Lamborghini Countach designer Marcello Gandini dies at 85
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Car designer Marcello Gandini, who dreamed up some of the world's most exotic supercars, including the Lamborghini Countach, has died aged 85, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
In his early 20s, Gandini took over as chief designer at Italian manufacturer Bertone, and designed many legendary sports cars of the 1960s and 1970s, among them the Lamborghini Miura, Espada, Urraco and later the Countach.
Gandini died in Rivoli near Turin on Wednesday. No cause was given. Only in January, Turin Polytechnic had awarded him an honorary degree in Mechanical Engineering.
The Italian will probably be best remembered for the spaceship-like Countach, which became a poster pin-up in many a car fan's bedroom, The angular, almost angry shape was the successor to the curvaceous Miura.
"My father was a conductor and wanted to make me a pianist. It was only when he climbed aboard the Lamborghini Miura that he realised I could play other notes: those of engines," Gandini once recounted.
Gandini also designed the Alfa Romeo Montreal, the Lancia Stratos and Fiat X1/9 and the Ferrari GT4 along with helicopters and furniture.
