At a recent visit to Giugiaro, this 50-year-old unnamed Lamborghini, never before seen, suddenly appeared like an undiscovered Shakespeare manuscript, discreetly displayed in a library with no one paying attention.
Parked under some Greek temple-like stairs at the Giugiaro Design headquarters, the car sat on its period Borranis, painted in a yellow hue unseen this side of Ducati.
No details, no background, but the story is simple: Fabrizio Giugiaro found some of his father’s old sketches from the Bertone era (1960-1965). He digitized one of them, milled it, painted it, put on wheels, headlamps, some brightwork around the windows and a period numberplate.
“Happy Birthday father,” he then proclaimed on Giugiaro’s 70th birthday. “This is actually from you to us, but we made it for you.”
So what is it –- apart from a beautiful birthday present?
The drawings were marked “Lamborghini,” and though the first Lamborghini was presented at the 1963 Torino motor show, the
Torino design community had known for a while that a new Italian supercar was about to be born. Uninvited Pininfarina, Ghia, Vignale, Michelotti and certainly many more (Bertone confirmed that they too, had participated) submitted proposals, without knowing too much about the project.
A design by ex-Bertone (now freelance) designer Franco Scaglione was eventually chosen, but it disappointed many –- even Ferrucio Lamborghini himself admitted it might have been a mistake so he sent it to Touring to have it reworked.
We have never seen any of the other designs so it is impossible to get an idea of how the original Lamborghini might have looked. But this sculpture might give an idea of what Bertone intended.
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