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Chief engineer Paolo Stanzani might not be as ingenious as his ex-boss Dallara, but he gained priceless experience in developing racing cars when he was working for Maserati, then learned a lot from Dallara after joining Lamborghini. Countach was his first car started from a clean sheet. In particular, the chassis and drivetrain arrangement were his idea. It was this car that made his name so famous in the sports car industry, so famous that many years later when Romano Artioli wanted to create Bugatti EB110, the first name in his mind was Paolo Stanzani.

ENGINE

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Since 1963, Lamborghini had the best V12 in the industry. Its 3.5-litre V12 employed double camshafts in each bank of cylinders, not only offering significant power advantage over Ferrari's single cam V12s, it was also praised for smoothness and responsiveness. Originally designed by ex-Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, this V12 gained capacity, compression ratio and power in the following years. While the development of Countach started, the V12 was already upgraded to 385 hp from 3.9 litres capacity which powered the last and the fastest Miura, P400SV. What could be better as the starting point for Countach ?

Stanzani originally wanted to increase the capacity to 5 litres to provide the power needed for 200 mph top speed. As publicised in the LP500 prototype in the 1971 Geneva show, the "imagined" V12 displaced 4,971 c.c. and was capable of as much as 440 hp. However, there were serious development problems (and perhaps limited by the budget) so that it was soon discarded. Instead, Miura's 3929c.c. unit was adopted, with some modifications of course.

The V12 was extremely "over-square" to boost power - 82 mm bore versus 62 mm stroke. Aluminium alloy head and block. Dohc per bank driving 2 valves per cylinder. Compression ratio was 10.5:1. Dry sump lubrication ... all these were the most spectacular specifications then. The peak power was 375 hp, occurred at sky-high 8,000 rpm if you believe Lamborghini's claim (usually less trustable). Peak torque was 268 lbft at 5,000 rpm. Don't think it must be very peaky, in fact road testers praised its good manner.

Unlike Miura, the V12 was positioned in north-south direction for better cooling. The transmission, now no longer incorporated with the engine sump, was mounted in front of the engine for better weight distribution.

Drivetrain

This is the most extraordinary part of Countach. Stanzani knew the big V12 would inevitably made the rear end heavier than the front, thus resulting in excessive oversteer and difficult handling. To make Countach more balanced, he created a new idea - placing the gearbox and clutch in front of the engine, that is, in the wide central tunnel between the driver and the passenger.

There was another advantage: the linkage between shifter and gearbox was vastly shortened so that gearshift became more precise and effortless. Nevertheless, there were some drawbacks. The output from the gearbox was transmitted back to the rear axle via a drive shaft locating underneath the engine, inside the sump. Inevitably, the engine had to be raised for a few inches to accommodate the drive shaft. As a result, center of gravity was raised, too. As the engine sat higher, to compensate the loss of rear vision, the carburettors were repositioned to horizontal, hence less ideal breathing and 10 horsepower loss compared with Miura SV.

Ferrari's boxer engine also got similar problem. Since the 12 cylinders engine was too long, it simply put the gearbox underneath the engine. As a result, the engine was placed even higher than Countach’s although it was a flat engine. Other mid-engined 12 cylinders cars chose to install the gearbox behind the engine and rear axle. This retained low centre of gravity but couldn’t help balancing front and rear weight distribution. No matter which layout, there are always some problems exist.

Chassis and body

Having experience of tubular space frame technology in designing the Maserati Tipo 61 "Birdcage" race car, Stanzani adopted tubular space frame construction in Countach. Although it was quite complex and costly, high rigidity and lightness were guaranteed. The chassis also acted as supports for the body panels, which were made of hand-beaten light aluminium. On the other hand, nearly the whole underbody, except the chassis, was made of glass fiber. At the time when carbon fiber was not yet invented, Countach undoubtedly did everything to save weight.

In order to enhance stability in high speed cornering, the body was made wide and low. Wider body did not reflect in cabin room, because the space frames created a wide sill between the door and the seat. Ultra-low body was achieved by installing the thin seats directly to the floor, though I suspect its effectiveness in lowering the overall centre of gravity. It couldn't help much the drag too, because any reduction in frontal area was nothing compared with the awful drag coefficient in-excess of 0.40. As expected for a supercar, Countach employed unequal-length double wishbones suspensions in all corners.

Specifications

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