A while back I wasted two hours of my life a while back watching the terrible movie Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend. Starring “Dollar Store Jason Statham” Frank Grillo and Gabriel “only here for the paycheck” Byrne as Ferrucio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari respectively, this relentlessly shitty movie nevertheless contains a one hundred percent totally accurate sequence when a smug Byrne in a Ferrari Mondial QV casually dispatches Grillo in a Lamborghini Countach. Their supposed rivalry is started in an earlier scene in the movie where Lamborghini accosts Ferrari outside his factory to complain about the clutches Ferrari uses, and Il Commendatore haughtily tells Lamborghini to “go back to his tractors.”
Was Lamborghini the sports car company a creation of pure spite? Ferrucio Lamborghini was born to wine-making parents in 1916, but his interests lay in mechanizing labor rather than any romantic notions about the farming of grapes. He studied mechanical engineering and found himself maintaining trucks for the Italian Air Force during the Second World War.
After the smoke cleared at the end of European hostilities, Ferrucio opened a small garage in Bologna and began to tinker, using war surplus parts to create his first tractors. Because these used Morris car engines that ran on expensive petrol, Lamborghini patented a fuel atomizer, that allowed the engines to start on petrol and then switch over to cheaper diesel. Buoyed by favorable economic conditions supporting Italian farmers buying domestically built agricultural equipment, Lamborghini Trattori soon found success in the post-war mini-industrial boom. By the mid-fifties, Ferrucio Lamborghini was a very rich man.
Ferrucio shared his hardscrabble background with another Italian industrialist, Adolfo Orsi, who owned Maserati. According to an interview with Thoroughbred and Classic Cars given in 1991, Lamborghini said:
“Adolfo Orsi, then the owner of Maserati, was a man I had a lot of respect for: he had started life as a poor boy, like myself. But I did not like his cars much. They felt heavy and did not really go very fast.”
He was also unimpressed with the succession of Ferrari 250s he owned. The Old Man famously saw his road car business as a necessary evil to finance his beloved racing team. Lamborghini considered Ferraris fast but unrefined and recalcitrant in use. Whatever the truth of what was said between them, Lamborghini had enough engineering knowledge, resources, and business acumen to believe he could do it better.
The Hills Are Alive To The Sound Of V12 Engines
The hills surrounding Turin were overflowing with sports car expertise and Lamborghini availed himself of the best of it, creating the very first Lamborghini Automobili 350 GTV which appeared as a prototype at the 1963 Turin show. The production version, substantially reworked for ease of use and manufacture, appeared in 1964 sans pop-up headlights and with less chrome trim. With no need for concessions to motor racing, the 350 GT followed the continent-crushing gran turismo layout with a large V12 under the hood and an opulent 2+2 cabin. 120 were built, but Lamborghini’s next car would be the genesis of the type of car the company is known for today.
The Miura wasn’t the first mid-engined production car, but it gave life to the idea that serious road-going performance machinery should have its motor in the middle of the chassis. Up to this point, mid-engine designs were nearly exclusive to racing cars, and Enzo Ferrari himself considered the configuration too much for non-racing drivers to handle. Indeed, the first mid-engine road-going Ferrari, the 365 GT4 BB, would not appear until 1973.
Ferrucio hadn’t been consulted about the Miura’s mid-engine layout, but as soon as the naked chassis was presented, he was convinced. Nuccio Bertone saw the Miura chassis on display at the 1965 Turin show and came to an arrangement with Ferrucio there and then. Marcello Gandini, whose hiring at Bertone had previously been vetoed by the departing Giorgio Giugiaro, would be allowed to get on with designing the Miura with a little input from Bertone himself. The Miura’s voluptuous curves and coquettish eyelashes are pure Fellini’s La Dolce Vita – an Italian man’s vision of the ideal feminine form on wheels. The successor would cast aside such sixties thinking.
