The great and discreet Marcello Gandini has left us on tiptoes
16 March 2024 3 min read 7 images
Photo credit: Lamborghini, RM Sotheby’s, Wheelsage
The son of an orchestra conductor studying at a classical high school, it is only logical that he should have a calling as an artist. A vocation that Marcello Gandini put into practice when he designed his extraordinary car projects. In fact, his way of working was based on a pragmatic and rational approach, and it should come as no surprise that when speaking of artists we refer to pragmatic and rational approaches: The true talent of the artist and the longevity of his works comes precisely from the fact that at the basis of them there is a careful study that anticipates creativity.
Gandini, who created cars rich in ideas and innovation such as the Lamborghini Marzal, the Lancia Strato's HF Zero and the Alfa Romeo Carabo, prepared his designs on the basis of an accurate analysis of the technological constraints given by the mechanics and those linked to the production process, always managing to find answers capable of surprising.
His life has always been very reserved although he was determined to succeed fully in the automobile sector he loved. After gaining design experience, especially in Italian interior design, which was very much fashionable in the early 1960s, he decided to meet Nuccio Bertone and propose himself to the famous coachbuilder from Turin. Bertone liked him immediately, but did not want to create any risk of conflict with the other young talent he had in his house, Giorgetto Giugiaro, who would go on to create Italdesign a few years later.
He asked him to be patient and Gandini followed Bertone's words by moving to Milan to work in the small Marazzi body shop that was taking on many of the employees left unemployed by the closure of the Touring body shop.
The wait wasn't long: Soon Giugiaro was leaving Bertone and Nuccio's phone call arrived on time, giving Gandini an extraordinary opportunity right away. In fact, a few weeks later, Ferruccio Lamborghini entrusted Bertone with the design of what would become the Miura. The time frame for its completion was incredibly short: It was early autumn and the car was to be presented at the Geneva Motor Show in early March 1966. For Gandini, Christmas 1965 was also a busy time, but the car arrived on time in Switzerland, arousing the admiration it still creates today.
From that moment on Gandini became one of the benchmarks of Italian car design. Much of Lamborghini's fortune is thanks to him if you consider that in the space of four years he created the Marzal, the Espada and the Countach. Bertone's Gandini did not, however, limit himself to collaboration with the House of the Bull but with other clients such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia and BMW and for each of them he created at least one model: The Montreal, the small but strongly characterful X1/9, the revolutionary Stratos, and the Garmisch, which was the inspiration for the highly successful model that was the 5 Series.
Gandini, who loved to take long walks and long swims in the sea strictly on his own, when he was just over 40 years old decided to set up his own design studio in his beautiful home in Val di Susa, near Turin, the city where he was born. Many clients approached him for whom he created projects that went into production, such as the Renault Supercinque and the surprising 5 Turbo with a rear engine, the Maserati Ghibli and Quattroporte, and Lamborghini itself, for whom he created the Diablo, which, even with some retouching carried out by the new Chrysler ownership, bears the Turin designer's signature unmistakably.
Retired to his country home with his beloved dogs, he spent his last years suffering the consequences of having practised too much extreme physical activity that severely limited his mobility. With him goes a proud and sensitive man capable of always seeing beyond the common horizon.
CLASSIC CAR MATCHER