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Regular User
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Brasília-DF Brazil
Posts: 15,357
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The pre-Lance Lamborghini
The exotic Italian 1974 Lamborghini Countach sports car was simply astonishing with its impossibly rakish styling and V-12 engine that whisked it to 175 mph. Built through 1989, it was the automotive fantasy poster child that adorned bedroom walls of boys and young men for more than a decade.
The Countach would eventually produce 420 horsepower with four-valve cylinder heads and go even faster. I once quickly accelerated from 75 mph to 150 mph in a friend's Countach, and the car felt relaxed all the way, with great stability.
The Countach's basic body remained essentially unchanged throughout its career. Its pivoting doors opened up scissor-style, unlike conventional swing-up doors on some sports cars such as the DeLorean that made it hard to get out in tight parking spots.
Lamborghini came up with the Countach because it needed a successor to its fast, wild-looking 1967-72 Miura sports car, which was the most exciting exotic Italian sports car of its day -- even topping Ferraris.
The new Lamborghini's name was pronounced COONtahsh, which was a Piedmontese expression of amazement or wonder. It reportedly got its name from a Lamborghini workman who saw the car the night before it debuted as an experimental car with no specific name at the 1971 auto show in Geneva, Switzerland.
Showgoers were amazed -- nobody had seen anything like the mid-engine, two-seat Countach coupe, which seemed as if from the distant future.
Lamborghini began building cars in 1964, after self-made multimillionaire Italian industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini became disgruntled in the early 1960s with his temperamental Ferraris and thought he could make a better car. He built an ultramodern auto factory near Ferrari headquarters, hired Italy's top auto talent, and began making cars that many thought were superior to Ferraris.
Changes had to be made to the Countach show car to allow it to be produced. The final production prototype version thus wasn't displayed until 1973 at the Geneva show, and the Countach went on sale the following year. It officially was designated the LP400, but almost everyone called it the Countach.
The first Countach had the awesome 4-liter, 375-horsepower V-12 that powered other Lamborghinis, including the Miura, with six carburetors, four camshafts and four exhausts. It was a complicated, hand-built car with a sharp-edged, nearly pyramidal body design from brilliant designer Marcello Gandini of Italy's Bertone auto body design firm.
The car's shape didn't follow established rules of car design. And later, more-powerful versions looked more muscular and menacing as body scoops, scallops and spoilers were added.
The engine was put longitudinally in a multitubular space frame, with fuel and water carried in twin side-mounted tanks and radiators. The Countach had nearly 50-50 weight distribution, which helped high-speed stability, although it took a while for drivers to get used to its ultrawide body.
Air conditioning and a leather interior were standard. But rear visibility was awful -- you had to open the door and sit on the sill while looking over a shoulder when the car was in reverse gear. The steering was heavy and the interior was cramped, with an overnight bag taking up most luggage space.
Such faults were expected in such an exotic car and were forgiven because the Countach looked spectacular and had a race car's handling, braking and stability. Moreover, it was generally practical and reliable for a supercar -- nearly as comfortable in heavy city traffic as when moving flat out on Italy's no-speed-limit autostradas (highways).
The Countach was continually improved. Four years after its debut, it became the LP400S coupe and got a modified suspension, superwide Pirelli P7 tires on wider wheels, fender flares and a front spoiler. A large rear wing was optional and made it look more like a race car.
The engine size was increased to 4.75 liters for the 1982 LP5000 model to cope with new, power-robbing emission standards, with horsepower remaining at 375. But Lamborghini thought that wasn't enough, so it introduced the 5000 Quattrovalvole model in early 1985 with a 5.2-liter V-12 that had four valves per cylinder and produced 420 horsepower -- or 455 horsepower in European tune. It could now top 180 mph.
Most Americans missed out on Countachs from the mid-1970s to about 1982. That's because Ferruccio Lamborghini had sold the now-struggling firm, which had trouble meeting new U.S. auto regulations. Most potential Countach customers in America didn't want to contend with "gray market'' importers of the car, although some Countaches were modified to meet the regulations and certified independently by American outfits.
Things looked up when the rules were relaxed, and Chrysler even bought Lamborghini in 1987 and owned it for a while.
Lamborghini currently is owned by Germany's Audi, which has invested a lot in it and made its cars more technically sound and reliable.
The Countach was replaced by Lamborghini's new, rakish Diablo model after a 1989 Countach Anniversary coupe was produced.
The 1974 Countach in good condition is valued at $75,000, says the Collectible Vehicle Value Guide. That's more than other Countach models except the Anniversary Coupe, which is worth $82,500. That shows there's almost no beating the original Countach.
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