Marcello Gandini, one of the greatest car designers of all time, died last week aged 85. Many publications have been running his obituary, or listed his top 10 (or 12, or 20 or whatever) greatest designs to pay homage to an outstanding artist. CC will too, in its own way: look what I found on the side of the road for the occasion.
Born in Turin in 1938, Marcello Gandini (above, on the right) got his start in the thick of things when he was hired by Nuccio Bertone (on the left) in the mid-‘60s to assist and eventually replace Giugiaro as head of Bertone styling.
Sporty Gandinis, clockwise from top left: 1966 Miura, 1975 Dino, 1973 Stratos, 1969 Iso Lele
One of the first big impact designs he delivered was the revolutionary Lamborghini Miura, unveiled in 1966. Remaining at the helm of Bertone until 1979, Gandini’s accomplishments are too numerous to list, going from the Alfa Romeo Montreal to the Innocenti Mini, along with a string of one-offs, studies and prototypes.
Family Gandinis, clockwise from top left: 1972 Fiat 132, 1974 Audi 50, 1982 Citroën BX, 1974 Maserati QP2
Nearly all Lamborghini and many Maserati products from 1970 to 2000 are part of his portfolio. The Citroën BX was one of the last designs he authored for Bertone, before working as a consultant for Renault from 1980 to 1985.
Quirky Gandinis, clockwise from top left: 1969 BMW, 1968 Alfa Carabo, 1990 Bugatti, 1967 Fiat 125
Marcello Gandini continued to be in high demand in the ‘90s, penning the Bugatti EB-110 prototype and the (De Tomaso) Qvale Mangusta. He officially retired in 2005, but remained very present on the automotive scene right until his passing on 13 March 2024.
Of all carmakers, Lamborghini arguably had the deepest relationship with Gandini, in that the impact of his work remains engrained in present-day models, long after the Italian marque was taken over by VW. It all started with the Miura and continued with the likes of the Espada, but from a styling perspective, the one that durably influenced Lamborghini was the Countach, made from 1974 to 1989. However, even in its earliest incarnation, it was the product of a series of compromises.
The purest form of the design was the very first LP500 prototype, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show back in March 1971, though Gandini had actually premiered this extreme wedge design on the Alfa Romeo Carabo show car back in 1968.
The Countach prototype was admired by all who saw it and was featured in many contemporary magazines. From an aesthetic point of view, it was a great success, instantly outshining the Miura, whose production was now curtailed to make way for the Wedge of the Future.
But it also gave Lamborghini a number of technical headaches, which required immediate attention if the car was to ever become a production model. This was due to the new Lambo’s extremely short (less than six months) development time, which essentially turned the whole schedule completely on its head. Having started with the end product, Lamborghini engineers were now going to have to work backwards to make the Countach a reality.
One of the main problems was the mid-mounted V12’s persistent overheating. The louvred air intakes were completely insufficient, so a major redesign, with large scoops and side NACA intakes, had to be devised. These modifications were made on the steel-bodied prototype itself, bit by bit. The chassis was also completely re-engineered.
The show car’s interior (above), stylish and futuristic though it was, also had to be completely redesigned from scratch. Our replica feature car’s interior is closer to that of the 1974 Countach than the prototype’s.
In addition, the marque was entering a period of turmoil as its founder started looking for a way to save his business: both the car offshoot and the main tractor business were bleeding money. By 1974, Ferrucio Lamborghini had sold all his shares in the company that bore his name. But at least he had left the Countach as his legacy.
This replica is impressively close to the real thing. At least, that’s what it seems like from a non-expert’s point of view. It is absolutely stunning – the photos really don’t do it justice.
One novel feature that was present on the original car (and is reproduced in this excellent replica) was the “periscope” rearview mirror. Looks like a high-mounted stop light, but it’s not.
A side-by-side comparison between the Japanese replica and the original car is not on the cards, given that the original car, which was gradually turned from a show car to a test mule, was scrapped fifty years ago soon after the above picture was taken. It’s a puzzle why they sacrificed the prototype in this fashioned, as it was structurally quite different from the production car, so this crash-test did not prove much of anything.
