Mitja Borkert has been leading Lamborghini's design department for six years, which is barely a drop in the bucket given the long lead times of vehicle development. But Borkert's impact is already being felt on the new Revuelto – and his latest project is a work of art, literally.
During Miami Art Week 2023, Lamborghini pulled the cover off a one-of-a-kind Revuelto painted entirely by hand. They call it Opera Unica, and its funky (though, fantastic) paint job took more than 400 hours to complete.
The idea started with a simple concept: Airflow.
“I said, let's showcase the aerodynamic flow in an artistic way,” Borkert tells me as we walk around Opera Unica at a Miami art studio. “Because Lamborghini is about design and performance, so we can talk not only about the art but also the airflow around the car.”
The hand-painted red, blue, and yellow lines that streak across the exterior are meant to represent air moving around the vehicle, something the Revuelto excels at. Even though it's bigger than the outgoing Aventador in virtually every measure, the Revuelto is about 60 percent more aerodynamically efficient.
But it wasn't easy. “This is all hand-made and unrepeatable,” Borkert notes. “With the strokes of the brush, we added this color. It's a long process, you need to sand it, you do it again, you sand it, you do it again, and you put the clear coat.”
The design team started with a base color of Viola Pasifae. When asked why they chose this color, Borkert says: “That's a good question, we just thought it was cool.” However, he does admit that it's also one of the most popular colors in Lamborghini's portfolio, especially when it comes to Urus buyers.
The Viola Pasifae purple blends into Nero Helene black as you move from the front to the rear of the vehicle, with a subtle black fade accenting the side body panels and hood as well. “I wanted every piece to have this fading effect,” he says, “so not just fading from violet to black, but you also see some black here on the front.”
And if you know where to look, there’s another subtle touch on the front of the car: a nod to Lambo’s 60th anniversary. The custom logo that Borkert and his team designed to celebrate 60 years sits dead center on the nose of the vehicle, but you can only see it in the right light.
"This is all hand-made and unrepeatable."
“When you move around you can see the 60 [logo] appearing [on the hood] depending on the angle,” Borkert says as he guides me around the front of the car. “It’s a nice effect because it’s not like a race car showing the number. It’s there or it’s not there. It’s a very subtle tone-on-tone thing, just a small difference in terms of color.”
Inside, overlapping 60th-anniversary logos are stitched into the seat backs, door panels, and roof in the same vibrant colors that coat the exterior. Even the signature red start-button cover gets a hand-painted pattern to match the exterior.
“[The interior] is done in kind of a punky way,” he says, “we’re also using the 60 years graphic but overlapping it. Moving the number a little bit.”
The one-of-one Revuelto Opera Unica celebrates Borkert’s success on the Revuelto, and on a customer-facing level, it’s also a clever way for Lamborghini to showcase the possibilities of its Ad Personam program. “At Lamborghini, there is no limit. You will be able to fulfill your dreams however you want,” Borkert says with a smile.
But the look of the Revuelto as a whole is hugely important – not just to Borkert as his first work on a production Lamborghini, but also for the brand moving forward.
“The Revuelto is a starting point for a new era in terms of opening the doors of what the design is for the next 10 years, for the future,” he says. “Look, I started in 2016 coming from Porsche, and I started immediately thinking what my change would be, and what other things I wanted to do for the design of the next car… but this was the biggest ideation I have overlooked as a designer.”