Despite the Miura being only four years old Lamborghini gave chief engineer Paolo Stanzani and Gandini permission to think about a successor in 1970. The transverse layout of the Miura, while novel meant it had weight distribution issues and widow-maker handling. To remedy this a technician working under Stanzani, Oliveriero Pedrazzi came had the idea of turning the engine not only length ways, but crucially backwards in the chassis with the gearbox in front of the engine between the driver and passenger, giving the car its LP designation: longitudinale posteriore. As Pedrazzi told the website deRivaz & Ives:
“I came up with the idea of using the engine-transmission combination of the Espada, but turned around so that the gearbox would be located ahead and between the seats for the driver and passenger. It was done to essentially rationalize our production process and save costs.”
With the four-seater Espada and slightly gawky Jarama (also a Gadini design) now covering the grand touring market, the new car was free to be the ultimate expression of Italian style and performance. Italy had long been a European industrial design leader, thriving in the spirit of post-war modernism. Gandini like his great rival Giugiaro had spent the latter part of the sixties and early seventies experimenting with a daring new automotive form language; harder edges, flat planar surfacing, sharp transitions and dramatic side profiles to give birth to what would become known as the wedge. Post Miura, Gandini designed the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo (built on the chassis of Tipo 33 Stradale) and the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero concept cars. Both featured trapezoidal shapes, low profiles with new ways of entering the cabin, and the slashed rear wheel arch that would dominate the form of the prototype LP 500 Countach, first shown at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show.
So Shocking Its Name Is An Expression Of Amazement
The Countach LP 500 was nothing less than a showstopper. Low and sharp, simple yet sculptural, dramatic yet beautiful, and positively futuristic. It looked like a car to adorn the artwork of an Atari cartridge; except they wouldn’t exist for another six years. Its name came from the reactions it elicited. According to Gandini from the Lamborghini website:
“When we made cars for the car shows, we worked at night and we were all tired, so we would joke around to keep our morale up. There was a profiler working with us who made the locks. He was two meters tall with two enormous hands, and he performed all the little jobs. He spoke almost only Piedmontese, didn’t even speak Italian. Piedmontese is much different from Italian and sounds like French. One of his most frequent exclamations was ‘countach,’ which literally means plague, contagion, and is used more to express amazement or even admiration, like ‘goodness.'”
The original LP 500 prototype wasn’t just futuristic on the outside, it was state-of-the-art on the inside as well. A bank of large primary-colored warning lights dominated the sightline of the driver, mounted on the column and viewable through a single-spoke padded steering wheel. There were no door mirrors to spoil the aerodynamics; instead, a periscope system provided a view of the Polizia Stradale disappearing behind you. These flights of fancy were eliminated from the production LP 400 which appeared in 1974, although the inset on the roof for the rearview system remained on the early cars; these pure early versions are nicknamed Periscopio.
Dissecting The Design
In any view, the Countach is simply outrageous. Despite the four-liter V12 being in the spine the Countach is nearly 10” shorter than a Muira. There’s no fat anywhere on it; everything is pulled taut. The upper section of the car is essentially four lines starting from the top of the taillights and running forward down the length of the car, varying in height just enough to package the underlying components and passengers. The top surfaces simply span these lines, gently curving and twisting to create great tension and a logical resting place for the side windows and the additional air intakes that road testing dictated would be required over the show car.
The front bumper, the bottom of the scissors doors, the front corner of the rear wheel arches, and the center lines of the axles are all level, creating harmony to balance the drama happening above. Those slashed rear wheel arches are a trademark flourish that would appear on other Gandini designs, but there is visual theory behind them. The larger gap in front of the wheel suggests forward movement, like how you would frame a car in a photograph with empty space in front of it. The NACA duct on the flank is pure science as function, one of the underlying principles of modernism as a design movement. Comfort and ease of use are secondary concerns – the doors are not a gimmick but because the Countach was a wide car and its chassis construction necessitated larger than usual rockers. Unusual commitment requires such unusual solutions. The Countach is sensational without being sensationalist; its form is shaped by the desire for speed and style, briefly sculptural but totally alien. Imagine gazing upon one as it came to a standstill, heat haze shimmering from the rear vents. Quietly ticking as the engine cooled. The door swings up with a controlled hiss. It would feel like a car from another time, or perhaps another world.
