In an open letter published by his daughter Marcia Gandini, Lamborghini Countach designer Marcello Gandini confirms that he did not participate in the making of the Countach LPI 800-4 revival series that debuted last summer.
He admitted that he met with company representatives to give an interview dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Countach model. According to him, the representatives showed him a mock-up of the new car and called it ‘a personal tribute to Marcello Gandini’ – but somehow never mentioned that it was planned for production, rather than being just a one-off concept car.
Obviously irritated by this turn of events, the designer pointed out that his smile in the video was addressed to the mock-up of the car: ‘It is hard not to smile when someone dedicates a vehicle to you.’ However, that smile was not supposed to approve of the revived Countach looks or design, and Gandini apparently never received a notification of any kind that the company was going to use his image in a promotional video.
Summing up, the designer emphasized that the new Countach did not reflect any of his ideals, because his motto all along had been ‘to crush stereotypes’, something he believes the replica to fail at completely.