Cars - Lamborghini Countach

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	Cars - Lamborghini Countach

The Lamborghini Countach was a supercar produced by Lamborghini in Italy. The first prototype emerged in 1971, and production lasted until 1990. It did not pioneer but did popularise the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance cars since.

The word Countach (pronounced Koon-tahj) is a profane expletive of astonishment in the local Italian dialect. The name stuck when workers rolling off the Lamborghini protoype (LP500) caught their first glimpse of it in preparation for the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. The word is somewhat akin to the American expression, "Holy fucking cow!" All previous Lamborghini names were associated with bullfighting (Ferruccio Lamborghini being an aficionado of the sport).

In 2004, Sports Car International named this car number three on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s, and it was listed as number ten on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

Styling

The styling was by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio. 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. He produced a quite striking design. The Countach shape was wide and low (42.1 inches), but not very long. Its angular and wedge-shaped body was made almost entirely of flat, trapezoidal panels. There were curves, notably the smoothly coke-bottle wing line, but the overall appearance was sharp.

The doors, a Countach trademark, were of a 'scissors' fashion—hinged at the front with horizontal hinges, so that the doors lifted up and tilted forwards. This was partly for style, but just as much because the width of the car made conventional doors impossible to use in an even slightly confined space. Care needed to be taken, though, in opening the doors with a roof overhead. Also, for any large people to get in through the doors is a feat as they did not leave much room to get in.

Aerodynamics, however, were quite poor for such a sleek-looking car—but looking fast was more important to Lamborghini.

Engine

Power was by a Lamborghini designed and built 60° DOHC V12 engine mounted longitudinally in a mid-engined configuration. For better weight distribution, the engine is actually 'backwards'; the output shaft is at the front, and the gearbox is in front of the engine, the driveshaft running back through the engine's sump to a differential at the rear. Although originally planned as a 5 L powerplant, the first production cars used the Lamborghini Miura's 4 L engine. Later advances increased the displacement to 5 L and then (in the Quattrovalvole model) 5.2 L and four valves per cylinder.

The engine was claimed to be able to push the car to over 200 mph, but in real driving, anything over 180 would stress the engine greatly.

Construction

The Countach utilised a skin of aircraft-grade aluminum over a tubular space frame, as in a racing car. This is expensive to build but is immensely strong and very light. The underbody tray was fiberglass.

Countach models

Prototype LP500

A single prototype was built, the LP500 (the 500 standing for the 5 L displacement of the engine which was intended to be used). Painted bright sunflower yellow, the car was a stunner at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971. Sporting Gandini's original design concepts, the car's design needed extensive modification for production. In particular, the small air intake ducts on the car's rear shoulders proved insufficient to cool the engine, and large 'air box' scoops were added in that position. Large NACA ducts were added on the sides to give additional air. The experimental car was also constructed of aluminum honeycomb sheeting among other things, which was dropped for production.

The car no longer survives; it was sacrificed in a crash test to gain European type approval, even though its construction method was utterly unlike production vehicles.

Production LP400

The 4 L production car was first delivered to a customer in 1974. Externally, little had altered from the final form of the prototype except at the rear, where conventional lights replaced the futuristic light clusters of the prototype. The styling had become rather more aggressive than Gandini's original conception, with the required large air scoops and vents, but the overall shape was still very sleek. The original LP400 rode on the quite narrow tires of the time, but their narrowness and the slick styling meant that this version had the lowest drag coefficient of any Countach model and possibly the highest top speed.

LP400S

In 1978 a new LP400S model was introduced. This car had wider tires with glass-fibre wheel arch extensions, which gave the car the fundamental look it kept until the end. An optional V-shaped spoiler was available over the rear deck, which improved high-speed stability at the cost of at least 10 mph of top speed. Most owners ordered the wing. Dynamically, the LP400S was a better car, the wider tires making it more stable in cornering. Aesthetically, some prefer the slick lines of the original while some prefer the more aggressive lines of the later vehicles.

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