Back in 1971, Lamborghini wowed the world with the
Countach at the Geneva Motor Show. Designed by Marcello Gandini, the
flagship supercar marked the debut of the scissor doors, an iconic feature for
Lambos to come, and represented a huge step forward in styling.
But its design wasn’t the only impressive novelty,
as the Countach benefited from aircraft-grade aluminum body and used a tubular
space frame chassis. This made it strong and light despite its size, and the
Miura’s 4.0-liter V12 engine made sure that it was no slouch either.
The 12-cylinder made 370 hp and 361 Nm of
torque. However, initial prototypes and show cars used a 5.0-liter V12. And
this gave Walter Wolf, who was the Canadian F1 team owner at the time, an idea
to increase the performance of his personal Countach. Thus, he asked for the help of
Lambo’s engineer, Gianpaolo Dallara, who installed a 5.0-liter engine and
larger Pirelli tires. The latter were fitted after some bodywork and suspension
geometry upgrades.
Impressed by his modified ride, Wolf eventually
convinced the automaker to sell the Countach with these extras, and so the
LP400 S was born, although without the larger engine. A 4.8-liter V12 was
eventually introduced in 1982, in the LP500 S.
RMSothebys has an LP400 S Series II model listed at
the upcoming, Monterey, CA auction, on August 24-25. It’s one of only 105
produced, and was fully restored over the course of several years, a process
during which more than US$ 250,000 were invested in it.
The auction house states that this Countach, which
sports Valentino Balboni’s signature, has less than 35,000 km on the
clock, and is described as being “an exceptional example to round off any
serious collection”.
