Car Design Review X: Mitja Borkert, Lamborghini

Lamborghini will always be the brand to provide answers that are unexpected and rebellious, bold and motivating. In terms of design and emotions we will always have an answer. Sports and super sports cars are growing markets. We just need to create the right product. The debate about sound and emotions in cars is a bit like overcoming smoking in restaurants, 20 years ago no-one could imagine it. Now people say it’s the best thing that could have happened.

Our core team is now 20-strong, but with contractors we have about 50. The important thing – and it took some years – is that now we have an official head of interior design in Manuela Amprimo and exterior design in Fabian Schmoelz. Lamborghini was a brand that outsourced its design previously. But the in-house team has existed since 2006, so we can celebrate 20 years of Centro Stile soon. It started with Luc Donckerwolke and Walter de Silva and in the last seven years since I’ve been here we have been trying to create a foundation. We have designers from all over the world.

Before I came to Lamborghini previous design director Filippo Perini had a very digital approach. There were basically no physical models. For me this part was missing. I wanted to have the combination of digital (to be fast and efficient) and then when I like a design we mill it in third scale. When you are searching for proportions, clay is better, because you can adopt much faster design changes. Clay always messes up the studio and if you have new shoes, those too. I love it, but in the same moment I hate it, as it’s so dirty.

On exteriors, it’s really good but then quite quickly it’s better to go into hard models, so they can be properly painted and you can add diffusers and carbon fibre, stuff like that. I don’t use clay for interiors, it’s a waste of time, money and energy. It’s digital first and then you can mill a cheap foam model, just to see the proportions. After that it’s better to do a physical hard model which will include the various materials. What you want to give is the perfect illusion. The better the model, the better anyone who is deciding is able to understand.

For me, the most important thing is to see the models outside. That is a little bit tricky because we don’t have space on the ground, but we do bring the models to a secret rooftop space. The beauty of working here, is that I see Lamborghinis arriving at Centro Stile, pass by the museum with an Espada or a Diablo inside and then enter the design department to go five-to-ten years into the future. And if I want to see the production of the Revuelto – in the coolest colours in matt or gloss – I can do so onsite.

My guideline is the silhouette. If any car shape fits to that DNA, it can be a Lamborghini. Obviously you can imagine that not only in my design centre, but in any design centre, the drawers and model studios are full of future opportunities. I’m proud to say this happened with the Countach. Lamborghini is a jewel that can create whatever it wants in the future – a yacht, helicopter or aeroplane. The brand has huge potential. The Revuelto is the pinnacle V12 sports car, the Huracán is the compact entry into the dream of Lamborghini and then there’s the Urus, which has more space. Ideas that could go in-between have already been announced, but for the outcome you’ll need to wait a bit.

Now Lamborghini is a global luxury brand, world-famous from LA to India. Within this DNA, I can make a design which is very pure, like the Countach, or more complicated, like the Huracán STO, or somewhere in-between – more aerodynamic – like the Revuelto. The Urus S can be a more elegant, while the Performante can be more functional. In this way we can gain access to more customers.

From a Huracán to a one-off – which Lamborghini also does – we can make designs from €200,000-plus to €6m. This is the bandwidth we are playing in now. By the end of next year we will have the entire line-up hybridised as part of our CO2 reduction plan. We have a clear commitment to sustainability and I’m working on products that no-one will ever throw away. We were taught like this, to use the right material to create something timeless. I’m not part of this throw-away system.

We have so many interesting projects with outside companies working on bicycles, watches and villas, but I need their designers to understand what Lamborghini is. In the beginning, maybe their idea could be a cliché – just a sharp, low, yellow or orange sports car – but then they hear about ‘spaceships’ and innovative shapes and gain a better idea. With the Tecnomar 63 project – limited to 63 units – we had a deeper involvement, because every car designer’s dream is to design a yacht. Obviously we are not specialists in yacht design but we know the quality of line on a car. The brief was not to make it look like a car though. We wanted to make it look like a sculpture.

We will carefully widen what Lamborghini is, but never jeopardise our DNA. Our brand positioning is clear. If you grow as a brand, you need to be super-careful. I think Lamborghini’s big success comes from being different. It’s full of character and people like that. That’s why we not only have more customers, but customers who become fans, buy multiple Lamborghinis and become part of a community.