Look How They Massacred My Boy
Ferrucio Lamborghini, sensing the seismic changes in the automotive market in the early seventies, sold his share of the car company in 1974. The company staggered between financial crises in part because the Countach was never developed for the United States so for a while was unable to be sold here legally. Consequently, in 1975 a Canadian industrialist, Walter Wolf developed his own updated version. Equipped with steam roller Pirelli P7 tires and extended wheel arch flares to cover them as well as front and rear wings, the Walter Wolf Countach formed the basis for the upgraded factory LP 500 S, and some of these cars entered the US grey market.
Unlike their rivals at Ferrari, who had access to the Fiat checkbook, cash-strapped Lamborghini had to make do with updating the old bull as best they could, injecting it with more and more testosterone. Official models finally arrived in 1985 with the LP 5000 QV, which could be optioned with a Bosch K-Jetronic injection system, making it emissions-compliant in the United States. In the era of excess, these models were also saddled with excessive oversized bumpers. The final indignity arrived with the 25th Anniversary model in 1988, designed by Horacio Pagani. To mimic the supercar that had totally captured the eighties cultural zeitgeist, the Ferrari Testarossa, Pagani infected a pox of strakes all over the poor Countach.
Towards the end of the eighties, motor racing was having an increasingly direct effect on the cars you could buy. Turbocharging, computer-aided design and composites began to move the supercar needle towards 200 mph. The Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 emerged in 1986 and 1987 dripping in racing technology but the Countach wasn’t quite done for yet. In 1987 Pagani developed an ‘Evoluzione’ version. This Einstürzende Neubauten-looking beast had body panels and a brand-new chassis made entirely of composites, giving a substantial weight reduction. Lamborghini also stuffed it with state-of-the-art drivetrain technology – electronically adjustable suspension, four-wheel drive, and ABS brakes. A blueprinted engine pushed it to 205 mph; had it gone into production it would have been the fastest car in the world. Although magazines did get the chance to drive it in period, it was a test bed and probably never seriously considered for sale.
If you were a young car fan in the eighties you fell into one of two camps: Countach or Testarossa. Despite me now being a sometime paid-up member of the tifosi, I have never really got on with the Testarossa – it’s a bit ungainly and carries too much Out Run baggage for my liking. The Countach always had a special place in my heart because an unconvincing version was one of the first Matchbox diecasts I pushed around the brown carpet with my chubby baby fingers. The brilliance of the original LP 400 was it commands your attention and then rewards you for keeping it. The drama came from the form and the intent. A Persicopio in vibrant seventies earth tones is a transcendent statement of modernist Italian industrial design, like a Voxson Radio or an Olivetti Valentine typewriter. I often think that one of the hallmarks of any great design is that nothing added could possibly improve it, and the wider wheels and aero addenda of the later versions do nothing for the original car’s purity of purpose.
Despite what they say modern Lamborghinis have forgotten this heritage, instead concentrating on the more-is-more aesthetic ideas of the cocaine-powered eighties versions. The current range is a riot of furious angles and extreme details, each one an assault to the eyes, appealing only to dilettantes, attention-deficit TikTokers, and bored Middle Eastern playboys. They shout and scream and demand your attention, but they don’t really deserve it.
Unless otherwise stated all images courtesy of Lamborghini Media.
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Like the Pantera, the first-version had soul, the flared- and winged-up version had soul + balls, but the Pagan Countach looked like somebody spent too much time alone in his room in his early teens. The Testarossa never appealed to me even a small amount.
Totally not car related, but Gabriel Byrne lives in my town and is known as one of the nicest people around. I got to pet his dog once. Yay!