According to Japanese websites (this car has already been spotted by a number of folks here), this replica was made by a dedicated Countach fan who lamented the fact that he could not afford the genuine article. But being a man of some means, and acquainted with an extremely talented coachbuilder, he decided to recreate the 1971 Countach using a gen 3 (W30) Toyota MR-2 chassis.
Why the MR-2? Because it is mid-engined, features a very rigid frame and happens to have the exact same wheelbase as the Lambo. And it’s a 1.8 litre Toyota, so quite a bit cheaper to run than the 4-litre V12 that the original car had. However, the MR-2 was apparently imported from the US, presumably so that it could be LHD.
This genuine one-off labour of love took three years to realize, getting its license plates in 2019. Turns out it was somewhat prescient, as Lamborghini themselves were in the process of painstakingly re-creating the LP500 prototype in Italy at the time – albeit one that would be 99% identical to the original, chassis, interior and drivetrain included. That car was finalized in 2021 in the very same yellow hue sported by our feature car, as well as the 1971 original.
I don’t know whether Marcello Gandini was aware of this replica, but there has been a spate of re-creations of long-lost one-offs over the past few years. The 1970 BMW Garmisch, another stunning Gandini/Bertone work, was recently resurrected at great expense by the German carmaker recently, with the designer’s assistance. It must have been very gratifying for him to see his work was held in such high esteem.
Given how bastardized the poor Countach’s design was in its later years, it is fitting that at least two replicas of the original shape have emerged – if only to remind us what a stunning and gutsy chef d’oeuvre it was at heart. Even if, in this case, said heart is a humble Toyota 4-cyl. engine…
This heralds the start of Gandini Week at CC – time permitting, three more Italian beauties designed by the maestro will follow.
Related posts:
In-Motion Classic: 1985(?) Lamborghini Countach 5000S – Sophia Loren Strolls By, by MagnumSRT8 Brian
Comment Follow-Up: Which Is Faster: A Lamborghini Countach LP400S Or a Toyota Camry V6?, by PN
Which Is Faster, Part 2: A 1957 Corvette Or A 1978 Lamborghini Countach LP400S?, by PN
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: Lamborghini Countach – But Is It Faster Than A Camry V6?, by PN
Road & Track Vintage Road Test: 1976 Lamborghini Countach – “Fastest Car We’ve Ever Tested”, by PN
Vintage Review: Lamborghini Countach S, by Yohai71
The Audi 50 looks very similar to the VW Golf Mk1. For sure they were from different Italian design houses, and have different size slightly. . But my point is if they were independently developed back then.
It’s even in Curbside Yellow, how appropriate. Gandini was a maestro, I was not aware of the Audi 50 credit until a few days ago, nor some of the others.
The recreation here is quite the project. And quite the result. Very impressive, though as good as the Toyota 1.8 is I think I’d need to see about shoehorning at least a Camry V6 into it for the full experience.
Only in Japan… Such a contrast to the US where there were numerous Countach “kit cars” but all based on the later versions with all the spoilers and flares. And of course they all looked like what they were, since they invariably didn’t have the right wheelbase and/or other dimensions and proportions.
It would be interesting to see the interior. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used an automatic version of the MR2 to minimize the challenges of recreating the look of the Countach’s shift linkage and shifter.
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I became interested in cars just as Gandini was hitting his stride. Alas I never owned the Muira but there was a Lambo dealer in North Belfast despite the Troubles and I got a ride in the demo Urraco. There was no speed limit on the M2 so let’s just say it wasn’t doing 70. As long as cars live on, he’ll never be forgotten.
” instantly outshining the Miura,” Sorry TATRA, you’re not getting away with that. Nothing has ever outshone the Miura, and a wedge of cheese doesn’t come close.
A lot of that depends on when you came of age car-wise Uncle Mellow. I’d never even heard of the Miura until I saw it here on CC. Yes, a beautiful car no doubt. But for those of us that were in our twenties in the eighties, The Countach was the “it” Italian exotic car.
