Lamborghini Countach

The Countach in one table

From project LP112 to the first customer car

Ferruccio Lamborghini wanted a successor to the Miura, and work began in 1970 under the internal code LP112. Paolo Stanzani led the engineering, test driver Bob Wallace developed the chassis, and Gandini, who had also styled the Miura at Bertone, drew a body made of flat, angled planes. His earlier show cars, the Alfa Romeo Carabo of 1968 and the Lancia Stratos Zero of 1970, already pointed in this direction.

The yellow LP500 prototype stood on the Bertone stand at Geneva in March 1971. It had a 5.0-litre V12 that failed during road testing the same year, so the production car went back to the proven 4.0-litre unit. Production was approved in May 1972, a revised prototype followed in 1973, and the original LP500 ended its life in a crash test at the MIRA proving ground in England in March 1974. The first customer car was delivered on 11 April 1974.

The name is not Italian. "Countach" is an exclamation of amazement in the Piedmontese dialect of the Turin area. Gandini later said the choice began as a joke in the workshop.

Production timeline

Gandini's shape and the scissor doors

The body is low and wide: 1,070 mm tall on a 2,450 mm wheelbase. The Countach was the first production car with doors hinged at the front that swing upwards, and every V12 Lamborghini since has kept that feature. The doors were partly a practical answer: the later cars are about two metres wide, and conventional doors would have needed a lot of space to open.

The clean prototype lost some of its purity on the way to production. Engineers found that the V12 ran hot, so the LP400 gained the NACA ducts in the doors and the boxes behind the side windows that feed air to the radiators. Later versions added wheel-arch extensions, a front spoiler and, on request, a large rear wing. On the LP400 S the wing cut top speed by at least 16 km/h, according to period figures, so many buyers chose it for looks rather than speed.

Under the panels sits a tubular steel spaceframe of round tubes, built by Marchesi in Modena. The frame weighs about 90 kg. The outer panels are unstressed aluminium, 1.5 mm thick on the LP400. Suspension uses double wishbones at each corner with coil springs and anti-roll bars, and all four brakes are ventilated discs.

Why the gearbox sits in front of the engine

"LP" stands for longitudinale posteriore: the V12 is mounted lengthways behind the seats. Stanzani turned it around compared with a usual mid-engined car, so the five-speed gearbox sits between the seats, ahead of the engine. The drive goes back through a shaft that runs through the engine sump to the rear differential. This keeps the gear lever close to the gearbox, gives a direct shift and puts more of the mass inside the wheelbase.

The V12 itself goes back to Giotto Bizzarrini's 1963 design for the 350 GT, with four overhead camshafts. In the Countach it breathed through six side-draught Weber carburettors. The first 3,929 cc version developed its peak power at a high 8,000 rpm, with 361 Nm of torque. Displacement rose to 4,754 cc in 1982 and to 5,167 cc in 1985, when the four-valve heads arrived.

Lamborghini Countach specifications

Figures below are for the LP400 unless a later version is named. By our calculation, the LP400 had about 3.9 kg of dry weight per kW; the heavier 25th Anniversary had about 4.7 kg per kW.

Every version: LP400 to 25th Anniversary

The power figure of the LP400 S differs between sources: 257 kW (349 PS) in English references and 261 kW (355 PS) in German ones. Both agree that the S was slower than the LP400 because of its wider tyres and extra drag.

The 5000 Quattrovalvole was also the first Countach that Lamborghini built for the United States. Earlier cars reached American owners through private importers. The federal version had large bumpers and Bosch K-Jetronic injection instead of carburettors, which lowered output to 313 kW (426 PS).

The 25th Anniversary celebrated the company's founding in 1963. Horacio Pagani, then working for Lamborghini, reshaped the intakes, bumpers and sills, and rally champion Sandro Munari helped tune the handling. It was meant as a short farewell before the Diablo, but the Diablo was late, so it became the best-selling Countach of all.

How the Countach compared with its rivals

The Countach's direct rival was Ferrari's flat-12 Berlinetta Boxer. In 1975 the Swiss importer listed the LP400 at 115,000 Swiss francs. The Ferrari 365 GT/4 BB cost 4,500 francs more, while the Maserati Bora was listed at 81,500 francs and the Porsche 911 Turbo at 78,650 francs. By our calculation, the Countach cost about 46 % more than the Porsche.

Each new Ferrari pushed the Countach further. The LP500 S answered the Boxer's larger engine, and the Quattrovalvole answered the Testarossa of 1984. You can line up these cars in our car comparison tool and check how their weight and power stack up with the power-to-weight calculator.

Living with a Countach: operation and legacy

The Countach was never an easy car. The low roof and small rear window leave little view backwards, which is why early cars have a channel in the roof for the mirror, and the cabin is narrow. Six carburettors on a V12 also need careful setting up. The 25th Anniversary was the most comfortable version, with air conditioning and electric windows.

Its influence is larger than its numbers. The wedge shape and upward-opening doors carried over to the Diablo, the Murciélago and the Aventador. A US-model LP400 S appeared in the 1981 film "The Cannonball Run", and a LEGO model of the 5000 Quattrovalvole went on sale in June 2024. The full story of the company is in our history of Lamborghini.

In 2021 Lamborghini revived the name for the Countach LPI 800-4, a hybrid V12 limited to 112 cars. The number refers to the LP112 project code. It shares the look of the old car but has a carbon-fibre chassis, a 6.5-litre engine and an electric motor, so it is a separate model rather than a sixth Countach version.

Collecting a Countach today

Collectors rank the versions clearly. Early LP400 "Periscopio" cars are the rarest and usually the dearest, while the 25th Anniversary is the most common. In 2022 a 25th Anniversary delivered new to the US sold at RM Sotheby's in St. Moritz for 415,000 Swiss francs, about €410,000 at the exchange rate of that year.

What buyers check:

• Chassis and history: the factory records list each chassis number, so the version and original specification can be confirmed.
• Frame corrosion: the steel tubes rust where water collects; inspect them with the car on a lift.
• Cooling: a radiator or fan problem shows up quickly in traffic.
• Clutch and gearbox: a worn clutch is expensive because the engine and gearbox layout makes access hard.
• Originality: many cars were fitted with wings, bumpers or wheels from later versions; returning to factory specification is costly.
• US conversions: federal cars often had their large bumpers swapped for slim European ones.

For a Countach with a modern drivetrain, the LPI 800-4 is the alternative. For the original experience, the LP400 and the Quattrovalvole are the two poles: the lightest, purest design versus the most powerful engine. The profile of Marcello Gandini covers the designer's other work.