The automotive industry has a long history of evolution, interrupted with bursts of innovation.

It is hard to imagine the world without the supercar, the pinnacle of automotive engineering married to extraordinary aesthetics.

Since the 1960s, supercars have always been the most desirable cars on the road and the first modern supercar was the Lamborghini Miura.

Marcello Gandini was only 27 years old—and recently employed by Bertone—when he penned the lines of the Miura.

Commissioned to produce something uncompromising for an equally radical chassis, the body was an extraordinary combination of swooping lines mixed with eyelashes, slats, and cleverly integrated air intakes.

Such was Gandini’s fresh thinking that it is almost impossible to find inspiration from earlier cars.

Though influence certainly came from Lamborghini’s spirit-animal, with doors modelled on bull horns, creating a wonderful front profile when wide open.

The low-slung monocoque chassis was designed by a 28-year-...