Lamborghini

One of the most fascinating car designers, Marcello Gandini has created some of the most iconic shapes to have ever hit the road. Prolific yet often uncredited, Gandini now claims he was so focused on design, he “forgot to have a career!”

Gandini was born in Turin in 1938, within a few months of two other fabled Italian car designers, Leonardo Fioravanti and Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Sent to a liceo classic, in the hope he would follow an arts career, Gandini instead became fascinated by engineering and dropped out of school. By the age of 20, he was earning money and branching out into graphic design and furniture design.

Gandini’s big break came in 1965, when Bertone’s then-chief designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro, moved to Ghia. Twenty-four hours later, Gandini was confirmed as his replacement.

Four months on, at the 1966 Geneva motorshow, Bertone presented three show cars, including the prototype of the Lamborghini Miura. One of the world’s most dramatically styled supercars of all time, it has also become controversial, as credit sometimes goes to Giugiaro, sometimes to Gandini.

The designer claims that his design interests are “focused on vehicle architecture, construction, assembly, and mechanisms - not appearance.” This approach contributed to cars with ever-more dramatic angles and proportions – such as the Lancia Stratos, with its wraparound windscreen. Gandini also introduced the concept of scissor doors with the Alfa Romeo 33 Carabo prototype, a feature that appeared on the 1974 Lamborghini Countach, which became one of the ultimate ‘poster cars’ of the 1980s.

Mass-sellers also benefitted from Gandini’s talents, including his final project for Bertone, the Citroën BX, which saved the French brand from the financial abyss.

After turning freelance in 1980, Gandini’s work expanded to include architecture, a nightclub interior, and the styling of both a sport helicopter and the distinctive Renault Magnum truck.

Gandini was one of 25 designers nominated for Car Designer of the Century, which was won by one…Giorgetto Giugiaro. However, the 2014 Geneva Motor Show saw the influential Car Design News honour him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. “This great man’s career spans over 50 years and his work includes some of the most seminal, visionary designs of all time,” said editor Owen Ready. “He has proved an inspiration to generations of car designers and his work continues to influence the industry today.”