CHRIS HARRIS

Chris isn’t happy with the ‘new’ Lamborghini Countach, but neither’s the bloke who designed the original...

“I JUST HOPED THE COUNTACH PROJECT WOULD BE AFFORDED THE RESPECT IT DESERVED”

The designer of the original Lamborghini Countach made a statement on the recent ‘new’ Countach: “Marcello Gandini would like to reaffirm that he had no role in this operation, and as the author and creator of the original design from 1971, would like to clarify that the makeover does not reflect his spirit and vision.”

I think it’s fair to say that he’s not a fan. An unprecedented intervention from one of the greatest car designers ever. It comes not just from a sense of outrage that someone, or something, has interfered with or misappropriated his work of genius, but because some marketing type tried to make a story out of the simple exchange of a toy car between an old Italian man and Lamborghini’s head of design. A photo was taken. An opportunity was sniffed.

Someone made the mistake of assuming the old Italian gent would shrug and say: “Well, they still invite me to events and I like the cheap lease deal on that Audi Allroad, so who cares?” But this man flipped car design on its head with his LP400 Countach, which means he probably has enough spine to not like it when a company tries to fake his support for a cynical cash generating exercise.

The line between flattery and anger is probably more often defined by cash than aesthetic principles – would Mr Gandini have been less angry if Lambo lobbed him a few million? I don’t know, but I doubt it. But it’s clear Lamborghini decided to mess about with its crown jewel with a casualness that beggars belief.

Because let’s be absolutely clear – the Countach is Lamborghini. Yes, other Lambos have existed and sold pretty well, but Gandini’s masterpiece isn’t just the car we all associate with the brand, it’s the one we picture the moment the L word is uttered. You cannot define many other sports carmakers that way.

At a time when most carmakers are pillaging their past glories, it fits that Lamborghini was inevitably going to give us a ‘new’ Countach. I suppose like many others I just hoped the project would be afforded the respect it deserved. It wasn’t. Instead, Lambo took the very old Aventador, did a pretty weak ‘restyle’, added some funky bits from the Sián and clearly didn’t do the most important thing of all – get the chap who drew the original to come and bless the project and have some input. Who on earth tries to reimagine the most iconic supercar of all time (no arguing that status) without including the genius who designed it?

So fair play to Mr Gandini. You can easily find his statement online – a massive knee to the goolies, delivered with a quiet Italian charm. And the key sentence is this: “Marketing itself has changed a lot since then, but as far as I am concerned, to repeat a model of the past, represents in my opinion the negation of the founding principles of my DNA.”

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