To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary Countach, the car that put “outrageous” in the automotive lexicon, Lamborghini has pulled the wraps off a new model, the Countach LPI 800-4. The reveal took place at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering on the Friday before Pebble. It was the biggest news on a day filled with reveals.
With V12 power, the car is most likely based on the Aventador, though nowhere does Lamborghini say “Aventador” in any of its official releases.
The hybrid technology that adds the 34 electric horsepower to the V12’s 769 is said to come from last year’s Sian concept , which Lamborghini called “the first super sports car powered by a V12 engine and hybrid technology based on supercapacitors.” The use of supercapacitors could potentially get around the problem of packaging batteries into the already-tight real estate of the Aventador/Sian body. So that’s not only innovative but could signal a new approach to hybrid technology in future Lamborghinis.
The exterior, meanwhile, does an excellent job of paying tribute to the original Countach, the car that revolutionized, and arguably introduced, the idea of the supercar.
It also displaced Farrah Fawcett posters from the walls of adolescents around the world.
“The Countach LPI 800-4 is a visionary car of the moment, just as its forerunner was,” says Automobili Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. “One of the most important automotive icons, the Countach not only embodies the design and engineering tenet of Lamborghini but represents our philosophy of reinventing boundaries, achieving the unexpected and extraordinary and, most importantly, being the ‘stuff of dreams’. The Countach LPI 800-4 pays homage to this Lamborghini legacy but it is not retrospective: it imagines how the iconic Countach of the 70s and 80s might have evolved into an elite super sports model of this decade. It upholds the Lamborghini tradition of looking forward, of exploring new design and technology avenues while celebrating the DNA of our brand. It is a Lamborghini that innately expresses the marque’s enduring and emotive power: always inspirational and thrilling to see, hear and most of all drive.”
You’ll have to budget around $2.64 million for the new Countach, if you’re in the market. So it won’t be an alternative to the (relatively) more affordable offerings from Sant’Agata at all. A Countach poster for the wall will perhaps be the way to go this time around, too.