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Early Development

LP400 (1974-1978)

LP400S (1978-1982)

LP500S (1982-1985)

5000 QV (1985-1988)

ANNIVERSARY (1988-1990)

FERRUCCIO LAMBORGHINI

From the first day Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to establish his own sports car factory, the only idea in his mind was: knock down Ferrari ! Within 3 years, he did that with Miura, a mid-engined V12 supercar with beautiful look and incomparable speed.

Having fulfilled the original goal, his next dream was to create an all-time greatest supercar. That car should be unbounded by any existing rules, should be so outstanding that no word could describe its excellence. Therefore he named this car "Countach". Although this word had no official meaning, it was a local dialect expression of exclamation akin to "Cor! , wow!, look at that!".

Miura, the fastest car in the world then, could run up to 172 mph. Countach, on the other hand, aimed at 200 mph. Yes, it was TWO HUNDRED MPH. Besides, it should have an appearance that could stun everybody. Having these 2 basic goals in his mind, Ferruccio Lamborghini ordered his engineering team to start the project.

The Countach was developed under the leadership of chief engineer Paolo Stanzani, although some technical background came from Miura, which was penned by Giampaolo Dallara (the famous chassis expert for Formula 3). From the beginning, Stanzani chose the most advanced technology available (most expensive, too) without the slightest hesitation, these included: Mid-engined V12 engine with 4 camshafts, space frame chassis, aluminium body.

At nearly the same time, Bertone studio was chosen to responsible for the styling. Very lucky, Nuccio Bertone had already recruited a young and ingenious designer, Marcello Gandini. This man created a really stunning design for Countach. Without installing an engine, the so-called "Countach LP500" prototype was unveiled in Geneva motor show 1971 and immediately became the star of the show.

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In fact, more work need to be done for production. Gandini's design obviously lacked practical concern because of his non-technical background. When chief tester Bob Wallace methodically sorted out the problems, a so-called "NACA" duct was added behind each door in order to draw sufficient air for engine cooling. A pair of big "air boxes" was also added behind the side windows for the same purpose. However, one of the most important gimmicks, scissors doors, was retained as a unique feature of Countach.

When Lamborghini showed the car again in the 1973 Geneva show, it was very much closer to production. Next year's Geneva show displayed a real production Countach, now called LP400 because it adopted V12 displacing roughly 4 litres instead of the originally proposed 5 litres. The bigger engine was discarded because of technical difficulties.
In April 1974, the first Countach was delivered to a customer in Milan.

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The first thing making Countach so exotic was its look. The wedge-shape design combined with sharp edges and distinctive features like scissors doors, NACA ducts and square pop-up headlamps, not only caught eyes but also looked futuristic. Whenever a Countach flashed pass a viewer, it would immediately give 2 impressions. The first was that it was really low, lower than any other cars in the world. In fact, standing at 42.1 inches in height, Countach was the lowest car in history besides the Ford GT40 and Lotus Esprit. However, its aggressive lines made it subjectively seemed even lower than it was.

The second impression was: it must be extremely powerful and electric fast. Race version of GT40, with 425 hp 7-litre V8, actually out-powered the Countach, but its soft profile prevented one from believing its real speed. On the contrary, the original Countach had 50 hp less but looked like 40 mph faster. Therefore, when Lamborghini made a wild claimed of "in-excess of 200 mph top speed" in the Geneva show, most journalists believed it really could! This ingenious design was made by Marcello Gandini. Having styled several masterpieces like Lamborghini Miura and Urraco, he was hungry for a chance to show all his talents. Ferruccio Lamborghini, who was very satisfied with his previous services, gave him this precious chance. Why precious? Because Countach was to be a car emphasising on great styling and performance over practicality and cost concerns, thus giving the designer full freedom to design without limitation. Gandini did not let us down. His Countach LP500 prototype attracted overwhelming attention in Geneva show. Later, the production Countach was regarded as the most exotic-looking car ever built. Until production stopped in 1990 (that's 19 years later), it still looked fresh and appealing. If the design were not so futuristic, such achievement would have been impossible.

