Marcello Gandini, the Italian car designer with a career spanning several decades, has died aged 85.
Gandini was born in Turin in 1938 and quickly pursued an interest in designing automobiles at a young age. He worked with Nuccio Bertone and quickly rose to fame with his work designing the Lamborghini Miura. In fact, Gandini designed a number of Lamborghinis over a number of years, including the Espada, Jarama and Countach.
It’s difficult to comprehend the sheer scale of Retromobile, the literal multi-billion-pound value of the cars and wares on display. The finest exotica rub shoulders with humdrum everyday fare. You can assemble the ultimate dream garage if you have a 10-figure bank balance, or a scale version of it if you have more modest means.
It’s official: after an eleven-year relationship that has seen eight successive constructors’ titles and six drivers’ championships, Lewis Hamilton is leaving the Mercedes F1 team. He’ll replace Carlos Sainz Jr in a multi-year contract.
Have you been turned off Formula 1 by the ‘Max Factor’? If so, it’s understandable. Red Bull’s flying Dutchman Max Verstappen set a raft of new records in 2023 on his way to a third consecutive world title. There’s the mark of most wins in a season (19 out of 22 races), most consecutive wins (10) and a mammoth points haul (575) that would have won his Red Bull-Honda squad the constructors’ title even without team-mate Sergio Pérez’s contribution (285). That’s a gargantuan 860 points in total versus 409 for best-of-the-rest Mercedes. Red Bull was untouchable, almost going unbeaten, only for an off-weekend in Singapore to leave a lone crumb for Carlos Sainz Jr and Ferrari.
Car spotters will have a field day spotting different police cars around the world. Whether it’s the glitzy supercars of the Dubai constabulary, which recently added the all-electric Lotus Eletre R to its fleet (above), or the unmarked cars of British M-ways, from silly publicity stunts to the electric cop cars in inner-city areas, there’s always something to keep an eye on in your rear-view mirror.
My month began at the Royal College of Art in Battersea, London. One of the world’s most celebrated car designers, and certainly the most cosmopolitan, was urging pupils to learn to draw. Frank Stephenson reckons youngsters spend too much time on their screens. Design students should get out their pen and paper instead.