late night oppo
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2014 Chery J3 - (18/7/20) meh.
2011 Geely MK 1.5L (1/7/21)
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@pip-bip bertone
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Oh, that's gorgeous.
The Countach prototype (LP500). No rear cooling intakes, no NACA ducts on the flanks (and – not seen – it had a periscope for a rear-view mirror). Amazing purity of line; later there were slight changes to the front profile too.
The first production version still looked astonishingly good (and kept the periscope for a while) but not this fabulous.
Alas, this car did not survive as it was destroyed in a crash test.
Thanks!
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@pip-bip che bella!
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@AuthiCooper1300 Thank goodness someone can explain why this is supposed to be good looking, because I hate the look. It's a parallelogram with funky wheel wells.
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First of all, taste is enormously subjective. You may not like the Countach, and that's perfectly OK. I don't like most modern Ferraris, for example, and find most newish Porsches insultingly bland. The latest Lamborghinis are worse: basically irrelevant, to my eyes.
I suppose you like "classical" automotive beauty: a good example would be, say, anything by Pininfarina. Which is fine and dandy: it is a style that follows certain artistic conventions that by now are almost set in stone. Its output, if you will, are excellent "variations" on well-known, well-accepted stylistic themes, based probably around everything being very harmonious.
On the other hand, Bertone, precisely, was a carrozzeria that always tried to push the design envelope a bit further (although not so far as Zagato!). Whereas Pininfarina created its artistic ethos refining known shapes, Bertone, and most specifically 70s Gandini while at Bertone, tried to explore other ways of clothing cars, more audacious (and frequently controversial) Hence the sharp edges, the angular "language", the unusual solutions and motifs: lots of drama, then.
I like them both.
Back to the Countach, I utterly dislike what happened to it after Lamborghini decided to follow the example set by the Walter Wolf special. A clean shape became soiled with extraneous addenda. There were deep, important technical reasons for those changes, but from a stylistic point of view they turned the car into a kitsch nightmare, a caricature.
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@AuthiCooper1300 One of the reasons I dislike this design (aside from being really ugly) is that it led directly to the ugly Lamborghinis that followed (all of which have the same basic formula of a wedge shape) including whatever models they produce today. Ferrari, it seems, while making ugly cars, at least had the decency to make them ugly in different ways. And every once in a while they stumbled upon a real peach, like the 458.
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@Sovande I'm with you on the wheel arches. Everything else is gold but I've never liked that shape. It makes the wheels seem like an afterthought rather than part of the design,
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By "all the Lamborghinis that followed" do you mean exactly that or "all the Countach replacements that followed"?
I admit that the Diablo is not a great design at all, but then Gandini's initial work was somewhat messed with by Chrysler. Gallardos, Murcielagos etc were, in my opinion, nothing but blatant attempts to cash in on the Countach reputation (in a way, they recycle lots of Countach design themes). They weren't that bad when they appeared (sort of retro-forward?) but indeed they have become sillier and sillier with every later iteration.
I find it interesting that you mention the 458. I admit it is a bit different from other recent Ferraris, but it is no oil painting, and terribly bland. But that's my view anyway.
Lastly, Ferrari was bankrolled by Fiat Auto for far too long, and managed to build some truly shitty cars (348, for example) for quite a while without anybody complaining that much. OK, now they seem to have money to spare to build "ugly cars in different ways". Hardly an endorsement, innit?
I am not trying to defend Lamborghini, but they had money problems for so long that it is hardly surprising there was not much stylistic evolution over the years. Granted, they have now tons of dough to play with but how much of the true spirit of Lamborghini remains since the moment VAG took the helm?
Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Bentley have suffered similar fates.
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@AuthiCooper1300 I am saying that every Lamborghini after the Countache is little more than derivative design. It's vents and angles. Straight lines and wings. I couldn't tell the difference between a Hurracan and an Aventador. They are clearly impressive, but they lack any sort of grace. It's all in your face shouting.
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@Sovande
Agreed on all post-Diablo ones being derivative.
As stated, I didn't dislike that much the Gallardo and Murcielago at the time (they were decidedly retro and Countach-inspired, but with a twist). But it all went rather rapidly downhill afterward.Part of the problem is that all supercars/hypercars nowadays are being bought mostly to show off and flaunt one's riches. Actual driving is secondary, let alone actual Gran Turismo driving (what you could do in the sixties with a Ferrari, an Aston, a Maserati, or even an E-Type is virtually impossible now)