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Today, you may feel surprise that the earliest Countach was so pure in shape - without extended wheel arches, no front spoiler, with narrow tyres and flat engine lid. Undoubtedly, this is the most loyal to Gandini's spirit. You might surprise how old-fashion the Michelin XWX tyres were - 14 inches diameter, 70% profile, 205 mm width for the front wheels and 215 mm for the rear ... obviously this was unsuitable to such a supercar.
However, also because of this, LP400 had better aerodynamic drag than its successors, therefore it was actually quicker in top speed than LP400S and LP500S. There was another unique feature in LP400: instead of a normal rear-view mirror, it had a periscope mirror recess in a characteristic groove on the roof which you can see below.

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Thanks to Dallara, who worked as a consultant to Lamborghini at the time, a modified LP400 was launched in 1978. The most important change was the adoption of Pirelli's new P7 high performance tyres - 205/50VR15 up front and 345/35VR15 in the rear !!

You know, no road car in history had ever used rear tyres as wide as this 345 mm P7, even until today!

In addition to the latest low profile technology, grip was increased significantly without hurting ride quality. Now Countach had the right tyres to match with its tremendous power. To accommodate wider tyres, extended wheel arches made of glass fiber were added, which also enhanced aggressive feeling. Air dam was added under the nose, while a V-shape huge rear wing was listed as a popular option for increasing high speed stability as well as visual aggression.

Many people like the wing, but its extra drag cost at least 10 mph at top speed. Even without the wing, LP400S had considerably higher aerodynamic drag than LP400, thanks to the widened wheel arches and tyres. This inevitably deteriorated top speed, especially when the V12 was carried over without the slightest alteration. Acceleration was also worsened because an extra 50 kilograms were added to the kerb weight. However, judging by handling, the LP400S never let us down - cornering ability was not in doubt anymore. Obviously, Lamborghini knew that an all-time supercar must have handling matching speed. As mentioned already, the V12 was not changed at all, but a more honest appraisal resulted in 353 hp instead of 375 hp.

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Let alone the originally proposed 200 mph target, Countach again and again let down motor journalists whenever testing against the clock. The LP400S was probably slower than 160 mph, that is, much inferior to its predecessor, the aerodynamic superior Miura.
However, due to the financial uncertainty (Ferruccio Lamborghini sold his company just before Countach launched, then the company changed hands frequently), a new Countach was not born until 1982. Also known as LP5000S in America, LP500S got an upgraded engine, now displaced at 4754 c.c. by increasing 3.5 mm bore and 7 mm stroke. As much as 302 lbft of torque was available at 4,500 rpm, though tougher emission control prevented the power from exceeding 375 hp. This V12 surely improved the disappointed performance - top speed rose to about 165 mph, while 0-60 mph was down to 5.6 sec. There were no other real changes.. The body was virtually the same as LP400S, although the roof was raised by 30 mm for more headroom.

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In 1985, Lamborghini made the biggest improvement to Countach. The V12 was stroked to 5,167 c.c., incorporated a 4-valve cylinder head (called "Quattro-valvole" in Italian, which gave its name "QV") thus a total of 48 valves. Power jumped to a world-beating 455 hp, torque rose to 369 lbft.
Finally, the Countach produced more power than the originally proposed LP500 prototype, which would have been capable of 440 hp from 5 litres of displacement. Forget the 200 mph dream, this would never be achieved with the same aerodynamic. As the body was virtually unchanged from LP500S, people were happy to see the QV could run up to slightly over 180 mph, which was among the fastest in the world. Ferrari 288GTO and Testarossa had more or less the same top speed while other competitors were quite far below than that.

Compare with LP500S's engine, the 48-valve QV unit was very powerful and revvy, it was certainly a gem. The extra power was mainly achieved by the larger valves and the repositioned Weber carburettors - now mounted vertically instead of horizontally to enable straight forward engine breathing. However, this resulted in a large mound on the engine lid thus deteriorated the precious rear visibility. Other minor changes included: Front and rear lid were made of Kevlar New Pirelli P7R replaced P7 The 5000QV is commonly acknowledged as the best version during Countach's 16 years history.

US version 5000QV
The US version differed from the European version mainly by the engine's fuel system because of stricter emission requirement. With Bosch K-Jetronic instead of the six Webers, power dropped to 420 hp. Besides, the "power dome" on the engine lid was split into two to house the new fuel system. Federalisation also changed the bumpers, rear lights etc.
You can see the differences between the US version in the middle and its european counterpart on the right.

