This is how Lamborghini’s Head of Design uses Motorbikes as a source of inspiration

On 17 August 2023, Lamborghini unveiled their latest creation, the Lanzador, at The Quail event during Monterey Car Week in California.

An exciting all-new model that combines the exoticness of the Revuelto supercar and the practicality of the Urus super-SUV, it is expected to be brought into production by 2028, expanding the brand’s line-up to 4 cars - still a very exclusive number by any measure.

The Lanzador is a 2+2 Ultra-Grand-Tourer Coupé with a high ground clearance for an easier urban driving experience, and is also Lamborghini’s first-ever fully electric vehicle. But before you bring out the torches and pitchforks, it will have 1MW of power which translates to a whopping 1350 hp.

In essence, this is Lamborghini’s answer for individuals who want to have its iconic design DNA without worrying about whether the front-axle lifter will go up in time, before the cars start honking from the back.

And to know exactly how much Lamborghini DNA is in this concept, we spoke to the man in charge of bringing this idea to reality, Mitja Borkert, Head of Design at Automobili Lamborghini.

GT concepts are not foreign in Lamborghini’s history. But a lifted 2+2 coupé EV is something nobody has seen before; where did the design philosophy come from?

It was said some years ago by Stefano Domenicali and Stephan Winkelmann (former and current Lamborghini CEOs respectively) that we are working on such a car.

For me, I have a page in my design presentation that is called Expect the Unexpected, and on that page there is Ferruccio Lamborghini with the 350GT. There is a Marzal, there is an Espada, there is an Urraco, there is the Miura, an LM002 and so on.

What I want to say is that Lamborghini is a brand not only of iconic designs, but also a brand of really unusual technical concepts, like the Miura - being the first mid-engined car with the transverse V12 engine.

So, we did some research and about 1 to 1.5 years ago, there was this moment where we said, “Hey, we start from the Super Sports car. Let’s take the proportion of the Super Sports car in a higher position.”

It was also around the time when we had the Sterrato, a Super Sports car, that’s also in an elevated position and that clicked in our mind: “Why are we not taking this concept further?”

Meanwhile, we were also experimenting with the classical GT shape and we thought it was not the right path to repeat the past as we are a brand that is always looking into the future.

So when we took the typical proportion of a Lamborghini and put it in a higher position, it immediately looked fresh, unseen, new, unexpected. Fulfilling exactly what my presentation is aiming for with all these cars.

So we came up with the first clay model, and from the first moment, everyone was like, “hey, this is fresh, this is cool.” So of course, we were defining it and working on the details. And then we decided last year, “let's bring it to Pebble Beach, let's showcase a concept car.”

And as you can imagine, the last half a year for us in design was really hard work but I'm very proud of the result because it's our most sophisticated design, in terms of technical ideas, that we have done so far.

In the presentation the other day, Winkelmann also said it's the best of both worlds. So on one side the Revuelto, and on the other side the Super SUV Urus. This car fits perfectly in between.

With this proportion, it sits 1.5 metre high. It is 16 cm lower than the Urus and of course much higher than the Super Sports car. But it creates a, let me say - a very chic car, very contemporary, very urban and very versatile.

It's definitely a car that I can see perfectly in Singapore and I can perfectly see in Los Angeles.

How did your love for Motorbikes inspire the design of the Lanzador?

I have a yellow Ducati and an MV Agusta and I'm a big fan of MotoGP since I was a teenager. I'm in love with those daredevil biker guys.

I love the look, especially the tail with a bigger rear tyre, as well as the muscular shape of the bikes. To me, they are the kings of the wedge shape.

And to have this exposed rear tyre? You can see in all my designs because this look is on the Lanzador, I just love it. If you sketch a little bit the rear end of the new Countach, same with the Lanzador, there's always the hexagons and the exposed rear tires. So for me, this is inspired a little bit by the MotoGP bikes.

Every Lamborghini is named after Spanish fighting bulls, so what’s the story of Lanzador name?

First of all, I fully agree with Winkelmann that we always want to have the name of a Fighting Bull. Lanzador was a brave bull that was fighting in a Madrid competition in the 90s, and the name in a way is also Spanish for “launching” something.

I was fully supportive of “Lanzador” because it also sounds strong and in Italian it's kind of like “Lanciare”, meaning to launch something. It is fitting as we are launching this new fourth model.

How would you spec your own Lanzador?

Just like this: the paint is a liquid blue called Azurro Abissale. In Italian, it's like Abissi del mar, the depth of the sea, the abyss.

I know the word Abissale from a book my son read about whales and animals. The blue is, as you have seen this morning and yesterday, very liquid, and the weather on both days had a different kind of effect on the colour.

We painted a lot of different models because we spent a lot of effort and time with Winkelmann to choose the colours, and we wanted to have for the Lanzador a very elegant colour.

And for me, it’s about matching the mission of the car. Last year we launched Urus in green because it's the Performante variant: it's powerful, so we made it in green. The Revuelto is orange because it's our pinnacle V12 car, so it fits perfectly with a strong orange.

We wanted to immediately underline the sophisticated idea of the Lanzador and blue fits perfectly for a GT car, giving it a slick urban look.

And did you know that the interior with the Jet Fighter Gray Wool material, is sustainably sourced?

I said to my team that nowadays in car seats, everything is full of plastic foam. So I said, instead of covering it up and putting a vegan fabric on top (like what a lot of companies do today), I wanted something truly sustainable.

So my idea is that we use 3D printing, and in the case here, recycled plastic for the interior.

But my idea is deeper, and theoretically in the future, we could substitute the full foam in the seats with biodegradable 3D printing. So you are even more sustainable in building the whole car.

So we have this wool, the organic vegan leather and also the yarn that we have here are sustainable materials. The carbon fibre that we are using is recycled carbon fibre, underlining the sustainable character of the car even further.

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Although it feels alien that the marque, iconic for its naturally aspirated engines, is venturing into the EV market, the Lanzador somehow fits into the mission as the ultimate urban-GT being an EV.

And if there’s any company that can make an EV exciting, it’ll definitely be the Raging Bull of Sant'Agata Bolognese.

Text and Photos by Jamie Ong (@cpixls)

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