DownsideUpDesign

Never have two great automotive names been so resolutely underserved by their colaboration.

When I was a kid I was given a book packed to the rafters with images and descriptions of the output of the Italian styling houses up to the mid-80s. Apart from a couple of Pininfarina jobbies like the Ferrari Modulo and Pinin (don’t ask, I love barges hmmmkay?) it was always the sheer audacity and other-worldlieness of the Bertone cars that made me keep turning those pages until the book fell apart.

From BAT to Marzal (stylishly accessorised above) to Carabo to Camargue to Sibilo… the list goes on and on… Bertone was largely responsible for me wanting to become a car designer.

It’s only natural, therefore, that I expect a great deal of Bertone, and while they’ve wavered in the last couple of years, the news that they would be teaming up with Alfa Romeo for Geneva had my heart a-flutter.

Consider that heart shot out of the sky and in the mouth of a rabid dog. I’m hurt and I’m mad. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, what a tease!

Truth be told modern Lambos don’t turn me on much as vehicles for (dreaming about) owning. I’m much more likely to be found thinking indecently about an azure S2 Espada, brown/bronze LP400 Countach or, of course, the Miura in any colour going.

On the other hand, the epic Murciélago’s status as a piece of sculpture is undoubted, something that was confirmed as I rolled through the press images from the Shanghai motor show.

The above shot – heavily cropped from the image below – shows the superb game of peek-a-boo that the designers have played with Thor’s voicebox, otherwise known as the Murci’s V12.

It’s just a pity that the photographer’s assistant forgot to give the louvres a once-over with some Windex…

[Image: Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.]