Few people shaped Italian automotive design as profoundly as Marcello Gandini. And Lamborghini in particular reaped the rewards of the visionary creativity of the grand master, who passed away in 2024. Their iconic collaboration first saw the light of day sixty years ago with the Miura, which made history as the world's first supercar thanks to its steel monocoque by Dallara and its mid-mounted V12.
The Seventies brought something even more radical in the Countach. In place of his predecessor's gentle curves, Gandini drew crisp, clean edges and carried the wedge design, until then seen only on concept cars, into series production. This automotive icon was so far ahead of its time that it wasn't replaced until 1990, a full sixteen years later, by the final Gandini Lamborghini.
During the roughly five-year development of the Diablo, the sports car maker from Italy's Motor Valley was taken over by Chrysler. The Detroit giant couldn't resist giving Marcello Gandini's already prepared design a subtle reworking. Gandini had by then parted ways with Bertone and penned the Diablo as an independent designer, tailoring the wedge shape for the dawning Nineties. Named after one of the most feared fighting bulls of all time, the supercar was drawn a touch softer than its predecessor, yet its sheer width and mass, together with its clean lines, mean it gives nothing away to the Countach when it comes to presence.
RM Sotheby's has now brought together the first and last fruits of the Gandini and Lamborghini partnership for a photo shoot. And for good reason: both cars go under the hammer on 26 September at the auction house's Zürich sale. Both also wear "Rosso", which makes them the ideal illustration of the design evolution of Lamborghini's supercars.
The story of this early Diablo is closely tied to the Alpine republic. It was handed over to its first owner in the canton of Graubünden through a dealer in St. Gallen in June 1991, and today it impresses with a well-preserved black interior and a mileage of 35,424 kilometres. It carries an estimate of 160,000 to 200,000 Swiss francs. Its performance still holds up today: the 5.7-litre V12 catapults the low-slung red machine to a hundred in around four seconds and only runs out of steam beyond 320 km/h.
The Miura P400 S, estimated at 1.5 to 2.0 million Swiss francs, is a French car, delivered to its first owner through a Paris dealer and first registered in June 1969. It passed through several hands in its early years until, towards the end of the Seventies, it was bought by French Formula 1 driver René Arnoux. He drove the car during his time as a works driver for Renault but sold the bull from Sant'Agata when he switched to Ferrari in 1983. He presumably didn't want to offend his new team boss Enzo Ferrari by owning a car built by his arch-rival Ferruccio Lamborghini. The Miura later also found its way to Switzerland, and it still wears the very same colour it once left the factory in.