He’s an actor I’ve always felt deserves the full Family Guy meta treatment, like Robert Loggia, or Jeremy Irons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EBl12z8R9o
damn now I’m going down a Family Guy rabbit hole
Totally agree. So many classic wedges were ruined by ‘butching up’. The Lotus Esprit was another example. On another note, Lamborghini has returned to their roots and are offering agricultural vehicles again.
When I was a kid in the ’80s, I had a clearly well-off friend whose father dailied an Esprit. It was utterly striking, esp. when I’d see it from school bus height. The ’90s version seems so conventional at this point, but the original still stands out.
I agree, but think Lotus managed the Esprit changes better through its longer lifespan than the Countach.
Lotus were another company that never had any money, although I think the ‘87 Peter Steven’s rework was pretty successful initially.
The Miura and the first version of the Countach may be two of the best-looking cars ever on public roads.
I will die on this hill.
I love the early Countach but now all I can see is the asymmetrical bumper grill on that green one. I’ve never seen one with that silver grill, how strange.
I haven’t either, reminds me of a cheap metal vent piece you would see at the base of an old refrigerator. Did the early production cars have that?
I’m glad you asked, I wouldn’t have been motivated to google it on my own. Unsurprisingly, Adrian pulled a bit of a fast one by including that green devil! From Wikipedia:
“The second Countach prototype (chassis number 1120001) was shown to the public at the 1973 Geneva Motor Show (painted red) and at the 1973 Paris Motor Show (painted green). The bodywork of this car was much closer to that of the LP400 production model, and now incorporated the side NACA ducts and air intake boxes tested on the first prototype. This car showed some styling details from the first prototype that would not carry over into production, including trapezoidal windows and a bumperless nose with silver, recessed grill.”
Also noteworthy (or not-worthy) is the different placement for the Bertone logo.
Phew!
I’m limited in what images I can use, and official media images are not always indexed correctly for search.
Thanks for clarifying! We have no idea. I assumed it was in keeping with the thrust of the piece; “originally great, then here we go with the add-ons.” It wasn’t immediately apparent which of the iterations you considered the greatest/original, but the fact that you didn’t call out the prototype as such definitely seemed odd, given how familiar the car is to some of us of a certain age…(and yes, I had BOTH the Countach and Testarossa posters, but tellingly, only one of those comes close to representation in my garage).
Thank you for a good piece and especially being so responsive to comments! Makes it feel that much more like a community.
I’ll always assign the success of the countach to it’s resemblance to that of a classic “pink pearl” eraser and the fact that it’s reverse swept triangle lines made it one of the easier cars to doodle.
If you can draw it you can dream it.
Never liked these.
Wasn’t into Testarossas either.
Gratuitously showy, uncomfortable, noisy, claustrophobic.
And where does one put the luggage for two weeks touring the Continent after taking European Delivery before loading it all aboard the QE2 for the trip home?
(Yes, these were the thoughts of my early-80’s nerdy High School self)
A gently-stretched 2+2 version of a Ferrari 308GTB was the car I drew in the back of my school notebooks. (No, not a Mondial)
The BMW M1 was the poster on my wall.
The Porsche 928 and the Mercedes-Benz W126 SEC were the cars I visualized myself actually owning and enjoying.
The butler travels ahead in the W123 or Range Rover with all the Louis Vuitton matching luggage. Well mine does.
Touché!
I’m guessing all you carry is a riding crop, for when the butler has not made it to your destination before you with enough time to lay out your belongings just so.
Matron carries the riding crop.
I had a black Countach poster on my wall. I’m not ashamed to say it.
I also recently watch a Top Gear episode where James took one for a drive and made the case that the car sucked to drive. Hot, hard to shift, 1000lbs clutch pedal, can’t see out or back up. In conclusion, don’t drive your hero cars LOL
I still love the Countach though, and I doubt I’ll ever have a chance to drive one.
