Page 51 - SHARP Winter 2022

Mission Impossible
Lamborghini’s head of design talks remaking the Countach for the 21st century
M ITJA BORKERT WAS BORN IN EAST Germany in 1974, and so, unlike most other car-crazed kids in the 1980s, he had no idea what a Lamborghini Countach was. “I grew up behind the Iron Curtain,” he explains. “We could choose only from one product: there was one motorcycle, one
car, one radio”.
As a result, he came to appreciate
wedge-shaped Italian supercars much lat- er in life, which is perhaps why he doesn’t take his current job — head of Lamborghini Centro Stile — for granted and always seems to be having so much fun, even when the task is daunting.
Recently, Borkert was given the unen- viable job of designing a new Lamborghini Countach, which is like being told to paint a new Mona Lisa. When he stood onstage at The Quail car show in California and pulled the sheet off the Countach LPI 800-4, a limited-edition supercar to mark the 50th anniversary of its namesake, Borkert said it was like a big weight lifted off his heart.
“For me, a well-done homage to the heroes of the past, like in the movies — there’s nothing wrong with that,” he says. “It’s enriching our lives. It’s keeping the dream of such heroes alive.”
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WINTER 2022 • AUTO 51