The Marco Polo is a concept car by Lamborghini, presented as a design study by Italdesign under Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was built only as a painted plaster model rather than a running vehicle. The design followed on from Italdesign's M8 of 1978 and the Medusa of 1980, and it shared the Medusa's thematic approach so closely that no visible air intakes revealed it was conceived as a mid-engined car.
The Marco Polo was styled as a fastback saloon with four seats, featuring two long gullwing doors instead of conventional side doors, plus a rear hatch. The gullwing doors were intended to give excellent access to the rear seats, and despite the body's considerable width of around 190 cm, they would have allowed parking in a relatively narrow space. This same type of gullwing door was realized the following year by Giugiaro and Italdesign on the smaller, driveable Gabbiano.
Underneath, the Marco Polo was designed around a Lamborghini chassis intended to take a longitudinally mounted mid-engine, likely the Countach's V12 given that the contemporary Jalpa P350's V8 was mounted transversely. Compared to Lamborghini's standard 245 cm wheelbase, the Marco Polo used a longer 275 cm wheelbase, with a track of 160/158.5 cm and overall dimensions of 457.5 cm length, 187 cm width, and 130 cm height. Its drag coefficient was recorded at an impressive 0.24, improving on the Medusa's 0.26.
