Italian car designer Marcello Gandini died on March 13, 2024, aged 85.

Gandini penned some of the most iconic sports car in the world, including the world’s first supercar.

Marcello Gandini began his career at Bertone, replacing fellow designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro, the man who gave us the Fiat Panda and the Lotus Esprit, as chief designer.

Gandini was one of the most accomplished and influential car designers of all time, and through the years, he sketched some of the most legendary cars you can think of.

Among others, he’s the guy that gave us the Lamborghini Diablo, Lamborghini Urraco, Lancia Stratos and Renault 5 Turbo.

Gandini also designed an early prototype of the Bugatti EB 110, the mythological Bugatti on which the modern Centodieci (that Ronaldo owns) is based, and the Ferrari 308 GT4.

More importantly, Gandini designed the two most important Lamborghini models ever made.

He penned the Countach, named for a Piedmontese expression that roughly translates to ‘wow’, which is also the car that provided the inspiration for the modern Countach LPI-800 4, and the Miura.

The Lamborghini Miura regularly features in the top 10 list of most beautiful cars ever made, often making the top five, if not the top three.

More importantly, some people, both car fans and industry experts, see the Lamborghini Miura as the first ever ‘supercar’ as we know them today.

The Miura was the first car with a rear mid-engined, two-seat layout, which is what today we consider the textbook definition of what a supercar is, or should be.

Without the Lamborghini Miura, and therefore without Marcello Gandini, we wouldn’t have the supercars we love today.

Or not the way we know them, anyway.