Ferruccio Lamborghini was not chastened enough. The history of automobiles is full of crazy designs, which first inspired and then disappeared. The Lamborghini Marzal is one of them!

Ferruccio Lamborghini did not like the car. When he first saw the design project he said: "A lady's legs can now be seen by anyone." So it was clear that the Lamborghini Marzal designed by Bertone would remain a one-off.

Nevertheless, when the car was shown for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show in 1967, it immediately became a sensation. Such a bold and radical car had never been seen before. Alone the basic form seemed to have raged out of the future. And then there were the spectacular details: hexagonal instruments, bucket seats with hexagonal seats and backrests, six extremely narrow headlights, a glass roof and of course the huge, also fully glazed double doors.

An English journalist called the car that must have struck the fair visitors like an aesthetic shock, "perhaps the most extravagant piece of virtuoso design that has been seen in Europe since the war". Behind Marzal's forms and refinements was 28-year-old chief designer of Bertone, Marcello Gandini.

Through Marzal Lamborghini sparked a design idea that continues to shape the brand to this day: the graceful brutality. Suddenly, corners and edges became stylistic elements. The jagged, the better. It began in 1971 with the Lamborghini Countach and is still valid today, up to the models Huracan or Aventador.

Technically, the Marzal is an exception. The prototype is the only sports car of the brand with a rear engine. This is a halved V12, so a straight-six with 2.0 liters and 175 hp. The car drives perfectly, could be seen shortly after the premiere in Geneva: As on 7 May 1967 Prince Rainier of Monaco and Princess Gracia Patricia in the Lamborghini Marzal opened the Formula 1 race in Monte Carlo and drove a lap of honor.

The Lamborghini Marzal landed, after the car world had looked at him, first in the factory museum of Lamborghini, then in that of Bertone. In 2011, the unique piece was auctioned during the classic car show Concorso d'Eleganza in the Villa d'Este on Lake Como. The hammer fell at a bid of 1.512 million euros.

Incidentally, a four-door Gran Turismo by Lamborghini was also put on the wheels in a much more compelling way. 1968 debuted also styled at Bertone model Espada, with V12 front engine and similarly slim, stretched body like the Marzal. Of course, the Espada had conventional down-facing doors.

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