I wonder about that ‘hard to shift’ thing. The gear lever is directly connected to the box. There’s no convoluted linkage.
can’t remember his exact words but it was to the affect of very stiff
According to Iain Tyrrell, noted Lamborghini restorer and expert, the reports of them being bad to drive is from poorly maintained or sorted ones. For instance, the suspension is all heim joints, so any wear can make a big difference quickly. I’m sure they get hot, though. Ancient Italian AC with windows that barely open and a big engine right behind the cockpit is not a recipe for cool.
No the heat I do believe. The Mondial can be a total sweat box on a hot day, even though it has electronic climate control. It’s not very effective, but it does have it.
I don’t know about this take. Obviously the early cars are great. I still like the 5000QV, but I’d probably like it more without the lifetime picnic table on the ass.. I just like wide bois. Also, phone dials.
But yes, that Pagani monstrosity is absolutely horrid.
The original phone dials are excellent, but the riveted look of the later ones is just silly.
I still have that Matchbox, from one of my first solo trips to the store in the early 70s. I think the early Countach is been looking than the Testarossa. I think the best Gandini design of the era is the Lancia Stratos. Simultaneously sinster and functional, right down the the Bell Star sized door bins
Wow. These Italian cars are designed with a lot of … machismo!
Adrian, I’m curious and I apologize for I’m ignorant as baboon on car design. But…
What’s the most famous sports car designed by a woman?
Not sure if there are many but the Z4 comes to mind. Juliane Blasi (exterior) and Nadya Arnaout (interior).
I’m guessing the second Z4. If I’m not mistaken, they made it a point that it was designed by women. And, funny enough, it was still a long, low, 2 door sports car with a big I6. Imagine that.
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t know. There was a Volvo concept a while back where the design team was exclusively women, because another one of my tutors worked on it (she also did the later 900 convertible I think). Might be worth an article at some point.
May not be sportscars, but just last week I learned about Mimi Vandermolen and her work creating the original Taurus interior.
Apparently, among other things, she gave us rotary dials for climate controls aka the best configuration ever!
Female designers are more prevalent in interior and CMF teams than exterior teams.
Finally, a computer for women. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEmWvVfEts
Bravo, its like that really really good episode of ultimate gear about 80’s super cars but with words about design language.
Have always loved the Periscopio, and it’s on my short list for when my lottery numbers hit. But the show car, that’s even better.
They shoulda stuck with the Miura, it’s beautiful. Especially in that green!
Up next: the Lamborghini Tabarnak
There’s a reason why the LaCrosse isn’t sold in Canada.
Only the first gen was called the “Allure”. Second-gen on it was the LaCrosse, Quebecers be damned.
They really should have called the toggle-shiftable torque converter eight-speed in the Urus the Bubonic, just to tie the historical naming tradition to the new owners.
I never had a Countach poster on my wall as I gravitated toward more rounded designs. Of course, I enjoyed the brashness and silly excess of the Cannonball one, but it was never anything that inspired me.
I do appreciate the dissection of that rear wheel arch, though. I’ll let it percolate a bit and see if I grok in fullness.
Love this article, perhaps because I agree with it 😉
Unfortunately for me, I don’t think I’ll ever own anything made by Lamborghini other than a matchbox version of the Sesto. I grew up with the Diablo, which is still my favorite design of theirs. Count me in for the tasteless heathens crowd, as I do actually like the modern take on the Countach. Good read though Adrian, keep it up.
It’s better than most of their recent output, but that’s not saying a lot.
Dde, don’t knock Frank Grillo, that guy rules
I’d love to learn more about/see more of that interior on the concept.
It seems like high ’70s Italian modernism, like the works of the Castiglioni brothers…or the sets of Space:1999.
If you go to the Lamborghini media page there’s a few more images of it. Search for LP500.
Thanks! And wow…kinda a Star Wars aesthetic, which I guess fits since that was also from the ’70s.
When I was young, I liked the the later Countach better with all the flares, wings and strakes. And I used to think the early ones looked boring.
But now I have a greater appreciation for the early Countach and don’t like the look of the later ones as much.
