Lamborghini Marzal – The Heartthrob Of 1967

1967 lamborghini Marzal

In 1967 I was fourteen and perhaps one of the earlier exponents of the eighties’ teenage tradition of having a Lamborghini pinup on my bedroom wall. And here it is again thanks to Google Images. You’re so familiar; every detail, line and curve of your body is etched in my memory, how often I rode you off into my dreams…

lamborghini marzal-concept-04

The 1967 Marzal was a genuine breakthrough car at a time when there were so many. Its design brief was to create a true four passenger mid-engine sports coupe, as a follow-up on the groundbreaking Miura mid-engine super sports car.

Built on a lengthened Miura chassis, the Marzal had a 175 hp two-liter six tucked between the rear wheels, essentially the Miura’s V12 cut in half.

Lamborghini marzal-concept-05

The Marzal’s body design was by 28 year-old Marcello Gandini, who also takes credit for the Miura. It’s brilliant, a rare and genuine breakthrough, and surprisingly practical to boot.

Lamborghini Marzal-wht-rVl=mx=

The Miura pioneered and popularized rear louvers, and the Marzal took them to the next level, or two. This was seriously hot stuff in 1967. Think of some American cars from 1967 for perspective.

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I don’t want to rub it in for you younger ones, but living through the sixties was a treat. Just about every day something radically new appeared, whether it was music, clothes, drugs, ideas, or cars. And the era really hit its peak from about 1966 through 1970 or so. The Marzal was a serious early high point in one of the most creative eras ever. Nobody had done anything like this before.

Especially interiors and dashboards like this.

lamborghini_marzal_crop2

It wasn’t just that it was insanely cool, but the Marzal really grabbed me because it was a very early exponent of the “unibody” or fuselage look. By that I’m not referring to the usual use of that word, but how the sides, and especially the rear quarters form a continuous plane from bottom to top, a unified whole.

oldsmobile toronado 1966 -side-shot_789

The other new car of 1966 that also espoused that design was the Toronado, with its integrated rear quarters-C Pillar. Everybody else was mostly still stuck with putting a narrower greenhouse on top of a wider body. Not these two. As handsome as the Toro is, the Marzal’s proportions have it beat by a healthy margin.

AMC AMX 390_GO_PAC_white_s

Of course, this quickly became a major design trend, especially apparent on AMC’s 1968 Javelin and even more so on the AMX.

Chevrolet Camaro 1970 crop-vert

And the 1970 Camaro owes more than a passing tip of the hat to the Marzal. As do so many others.

Well, it’s bed time for me now, and I can think of worse things than having the Marzal in my head as I drift off….now if I could only sleep as soundly as I did in 1967.

Lamborghini Marzal(23)

 

a revised and expanded version of a post from 2011

Related CC reading:

 

Vintage Road & Track Feature: Bertone’s Lamborghini Marzal – “Design So Fresh That Everything Else Looks Old Fashioned”  by PN

Curbside Classic: 1967 Lamborghini Miura – Street Art  by T87

Vintage R&T Road Test: 1968 Lamborghini Miura – “Vroooooooooom!”

Vintage ‘Car’ Review: Lamborghini Miura – The First (and only) Modern Transverse 12 Cylinder Supercar by GeelongVic

Vintage Outtake: Lamborghini Miura at UC Berkeley, 1972 by dman