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Launched in 1988, this car was named to celebrate the 25 anniversary of the company. Mechanically, it was nearly identical to the 5000QV, except that several changes were made to shoot some long-existing problems. One of the old problems was the cooling for brakes and engine. As you can see in the pictures, more ventilation holes were opened in the air dam, side skirts and engine lid. The air box intakes were also enlarged.

In styling, vertical grilles instead of horizontal were employed simply to refresh your eyes. However, the air dam and side skirts were particularly unmatched with the original styling. If you know Lamborghini was already taken over by Chrysler, you won't be surprised to discover that electric seats and even power windows (yes, those tiny windows !) were made. Now the bumpers and side skirts were also made of carbon fiber, perhaps to offset the weight of "power everything".
Countach was really changed ... it was no longer the pure performance machine that inspired by Ferruccio Lamborghini, engineered by Paolo Stanzani and styled by Marcello Gandini. After all, who really wanted those luxury items in such a cramped supercar ?

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The man who started it all - Ferruccio Lamborghini 1916 - 1993

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in 1916 under the Zodiac sign of Taurus, his parents were farmers but Ferruccio soon decided he wanted to do something with mechanics. He started working on his fathers tractor out of interest and was able to attend a technical school in Bologna.

During the second World War he was enrolled into the Italian Air Force, working for the transport sections, after 1944 he became a prisoner of the Britisch military forces who put him to work in their motoring department. After the war he returned to his hometown and started converting old war surplus material into much needed tractors for the local people. He began his tractor business in a small garage but he got really successfull and had to move into larger premises soon thereafter.

During this time he also started tuning Fiat cars, he built a Fiat Topolino for himself and competed with it in the 1948 Mille Miglia, unfortunately the car was wrecked in an accident. By 1949 he was able to start building tractors from scratch, without using any leftovers, his own Lamborghini Trattrice factory was founded and the production soon took off.

The Lamborghini tractors became known as the best in Italy and Ferruccio started organizing tractor-pulls in his hometown just to show the superiority of his machines. The tractor business made him a very wealthy man, and he started a second factory to build airconditioning and central heating equipment. This enterprise made Ferruccio even richer and soon he was on of the wealthiest men in Italy, his love for fast cars became known and Ferruccio owned several exotic cars back then, a Mercedes SL300, a Jaguar and a Ferrari among other cars. But his Ferrari ran into problems with the clutch and Ferruccio went to visit Enzo Ferrari to complain about it, but Enzo refused to meet with him but that didn't stop Lamborghini. He noticed that the clutch fitted to his Ferrari wasn't any different from the ones he mounted in his tractors so he drove the Ferrari to Cento and fitted a Borg & Beck clutch of his own in the car, the problem never returned after that.

Ferruccio Lamborghini decided it was time to start a new business and the Grand Turismo cars seemed like a good idea, so he built a completely new factory at Sant'Agata and started building probably the best GT cars of that time. But things weren't always that simple and during the early Seventies he decided to sell most of his companies and retire at his estate near Perugia, further South in Italy were he began making wines known as 'The blood of the Miura'. His son Tonino went to Japan and started a few shops over there selling designer clothing under the Lamborghini name, while Ferruccio married his second wife Maria Theresa, together they had a daughter. This large estate La Fiorita near the Lake Trasimone now held a state of the art winemaking facility producing over 800,000 bottles of wine each year. This estate also housed a small private museum of Lamborghini cars Ferruccio owned, and the vineyard and golf terrain were open for visitors by appointment only, in his car museum you would find Ferruccio's favourit Lamborghini, the Miura. There were rumours that Ferruccio was involved in Paolo Stanzani's attempt to take over the Bugatti Automobili SpA factory but this was never officially confirmed.

Ferruccio Lamborghini died in February 1993 at the age of almost 76. Tonino Lamborghini created a tribute to his father, he contacted the architect Diversi in Imola to design a kind of 'arch' to hold just about everything Sig. Ferruccio Lamborghini ever did during his life. This museum was constructed on the grounds of Lamborghini Calor, at Dosso di Ferrara, the official grand opening occured on May 13th, 1995. This project was named the Cento Polifuzionale Ferruccio Lamborghini and reached great popularity the moment its doors opened for the public. All visits were by appointment only, but still during 1997 over 4000 pilgrims arrived at Sant'Agata to visit this spectacular space-like museum.Tonino Lamborghini has later named his son Ferruccio Jr, in honor to his father...

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