward the past it does more than enough to stand on its own bright compact LEDs gave gandini more freedom to experiment with the lighting units the upper portion illuminates the road ahead while the lower part serves as the turn indicator the body cut C them creating a dynamic frontend signature the Stratus's wraparound screen makes the transition to the s81 due to the heavily raked windshield and massive shoulder vent the window has to take an extreme angle up this gives the car an aggressively pinched Greenhouse that makes it feel larger than it actually is the plan view does look pretty neat though around back a continuous LED strip highlights the surfacing of the deck gandini and stola collaborated again in 2005 on the s86 damante the company wanted to show prospective clients that it was capable of turning out to work under strict deadlines development took just over 5 weeks and it really shows in The uninspired Styling the S6 also has the worst will well yet it looks like a complete afterthought gandin was also involved in the creation of the 2017 to Raco concept it was pitched as a lowcost sports car geared toward the Indian market Tata Motors canceled the project due to financial issues marello gandini passed away on March 13th 2024 at the age of 85 the legendary designer was survived by his wife two kids and three grandchildren he also left behind a legacy matched by few in automotive history after dropping out of school he carved his own path into the industry and earned a position at Berton The Firm didn't skip a beat in the transition from jaro to gandini some of the most iconic sports cards of all time were created while he was at the helm family sedans T-top Sportsters poster worthy coups and everything in between came out of the coach Builder during this time he continued to make an impact as a freelancer reimagining some of his most well-known designs and creating a few new ones marchello gandini was one of the greatest car designers of all time and is definitely an industry icon

2024-08-22 06:27

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