Lamborghini Countach

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Practical was the farthest thing from its vocabulary, the Countach was the truly excessive super-car. With a mailslot of a rear window, it was impossible to park, but who cares. The wedge shape, scissor doors, massive engine vents and the pronounced angles made it instantly recognizable. Sporting a monster Lambo V12 engine, it was hellaciously fast, as well. The bespoilered LP500S is easily the most remembered. Big bank roll required. Gold chain and chest hair not included.

 The Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined, V12 sports car produced by Italian car manufacturer Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high-performance sports cars. It also popularized the "cab forward" design concept, which pushes the passenger compartment forward to accommodate a larger engine.
The word countach (pronounced [kuŋˈtatʃ]) is an exclamation of astonishment in the local dialect (see Piedmontese language),that means "perbacco" or "accidenti" ("Heavens!").
The prototype was introduced to the world at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. Most previous and subsequent Lamborghini car names were associated with bulls and bullfighting.

The Countach was styled by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio, the same designer and studio that designed the Miura. Gandini was then a young, inexperienced designer — not very experienced in the practical, ergonomic aspects of automobile design, but at the same time unhindered by them. Gandini again produced another striking design. The Countach shape was wide and low (1.07 meters or 42.1 inches), but not very long (only 4.1 meters or 163 inches). Its angular and wedge-shaped body was made almost entirely of flat, trapezoidal panels.

The doors, most often credited as a Lamborghini trademark, were a remarkable design feature for the Countach. They first appeared on the Alfa Romeo 33 'Carabo' concept car in 1968, an earlier design accomplishment, also by the talented Gandini. The doors have come to be known as scissor doors: hinged at the front with horizontal hinges, so that they lifted up and tilted forwards. The main reason is the car's tubular space-frame chassis results in very high and wide door sills. It was also partly for style, and partly because the width of the car made conventional doors impossible to use in even slightly confined space. Care needed to be taken, though, in opening the doors with a low roof overhead. The car's poor rear visibility and wide sills led to drivers adopting a method of reversing the car for parking by opening the door, sitting on the sill, and reversing while looking over the back of the car from outside.
The pure style of the prototype was progressively altered by the evolution of the car to improve its performance, handling, tractability, and ability to meet mandated requirements. This began with the first production model, which included several vents that Lamborghini found necessary to cool the engine adequately. These included the iconic NACA duct on the doors and rear fenders. The car design changes ended with a large engine vent directly behind the driver, reducing the rear view. Later additions—including fender flares, spoilers, carburetor covers, and bumpers—progressively changed the car's aesthetic values.
The Countach's styling and visual impression made it an icon of great design to almost everyone except automotive engineers. The superior performance characteristics of later Lamborghini models (such as the Diablo, or the Murciélago) appealed to performance car drivers and engineers, but they never had the originality or outrageousness that gave the Countach its distinction. The different impressions left by the various Lamborghini models have generated numerous debates and disagreements over what constitutes "classic" or "great" automotive design (elegant looks and style, versus technical and engineering superiority). Despite the impracticality and (required/needed) updating over time, one should note that the basic iconic shape of the first Countach prototype revealed in 1971 remained virtually unchanged over an exceptionally long 19-year lifespan.

The rear wheels were driven by a traditional Lamborghini V12 engine mounted longitudinally with a mid-engined configuration. This contrasted with the Miura with its centrally mounted, transversely-installed engine. For better weight distribution, the engine is pointed "backwards"; the output shaft is at the front, and the gearbox is in front of the engine, the driveshaft running back through the engine'ssump to a differential at the rear. Although originally planned as a 5 L (310 cu in) powerplant, the first production cars used theLamborghini Miura's 4-liter engine. Later advances increased the displacement to 4754 cc and then (in the "Quattrovalvole" model) 5167 cc with four valves per cylinder.
All Lamborghini Countaches were equipped with six Weber carburetors until the arrival of the 5000QV model, at which time the car became available in America, and used Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection. The European models, however, continued to use the carburetors (producing more power than fuel-injected cars) until the arrival of the Lamborghini Diablo, which replaced the Countach.
In 1985, a US specification model was produced by the factory, with styling changes to allow bumpers to meet US federal safety standards. Many owners however, had those bumpers removed immediately, or never had them installed at all, as the bulky looking addition to the car was said to ruin the otherwise smooth lines of the body. The 1985 US model had a base price close to $100,000. Only two optional extras were available: a $5,500 aerodynamic spoiler and a $7,500 sound system.
The U.S. Government exempts cars older than 25 years from all design, safety, and emission standards legislation, and any such regulations, so Countaches can be freely imported by any private customer and registered for unrestricted road use.

In 1975, Walter Wolf, a wealthy Canadian businessman and owner of the Wolf F1 Racing team in the 1970s, purchased an LP400; however, he was not satisfied with the LP400's engine and asked Gianpaolo Dallara, the chief engineer of Lamborghini at that time, to create a special high-power version of the Countach. It was the "code No. 1120148" Walter Wolf special with an engine identical to the 5.0 L (310 cu in) engine from the Countach LP500 prototype, which produced 447 horsepower (333 kW) at 7900 rpm and reached a supposed maximum speed of 315 or 323.6 km/h (195.7 or 201.1 mph). This model also featured the upgraded wheels, Pirelli P7 tires, large fender flares, and front and rear spoilers of the LP400 S model. It was painted red with black fender flares, and was designated "LP500 S" like the standard Countach model from the 1980s, and was the stepping stone that led to this later production model.
Two other Wolf Countaches were produced, one painted blue, No. 1120202 (currently in Germany) and one navy blue, No. 1121210. (This machine was owned by Wolf for a long time, but was eventually sold. Currently owned by Japanese businessman Shinji Fukuda). Both of the later Wolf Countaches used the original 5.0 L (310 cu in) engine commissioned by Wolf, transplanted to each car in turn.

In 1985 the engine design evolved again, as it was bored and stroked to 5167 cc and given four valves per cylinder—quattrovalvole in Italian, hence the model's name, Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole or 5000 QV in short. The carburetors were moved from the sides to the top of the engine for better breathing—unfortunately this created a hump on the engine deck, reducing the already poor rear visibility to almost nothing. Some body panels were also replaced by Kevlar. In later versions of the engine, the carburetors were replaced with fuel injection.
Although this change was the most notable on the exterior, the most prominent change under the hood was the introduction of fuel injection, with the Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, providing 414 bhp (309 kW; 420 PS), rather than the six Weber carburetors providing 455 bhp (339 kW; 461 PS) used in the previous carbureted models. As for other markets, 1987 and 1988 model Quattrovalvoles received straked sideskirts. 610 cars were built.
Source:Wikipedia

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