Lamborghini Countach: the challenge of reinventing an icon

The sun shone brightly on a Friday morning in Carmel Valley, California. Despite a tenacious pandemic that refuses to retreat, many of the world’s most notable motoring enthusiasts nonetheless gathered on the green to sip champagne and admire rare new cars and classics alike. Held during Monterey Car Week ahead of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegence, “The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering” has become the week’s hottest ticket. It’s a much more intimate event than the Sunday concours, with spectators paying US$1,000 (or more) to stroll amongst fantastic automobiles of past and present, eating and drinking freely from concession tents with offerings that range from caviar to couscous.

Among the many automakers touting dazzling concepts and exclusive customer offerings, Lamborghini’s outdoor stage was mobbed by an adoring crowd gathered around the Centro Stile’s latest creation, the Countach LPI 800-4. Produced in honour of the 50th anniversary of the ubiquitous poster car of the 1970s and ‘80s designed by Marcello Gandini, the new Countach is built on the bones of the current Aventador with the hybridised powertrain found on the Sián supercar unveiled earlier this year. It pairs Lambo’s V12 petrol engine with a 48-volt electric motor for a total of 814cv (about 803bhp) and a top speed of 355kph. It’s strictly limited to 112 examples at about £2 million each – and all were spoken for by the time the cover came off.

We don’t envy the job Lamborghini head of design Mitja Borkert had in recreating one of the world’s most celebrated nameplates. During a private walkaround, if he has any fear of criticism, he certainly doesn’t show it. And while some have cynically dismissed the Countach redux as a moneymaking stunt, Borkert tells us the idea started in the design studio, not in the accounting office.

“We didn’t want to do a retro design,” Borkert says. “We wanted to make it forward-looking, like any Lamborghini has to be.” At the same time, Borkert and his team decided to move away from the extreme styling that defined the brand’s other current models. “We have created some very crazy cars. One that I really liked a lot was the Terzo Millennio in 2017. That was our vision of an electric Lamborghini, which is why the car has all the air channels and so on. And then we created the Sián, which is like a modern jet fighter version of the Countach and you can see all these elements, but I wanted it to be much more extreme, like a transformer. But when you are creating things, you need to constantly invent yourself in a new way. At the end of the day, the powertrain is the heart of the car that defines the proportions, but in terms of design, we wanted to realise the most puristic Countach possible.”

Borkert says three Countach models inspired his design: the first-generation LP400 “Periscopio,” named for the slot cut into the roof to aid rearward visibility. “It has a very iconic and epic plan view, where you can see this periscopio line,” he says. The LP500, “for the purism of the shape; there’s no wing, no pop-up lights – we wanted to have the most clean Lamborghini we could create.” Finally, the LP5000 Quattrovalvole, “where the wheels got bigger with integrated wheel arches that were more pronounced in a hexagonal shape.”

Unlike the 25th anniversary Countach unveiled in 1988, Borkert wanted to make the new design “a little more human.” In the front, he points out the super slim grille with the off-centre Countach logo, as well as thin DRLs that are etched with hair-like lines that remind us of the eyelashes found on another famous Lamborghini of that era, the Miura.

The signature hexagonal shape is everywhere, from the lower air intakes to the wheel arches to the rear tail lamps, which sit above quad tail pipes integrated into the rear diffuser. “The rear end looks like a spaceship, and I desperately didn’t want any wing on the car,” Borkert reveals. For the exterior colour, Borker’s team chose white to keep with the puristic theme, but with a blue pearl effect for a richer appearance.

Many interior elements carry over from the Sián, although the Countach is wrapped in bright red leather on the doors, dash, and centre console. Borkert points out that in order for the hexagonal-shaped air vents to be fully moveable, each had to be individually 3D printed. When asked if his team considered vegan or sustainable materials, Borkert quipped, “all Lamborghinis are sustainable because nobody ever wants to throw one away.” He clearly hasn’t met the guys who buy two Espadas at a time just so they’ll have spare parts.

For those wondering what Gandini might have to say about all this, Borkert says he went to the master himself. “We presented this project before it came out and he really appreciated it,” Borkert says. “I have been studying his cars and teaching my team, and I say, ‘If you look if you look at the Gandini cars, it’s not so much wedge, and look how this is connected…’ So, without copying, I’m trying to make Gandini’s philosophy live on.” However, in a subsequent press statement, Gandini distanced himself from the project saying it did not reflect his “spirit and vision.”

In the days since the Countach bowed, the Internet has been rife with both praise and criticism, with many in the design community posting about what they would or wouldn’t have done had it been their car. Some say it’s too boring – the original Countach, after all, was revolutionary. Others say it’s trying too hard. But let’s face it, no matter what Borkert and his team would have done, somebody somewhere wouldn’t have liked it. Thus is the risk all creatives face when resurrecting a name so nostalgic and venerated. The good news for Lamborghini is that, save for a handful of media and a few wide-eyed wannabes, the audience around the Countach at The Quail was exactly for whom Lambo execs wriggle into their skinny Italian-made suits to smile and shake hands: rich collectors who’d pay almost anything to have something their friends don’t. So, say what you will about the new Countach – only 112 people with £2 million to spare have to like it. And each will gladly sip champagne and eat caviar in the golden California sunshine admiring their newest acquisitions while the haters hate and Lamborghini laughs all the way to the bank.