The first Lamborghini Countach LP 500 was unveiled all the way back in 1971 at the Geneva Motor Show on the Carrozzeria Bertone stand with its Gandini-penned wedge silhouette unlike anything that had gone before. The concept played a role in the three-year development of the production-ready Countach LP 400 before being used for a round of crash tests and scrapped.
The unnamed discerning customer approached Lamborghini with the idea of recreating the original Countach LP 500 prototype. So the automaker’s classics division, Polo Storico went back to the archives for drawings, documents, meeting notes and pictures; interviewed people who were there at the time; and contacted suppliers like Pirelli for an updated version of the Cinturato CN12 and paint maker PPG for the Giallo Fly Yellow Speciale color. Polo Storico even adhered to construction methods used by Lamborghini at the time to ensure complete authenticity, like panel-beating by hand, although it used modern scanning software to analyse photographs of the original concept so as to copy its proportions exactly.
Lamborghini Centro Stile contributed to the project with a team led by Mitja Borkert, Head of Design, spending more than 2,000 hours of work to recreate the lines of the prototype using images, homologation sheets, and a 3D scan of the first LP400 as a reference. It took more than 25,000 hours to recreate the entire coupe with parts that were either original, restored, or fabricated from scratch ranging from the platform frame to the partially electronic instrumentation.
The Countach reinvented high-performance cars and it became an icon in terms of stylistic language that even today, after decades, still inspires contemporary Lamborghinis,” said CEO Stephan Winkelmann.
The Countach LP 500 will enter the concept car class at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. Discover Opulent Club on Apple News.