Auto Design

For the styling itself we can only hope for the very best. BAT11 was the best looking concept car in ages, and Castriotta’s Birdcage and P4/5 for Pininfarina really were highest peaks in styling applied to extreme sportscar the previous years too. I would love a Lamborghini engine and mechanicals underneath the skin of the new Bertone one-off concept supercar. It is something I’ve been longing for… aeons. A Countach successor by Bertone never came to light -nor a ‘real’ Gandini’s either-, nor did a Murciélago proposal by Bertone or again Gandini, sadly!!! Yet, I recall Stephan Winkelmann stating that he had already refused a whole lot of requests to Lamborghini for one-offs from external coachbuilders and their customers, in order to keep the brand and product image according and coherent only to what their own Centro Stile brought to Earth. I must say I hate that strategy preventing us from new mythical one-off pieces. I recall too how worth the Lamborghini name were both mid nineties Giugiaro’s Calà and Zagato’s Raptor, and cannot feel but sad they never were series produced for -mostly- lacking funds. And now that funds seems to be no problem, no Lamborghini one offs are allowed at all… How I’d love Winkelmann was fooling us all!!

As a company Lamborghini must maintain and enhance their design and image and we must concede that the design of the cars they are now creating come with a very emotional and excellent design. Even though to traditionalist Lamborghini enthusiasts they migh appear “much less Lamborghini” than they cars they used to build in Sant’Agata. So their strategy has to be accepted and, indeed, admired.
In addition sales success around the world proves they are right. Yet, there is always a chance that some private enthusiast/collector does decide to have a very exclusive Lamborghini designed to his own specifications and desiderata. He would certainly approach Stile Bertone in the first place and see if they can restore the tradition of creative beautiful one-off supercars, or – if there is a demand – a small series.
Will Lamborghini surprise us with a Lamborghini by Castriota? Will someone else be the new hero? Let’s wait and see.

Mr. Perini, thank you for your wise comment. If the design team under David Wilkie -the designers of the Bat 11- is well managed by an enriching Jason Castriota, I insist we could be having from them a new icon in extreme sportscar design. It should be only a Lamborghini or -again- Alfa Romeo to mark the return to glory for Stilebertone.

I agree contemporary Lamborghini are most probably the best ever designs from Sant’Agata, though I still slightly prefer the Donckerwolke days to Filippo Perini’s. I expect very much of the next Murciélago.

I am insecure.I have doubt in sense of Mr.Castriota..
Castriotta’s Birdcage and P4/5 are not good i think.

Hi Hideyuki, your comment has just come in today. Sorry for late reply. You are quite right. Both cars are very spectacular and attractive. Their design however is either “easy” (the Birdcage) or “too restrained” by the client.
However the Ferrari 559 and Maserati Granturismo are excellent, given their package. Do not you think so?
Perhaps a better opportunity for judgin his sense of proportions, design and beauty will be the new Stile Bertone Mantide. In just few days.

I thought the ‘Mantide’ was a design already finished at Stile Bertone when Castriota came in to lead its development into a running item, or rather to star the show, as he seems to always have wanted.

Agree Mantis would have been much a better name; but I disagree, despite their magnificient packages, the 599 is the ugliest Ferrari in ages -for the California I simply have no proper words; Ferrari is no longer the same for me-. The Gran Turismo is too big and ‘rare’ in the flesh. Again, the design sketches were much more beautiful than the real thing.

My understanding is that Jason Castriota started the project. Perhaps before signing his contract with Stile Bertone? This is possible. The two parties have been talking to each other long time before closing the deal and Jason might have started thinking at what he would do first, at Stile Bertone.

Re the Ferrari by Castriota. At least, we have a disagreement. The Ferrari 599 package may be excellent, given the technical briefing, but its size (and weight) is what make also the Ferrari 599 too big and too heavy for a proper sport car. That is the major problem to start with. With that overall dimensions the body design is perfect for the Ferrari. It combine tradition with emotion and a touch of modernity. Sure the GG50 Giorgetto Giugiaro designed for himself is much cleaner, elegant, distinctive and practical. Not being invented at Ferrari, it was ignored and hidden. Ferrari decided that the world should not know better Ferrari. Comparison could have been embarassing. Ferraris will be again throuroughbred when they are significantly smaller and lighter. At Ferrari people is so much aware of this that they have been working on the problem since the 612 Scaglietti. Unfortunately I must agree with you about the California. I fear that the converible-coupé will devastate the company’s economy. They expect too much and invested too much on it. I hope that facts will prove I am completely wrong.

Thank you. In my opinion, Pininfarina and Ferrari designers could still struggle for ages to come without achieving a single truly beautiful object if they go on designing around always horridly shaped windscreens as we’ve been suffering since the F50, with which the free-fall in styling dramatically started.