Have I become boring in my old age???
Our taste generally improves as we grow up and we start to appreciate subtlety. 🙂
No, you’ve become more sophisticated. Like how I can’t drink Coors anymore.
I still have that same Matchbox car in my childhood treasure chest. Never realized that it was an actual car design. Learned something today, quota met, Homer mode engaged.
While I agree without reservation that the original prototype Countach does look good(and much better than the actual production car, which I despised), I’m more partial to the Miura. I’ll take voluptuous curves over a wedgie anyday. Of course, I also prefer simplicity to baroque bullshit, so it’s no confusion with regard to why I think the prototype Countach still looks good, and much better than that wedged-doorstop-shaped-thing with that oversized spoiler.
I fell into neither. TVR, Jaguar, and Lotus was more my jam, although not so much their 80s cars, but earlier. I did have some love for the Porsche 959 and Alfa Romeo Spyder of the 80s though.
80’s kid here, so I grew up with the “wings and flares” 5000-series cars which I thought were an inferior design to the 365-512bb Ferraris. When I saw the LP400 and the prototype Countach and realized what the design was supposed to be I changed my tune. Gandini in the 60’s was the best designer to ever pick up a pencil.
His work was consistently strong into the eighties.
It is an ugly car and it isn’t functional. DUDE you hate the extremely beautiful Jaguar because it has a beautiful long nose and short trunk but you like a ugly hard to fit into and drive ugly pos because some art school unsuccessful in the teal world professor shoved a stupid idea in your head. Loom at art it isn’t exact or specific measurements. Stop falling for it. I mean many people would claim a good haircut is measured by certain things but not yours. So what your failure teachers told you who never designed a beautiful car ate just plain wrong.
How about you explain why a car that looks like a computer mouse is anything but a piece of shit Design
Yeesh, more like Mr. Angry, amirite?!
It isnot any kind of creative design. It is looking at a serving of mash potatoes and adding wheels. I am surprised that Adrian attacks car designs that are far better but likes a serving of mash potatoes like its a design.
You’ve still yet to prove that you read any articles you comment on beyond the title. It’s an amazing streak you’re on.
I will accept your premise if you accept the fact I will ignore your comments
Name an article I am all over this site
Not seen any attacks other than your own. I hope you find some happiness in your life soon. X
Mr. Badopinion?
Jeez chill dude. Design is subjective.
If you think this is bad, you must not have read his comments on the EV Silverado article the other day. ⊙﹏⊙
I can’t imagine he is anything but an epic troll. Best to ignore the rage bait.
Design is subjective and if Adrian thinks a computer mouse design is a beautiful design but a Jaguar E series is ugly I am sure he is wrong.
True but Adrian is stuck on himself. No cars but attacks the Jaguar e
Most people are stuck on themselves it’s nothing new. E-type is a good looking car but definitely not some sort of bastion of perfect design.
Wouldn’t the computer mouse be a ripoff of the Countach? Also, Adrian’s critique of the E-Type, while not necessarily something I agree with, was pretty measured and thoughtful. His alterations to the design weren’t drastic and didn’t really come from a place of someone hating the basic design.
If you look at the Countach as a “car”, then of course it isn’t particularly “functional”. Neither is a Ferrari 512, or a Testarossa, or any of the early supercars. As sculpture, it’s definitely subjective. You like it or you don’t. Adrian clearly likes it and explained very well why he does, which is why he gets paid a large packet of Jelly Babies fortnightly by the fine management of this website to provide us with his views on automotive design.
To me, it’s a great piece of sculpture and the styling trend it added fuel to led to the VW Rabbit/Golf I and 1977 GM B-bodies, both of which are abundantly functional – and I prefer the former in 5-door form (as did Giugiaro) and the latter as a wagon, the most functional iterations.
Others have commented on the general thrust of this post, so I will restrict my interjection to pointing out that J Mays had quite a successful career, especially in the 1990s when teal was a popular color for cars.