50 Years Ago the First Countach in Sant'Agata Bolognese

“We are proud to still be producing our super sports car models in the place where the Countach was created,” commented Ranieri Niccoli, Lamborghini’s Chief Manufacturing Officer. “Production has radically changed since then and there was a marked transformation of many aspects during the production of the various versions of the Countach. Today our production is very different from 1974, but it retains the best aspects and brings together the manual skills of our operators and the best available technologies, giving rise to the so-called Manifattura Lamborghini Next Level.”

Evolution of the Countach

The Lamborghini Countach LP 500 was presented at the Geneva Motor Show on March 11, 1971, as an idea car, and its immediate success made the decision to make it a production car an easy one. It took several prototype cars and three years of technical development and intense road testing to get the production model, the Countach LP 400, ready. While the car was being developed, work was going on at Sant’Agata Bolognese to create the production line where the Countach would be produced. And this was another way in which the Countach was revolutionary; for the first time in Lamborghini’s history, the bodywork would be made in-house. Up to that point, Lamborghini cars had been made in two different places, with the mechanical parts produced by Lamborghini, and the bodywork built by external coachbuilders and then sent to Sant’Agata Bolognese to be put together with the frame and mechanical parts. The decision to bring bodywork production into the Lamborghini plant had an immediate impact.

Today, the factory is very different, with an area of 346,000 square meters, but the area where the Countach was assembled, called Countach Assembly Line No.1, has remained the same and is where the Revuelto, Lamborghini’s new 12-cylinder plug-in hybrid, is produced today. During the Countach years, the assembly line was simple and small scale, with all the operations carried out manually. The bodywork panels were beaten and then checked on a wooden template before being welded together and adjusted on the car body mold. This final processing was essential, given that each part, having been produced and assembled by hand, only appeared identical to the others but in reality was slightly different. The complete body, still in raw aluminum, was then combined with the frame. This unit, sitting on an industrial trolley that ran on rails, traveled between the various assembly stations where the different mechanical parts were fitted. The Countach was also the first to involve the Lamborghini Upholstery Department, which in the beginning was only for the fitting and assembly of the interiors in partnership with external suppliers. It eventually became completely autonomous, including in terms of leather upholstery and stitching, becoming an essential part of the personalization still offered today by Lamborghini to its clients through the Ad Personam program.

All the Countach models

The first version of the Countach, with 152 units produced, was the LP 400 (1974-1978), featuring fenders without extensions and the roof with central recess designed for the rearview mirror that earned it the nickname “periscope”. The LP 400 S (1978-1982), with 235 units, was derived directly from the special LP 400 that the Canadian enthusiast Walter Wolf commissioned at Lamborghini. The LP 400 S was characterized by the adoption of Pirelli low-profile tires, wheel arch extensions, “phone dial” wheels and the aerodynamic appendage positioned below the front part. This configuration, albeit improved and better integrated in later versions, became the distinctive feature of the Countach for the following decade. The 5000 S (1982-1984), with 323 units, with few changes in terms of aesthetics, had a V12 with an increased displacement of 4.8 liters. The Countach Quattrovalvole that followed (1985-1988), with 631 units, was visually characterized by the “hump” on the hood, necessary to contain the 5.2-liter engine, equipped with a 4-valve timing system for each cylinder. The Countach 25th Anniversary (1988-1990), with 658 units, was created to celebrate 25 years since the foundation of the company, and involved a total overhaul of the Countach’s aerodynamic appendages. The air intakes on the rear fenders and some panels, such as those on the hoods, also changed, and were made of carbon fiber for the first time. It is worth noting how the commercial success of the Countach was always on the rise and how it was the last two versions that were produced in the greatest numbers, benefiting from the type-approval obtained by the Countach for sale on the American market.

During the years it was marketed, the Countach was the model that, as well as ending up on the walls of an entire generation and being used in dozens of films, enabled Lamborghini to be competitive by the mid-1970s until 1990 and to definitively become the stuff of legend.