Probably not a completely familiar name, but one well known to many petrol heads.
Unfortunately, today, we say goodbye to Marcello Gandini, Italian designer of many, many iconic cars of the 1960’s, 1970s and 1980’s
Probably, his most famous creation is that poster car from many a young boys wall. The Lamborghini Countach. I think I bought the DVD copy of Cannonball Run, just to listen to the Countach in the opening credits.
But he actually started even earlier with Lamborghini, with the ground breaking Lamborghini Muira, the first production mid-engined super car. (comments below on the Lotus Europa please.)
For those of you not familiar with that 1960’s model, it was the yellow sports car, bulldozed off the cliff at the beginning of the ‘Italian Job’.
His list of designs are too numerous to list in a post, but they did include The Ferrari 308GT4, BMW 5 series, VW Polo and the humble Renault 5.
Not to mention my favourite, the Lancia Stratos, designed with no compromise. And scared the hell out of everyone who drove it.
Thank you. Marchello Gandini, 26th August 1938 to 13th March 2024. It has been a pleasure.