Lamborghini Countach LP 500 Turns 50

 

With internal code number LP112, the Countach project indicates the rear longitudinal position (“Longitudinale Posteriore” in Italian) of the 12-cylinder engine, stemmed from Ferruccio Lamborghini’s desire to maintain the image of a company at the forefront of style and technology following the Miura.

Heading up this record-breaking achievement was engineer Paolo Stanzani, who had been with Lamborghini since 1963, and in 1968 was named General Manager and Technical Director, responsible for the mechanical part of the Countach.

The beautiful, clean, futuristic lines of the Countach, still so after 50 years, were styled by Marcello Gandini, Design Director of Carrozzeria Bertone. Gandini was also responsible for the decision to use the scissor doors, which since that time have characterized the production of Lamborghini’s 12-cylinder models. The LP 500 was a substantially different car than the Countach that would go into production in 1974. It had a platform frame rather than a tubular one. It was equipped with a 12-cylinder 4971cc engine (one of a kind). The engine air intakes had a shark gill design, and inside, it featured sophisticated electronic instrumentation.

The origin of the name of this car lies in the dialect of the Piedmont region. In its final assembly stages, the car was hidden in a shed for agricultural machinery on a farm near Grugliasco (province of Turin) to avoid possible work stoppages related to labour unrest. It was “discovered” by a farmer who exclaimed in amazement and enthusiasm, “Countach!” (a word in Piedmontese dialect expressing wonderment). When Piedmont-born Marcello Gandini became aware, he thought that this word had a powerful communicative force and convinced Nuccio Bertone, Ferruccio Lamborghini, and his colleague Paolo Stanzani of this.

Following the LP 500’s success in Geneva, Lamborghini’s chief test driver Bob Wallace used the car, equipped with a more reliable 4-litre engine, for every possible kind of road test. This extraordinary car’s career ended at the beginning of 1974 when it was used for the crash tests required for the homologation of the production car and subsequently scrapped.

From 1974 to 1990, 1,999 Countachs in five different series were produced, representing a model that, in addition to ending up displayed on the bedroom walls of an entire generation and is used in dozens of films, allowed Lamborghini to survive the most difficult years of its history and to enter permanently into the halls of legend.      

Lamborghini Polo Storico

Opened in 2015, Lamborghini Polo Storico is an Automobili Lamborghini department dedicated to preserving the company’s heritage from Sant’Agata Bolognese. The restoration and certification of all Lamborghini cars produced up to 2001 are just part of the work done by Polo Storico. It also carries out the reconstruction of spare parts for vintage Lamborghinis, with some 200 new codes introduced every year, and the preservation and management of the archive, activities with which Lamborghini Polo Storico aims to support the preservation of classic Lamborghini vehicles.

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