Lamborghini Countach

Start with what the Lamborghini Countach is: a 2-door coupe with Lamborghini V12, built from 1974 to 1990, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Marcello Gandini at Bertone. 1,999 were built.

The story

The Lamborghini Countach ( KOON-tahsh) is a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini from 1974 until 1990. It is one of the many exotic designs developed by Italian design house Bertone, which pioneered and popularized the sharply angled "Italian Wedge" shape.

The wedge style was introduced to the public in 1970 with the Lancia Stratos Zero concept car. The first showing of the Countach prototype was at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, as the Lamborghini LP500 concept. The "Countach" nameplate was reused for the Sián-based limited-production hybrid-electric model called the Countach LPI 800-4 in 2021.

What is underneath

The engine is Lamborghini V12; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1300.5 kg. Drive goes through a 5-speed synchromesh manual. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 96.46 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

In the Lamborghini line-up the Lamborghini Countach has a clear place: it replaced the Lamborghini Miura; it handed the line to the Lamborghini Diablo (direct) / Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 (nameplate); the factory was Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Volkswagen Golf, the Volkswagen Scirocco, the Jeep Cherokee. Nearby in the Lamborghini catalogue sit the Lamborghini Calà and the Lamborghini Marco Polo.

Owning one today

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Lamborghini Countach has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.