And at the risk of loosing my commenting privileges here, I’ll go out on a limb and say the these cars look better with the ground effects and flares an such… but then I became aware of Lambos a little late in the game.
In my defense, I owned a ’97 Grand Prix GTP. Pontiac was all about cladding and ground effects back in the day. A Grand Prix SE of that vintage just looks too plain without the cladding so hated here.
As a sort of CC effect, in my office right now, I’m looking at that classic Countach picture of a white mid-eighties Lambo parked in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Not my actual pic, but one like it from the web…
Agree, the flares and wider wheels balance the design, I tend to think the Countach peaked with the first version flared, the lp400s. It got too cluttered by the LP5000QVs and anniversary by the end of the 80s, the rocker flares ruined it for me
The LP400 had a lot of changes from the concept to make it a functioning automobile, from the nasa ducts on the side to the big scoops on the top of the rear, the flares matched those features.
I agree with you, Uncle; Sorry, Rick; I think I may be a bit older. The Countach is a stunner, for sure, but the Miura is sheer beauty. It’s like Brutalism versus Gothic Revival. I hated the Countach at first, for supplanting the Miura. But the times they were a-changing, and the Miura was perhaps the final flowering of the fifties-sixties Supercar style’s flowing curves. Now I can appreciate the Countach as well, but my heart goes with the Miura.
And just what have you got against cheese, Uncle, especially considering your surname?
The Muira is a beauty, that’s for sure, but you’ve got to concede, much of the looks of it had been seen in other iterations before. It is a refinement, albeit, a hell of a one.
But the LP 400 – and only it, the be-winged and be-wanged successors looking actively unpleasant, to these eyes – was and is properly NEW. Extraordinary operatic drama, eye-rivetting in a way the super-pretty Muira is not.
In that way, it really did outshine the Muira, and set the image of Lambo from then to now.
This very-Japan oddball is in fact much closer to that proto LP500 Lambo recently re-created than is at first obvious. There’s videos online to pour over to make the comparison (a worthwhile waste of your time, I suggest).
It is incredible, very nearly unbelievable, to think that the original, with north/south V12, has the wheelbase of just an MR2! Wow.
I’ve certainly never seen a pic of the original interior till this, and again, just wow. Hell, it’s not as if the one that was ultimately fitted was practical, so why not use that spectacular one, especially as I always thought the production interior was ugly and kit-car-ish. Oh well, at least some of the dash shape got to be used on the original Citroen BX a decade on!
Vale, Gandini. Surely one of the true greats, perhaps proved mostly by his (few) fails: only the great reach out to the very edges, the others, whose lesser-ness makes them less brave, produce nothing terrible, but at their best, produce stuff that is only very good.
There was a shop in my hometown that had a space frame from a Countach on display. It had probably been burned and rusted before being painted black and left in a corner of their showroom. I wonder if values of Countachs ever reached levels where using it for a restor-recreation was feasible?
Wow! Love this replica.
The Countach was a land mark in car design – provocative, quirky and beautiful all at the same time. Early production cars – known as the “periscopio” did posess the rear view mirror roof feature and were on 14″ wheels. An early Countach is tiny compared to today’s supercars. Even though some of the surfaces appear quite flat, they are all subtly curved – one can view one of these for hours, constantly noticing nuances of surface and cool details.
I worked at Bertone when Nuccio was very old, but that intense gaze you see in the pictures of him by the Carabo was still there. He provided very strong direction and therefore ensured continuity from one chief designer to the next. When he expressed enthusiasm for a sketch you had done it really meant something!
When I think of Bertone it is the Gandini era that comes to mind first – provocative, sometimes beautiful, sometimes not, but always pushing boundaries.
Incidentally, when I was there Signor. Bertone was chauffeured around in a black Citroen XM and the show cars would all be driven out from the garage and displayed on the lawn when important clients visited. One car they didn’t have was a Countach!