See, we know Lamborghini makes some of the wildest looking cars on the planet. But there was a time when the world experienced cars wilder than the Aventador and the Huracan, some of you might remember those times and some of you like me wouldn’t have been even born at that time. This car still lives on as the wildest looking Lamborghini of all time. The car launched in 1974, is one of the cars that were produced for the longest time, 16 years to be precise. It has a Lamborghini V12 and was a nightmare for tall people to drive. Some say that the car is overhyped but in my opinion, this car deserves the hype it created that remains to this day. This Legendary car is none other than the Lamborghini Countach. Let’s start with the best thing about this car, its design.
Design:-
Unarguably, the wildest looking Lamborghini of all time. At the time of its launch, people went crazy about it. The coolest thing about this car is probably the Pop Up headlights, I love these headlights, be it on any car. Coupled with that large wing in the back, that was taller than the height of the car created an awkward silhouette of the car which left many people confused. It was one of the very first cars that coined the terms spaceship for its design, it was and still a weird looking car. Its shape followed no smoothness, it had the shape of a wedge with weird and sharp angles all around it. The shape of the doors, the aerodynamics seemed totally out of proportion. The only thing that looked civilized on the Countach would be the side air intakes, they were the most normal looking thing you can find in this car. Now the Countach wasn’t very wild looking when it was launched, but since Lamborghini had to keep producing it for the high demand, they tried to keep it fresh by giving it various design updates, wheel changes, fender flares and of course price. The design became wilder and wilder in its later years. The 25th anniversary Countach was the wildest of all. Interestingly, the 25th anniversary Countach was designed by Horacio Pagani, you may have heard of him, if not then no worries we will discuss him in our future posts. I love cars that have been designed a minimalistic approach but I love the Countach for its weirdness and its wild looks, it’s the only car where I don’t even care about the beauty factor. I think that’s should have given you an idea about the design of the Countach, now let’s talk about what’s under the hood.
Engine and performance:-
The earlier models of the Countach had a 3.9 liter V12, with 370 Horsepowers. The 25th Anniversary was the most powerful of all it had a 5.2 liter V12 and developed over 450 Horsepower. So it’s pretty evident that it was faster and better acceleration and top speed figures. The 25th anniversary was also a track monster. Being a naturally aspirated engine, the engine doesn’t have too much torque, if it had been a pushrod engine then maybe Lamborghini could have extracted more torque out of it, but the Countach is perfect the way it is and 500 Nm Torque is no joke. Impressive power to liter ratio of 86:1 and a power to weight ratio of 302 Bhp tonne instantly made the Countach an attractive package among the enthusiasts. Kerb weight at 1488 Kg is surprisingly good considering that the modern-day Murcielago SV and the Aventador SVJ weigh more than the Countach even when having a lot of carbon fiber used in their structures. When we consider that this car was launched in 1989, we start to consider the seriously impressive engineering that has gone behind this car. 0 to 100 Kmph or 62 Mph took just 4.7 seconds and went on to almost doing 300 Kmph, with that wing in the back!!!! If this doesn’t impress you enough I don’t know what will. Being a mid-engined car the Countach never had any handling issues, it could keep up with the best track performers of the time while keeping the Music with its V12 high. Even though the quad exhausts in the rear might look small, don’t judge them based on their size, they can get loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood with just one press of the gas pedal. The best part of all? You get a 5-speed sequential Manual gearbox to upshift and downshift through your gears, and because of this, the Countach just got more desirable.
Interior:-
The Countach was a Supercar at its time, it might be termed as a Sports car nowadays but back then it was a proper supercar and I still consider it one and thus the interior was not one of the prime focuses of Lamborghini, it never has been and it won’t be in the future too. Let’s start with the most ridiculous thing you can discuss a supercar and that is the practicality, even though it has a 5.2-liter V12 engine and is not super huge in proportions the boot space is surprisingly good and the trunk is not in the front, it’s in the back. Let’s talk about visibility, the most obvious part would be the terrible rear view visibility, you could barely see anything from that small back window and combined with the large wing acting as an obstruction, the view becomes zero. Now this car is surprisingly very feature-loaded for its time, it has got power windows and stuff like power mirrors and power locks, but again the first thing you might notice when you get inside the car is the wedge shape being repeated, smoothness and beauty elements haven’t been given even a single thought in the Countach, it almost feels like Lamborghini designed the Countach with a ruler. The Sun-visors in the Countach are so big that when you put the Visor down, you can’t see anything.
Conclusion:-
The Lamborghini Countach is a Legend, a Car that has carried forwards the Legacy of Lamborghini from the Miura, carried it for over 16 years before passing it to the Diablo, it’s one of my absolute favorite classic supercars that I dream to own one day. It had all the things that a car guy may desire, a naturally aspirated Italian V12, a manual gearbox, looks that can attract more crowd than any other modern car. Long live the Legend
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