March 1971 - August 2021. Half a century is a long time for a car. And yet, this car still manages, 50 years later, to look futuristic, impressive, perfect, unsurpassed. The reason is the Lamborghini Countach, whose successor has enough... work to cover the legend of the original, the first one. Today, TopSpeed.gr presents 5 facts you didn't know about the Lamborghini Countach
Regardless of whether you like it or not, the new Countach (see photos and details at our Facebook page), designed by Bertone is impressive, exotic supercar presented for the first time at the International Geneva Motor Show, the March 1971, wrote his name in gold letters in the history of motoring.
The Countach was the car that saved Lamborghini Automobili from bankruptcy. This is because the Miura - the first centrally powered supercar - had been a success, but the 1970 the new competitors, such as Ferrari Daytonathey made her looks "old" (presented in 1966). Thus, the Ferruccio Lamborghini, he instructed the its chief engineer, Paolo Stanzani, to start the project LP112, for the successor to the Miura.
At evolution of the Countach took part in the test guide Bob Wallace (the first to put an airfoil on the model for aesthetic reasons), the assistant engineer Massimo Parenti and the designer Marcello Gandini of Bertone. The resulting model incorporated a lot of elements of Miura, such as the provision engine in the centre-drive back and since its introduction in 1971, it took 2-3 years of development before it was able to debut of the LP400 Countach.
1.The Countach was created because Lamborghini lost a bet
Yes, you read that right. Almost the Countach never to go into production. Ο agricultural machinery manufacturer Ferruccio Lamborghini, was fanatically against participation of factory teams in motor racing because, as he said, it's "too expensive, too Ferrari". But the people who megalomaniacs creating the Miura, the first ever centre-engine supercar, the Gio Dallara, Giotto Bizzarrini, Bob Wallace, they all had a career in motorsport.
After the prototype LP500 made world premiere in Geneva, Lamborghini's activities in the tractor accepted economic hit. And as the oil crisis already raging, Uncle Ferruccio could not be convinced by anything in the to put the model into production. With the engineers to insist, put a bet with them: Ο Wallace would take the Original from and he would take it to a (not slow, as you imagine) trip to see the Targa Florio in Sicily and would return to the company's headquarters in Sant'Agata. If the car he would manage to make the distance of 127+127 km without... staying on the road, then Lamborghini he was going to put it into production. Wallace returned the May 1972, with the prototype working like a... clock, before Ferruccio. That's it: Two years later, the First Countach LP400 came off the production line.
2.Her famous airfoil was drilled into a parking lot
At first production Countach, missing the giant airfoil that today characterises the classic Countach. And possibly rightlyconsidering that the legendary airfoil was non-functionalbut just decorative. The airfoil was first installed in the Wallace's one-off Countach purely for aesthetic reasons. But the bad thing was that this one-off seen by many and... envied.
It was such a demand who, after it was... demanded by the customersLamborghini was forced to place it... without placing it on the Countach, since to produce it with the airfoil he had to to redo the procedure of the confessional, something he could not "lift" from cost-wise. Because the airfoil affected the dynamic behavior of the model, lifting its muzzlethe engineers were pulling it off the production line with... wrong settings. Then, they were driven in a parking lot, at the back of the factory in Sant'Agata, where other engineers they were placing the airfoils with a zero angle. The work was done with a electric drill, bolts, glue and lasted about ten minutes.
3.Her final was not what she promised
If it was something he did legendary the Countach was her performance. Some from them, apply. Some do not. The "long" Lamborghini tester, Valentino Balboni, has revealed that many of the "official" final speed measurements on the test track Nardo was untrue. Lamborghini, in order to achieve largest final speed, use special tyres, removed mirrors, wipers, changed the posts, the Height of the test model, "tampering" with the motor , made everything so he can say he made something faster than the Ferrari. Even in magazine measurements, Lamborghini was giving "tweaked" cars with F1 drivers to achieve the crazy performance that "wrote" in the era.
4.Never entered an aerodynamic tunnel
As soon as you see it, you think that this car was built to be aerodynamic. And so it is, considering that the Countach's aerodynamic coefficient is 0.42. But what would you say if you found out that this was about... to luck; During evolution, the engineers Paolo Stanzani and Massimo Perenti, in the absence of money -which would ensure access to an aerodynamic tunnel- they made a rather... strange patent: Stuck fabrics throughout the car and they took it out to Autostrada, following it with a motorcyclewhose passenger was pulling videos and photos. On the basis of these images, they made the necessary adjustments to LP400 to achieve the best possible result. In fact, the first model of Lamborghini that went into wind tunnel was the Diablo, at a time when it was controlled by Chrysler.
5.Countach means (sort of) "Wow"!
The model is one of the minimum of the brand that does not use bull name. It comes from the spontaneous exclamation of surprise and admiration that was constantly used by the... locksmith of Lamborghini, seeing the concept, in the language of Piedmont. This "contacc", mini tropes "wow." who said emphatically when he first saw the LP400 and which the locksmith kept saying with admiration, "stuck" in the mind of Gandini and Wallace, who they thought of writing it as "Countach" and... voila! Η latest version of Countach that the world saw before it was succeeded by the dreadful and terrible Diablo, was the LP5000S QV, the 1985.
