March 11, 1971, Geneva Motor Show, 10 o’clock in the morning. The Lamborghini Countach LP 500 in yellow made its first public appearance, thus marking the beginning of unprecedented success and changing the course of the history of Automobili Lamborghini forever. The unveil of the prototype was so well received that the company raced against time to satisfy the customers’ requests and transform the futuristic show car into a production car.
The Countach project, unveiled in Carrozzeria Bertone’s space as the Lamborghini stand featured the Miura SV – yes, a double presentation was quite a statement of innovation and production prowess – had the internal code number LP112. LP stands for the rear longitudinal position (“Longitudinale Posteriore” in Italian) of the 12-cylinder engine, which stemmed from Ferruccio Lamborghini’s desire to maintain the image of a company at the forefront of style and technology following the Miura.
Fifty years and five series since its unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show, the legendary Lamborghini Countach is making headlines again with a limited-series hybrid supercar celebrating the visionary design that revolutionized modern sports cars forever and laid the foundations of the Lamborghini legacy. This is the new Countach LPI 800-4. Inspired by the past, made for the future.
“The Countach LPI 800-4 is a visionary car of the moment, just as its forerunner was,” says Automobili Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. “One of the most important automotive icons, the Countach not only embodies the design and engineering tenet of Lamborghini but represents our philosophy of reinventing boundaries, achieving the unexpected and extraordinary and, most importantly, being the ‘stuff of dreams’. The Countach LPI 800-4 pays homage to this Lamborghini legacy but it is not retrospective: it imagines how the iconic Countach of the 70s and 80s might have evolved into an elite super sports model of this decade. It upholds the Lamborghini tradition of looking forward, of exploring new design and technology avenues while celebrating the DNA of our brand. It is a Lamborghini that innately expresses the marque’s enduring and emotive power: always inspirational and thrilling to see, hear and most of all drive.”
Read more about the Countach LPI 800-4 here.
