The new Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 is not only a reflection of the marque’s past, but also a tantalising hint at the Raging Bull’s future.
Hands up who had a poster of the Lamborghini Countach on their childhood bedroom wall, possibly with some scantily-clad fille lounging across its football-pitch-wide bonnet? The Countach was as ground-breaking a vehicle as any we’ve seen (who doesn’t remember the Wolf of Wall Street scene?) it was bodacious in its scale, terrifying in its performance, and sexy as hell in the process.
Now, as Lamborghini celebrates this iconic model’s 50th anniversary, the company releases the Countach LPI 800-4, a futuristic concept limited to just 112 units.
A design and technology benchmark for modern super sports cars, reimagined for a new era, the Countach LPI 800-4 boasts an aspirated V12 hybrid engine and a 48v e-motor that combined with supercapacitor technology and permanent four-wheel drive transmission delivers an eye-watering 780cv and 34cv respectively. That’s enough to hurl this beast up to 100km/hr in just 2.8 seconds and up to 200km/hr in 8.6 seconds, towards a top speed of 355km/hr.
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With its distinctive silhouette from front to rear, sharp angles and lines, and idiosyncratic wedge shape, the Countach LPI 800-4 develops the characteristic lines of the Countach’s five models over nearly 20 years. The final outline is pure and uncluttered, with references to the first LP 500 and LP 400 production versions.
Giving the LPI 800-4 a distinctive Countach face, inspiration was taken from the Quattrovalvole edition in the assertive lines of the front bonnet with long, low rectangular grille and headlights, as well as in the wheel arches with their hexagonal theme. The sharp inclination of the greenhouse adopts the straight lines redolent of the original Countach, adjoining the powerful, clean front-to-rear line.
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Unlike the iconic LP5000 QV, there is no fixed rear wing and the air scoops are integrated fluidly in the strong shoulders of the car, embellished with the distinctive Countach slatted ‘gills’. The iconic and aerodynamically powerful NACA air intakes cut into the side and doors of the Countach LPI 800-4 while the distinctive Periscopio lines running through the roof to the rear of the car.
The rear of the Countach LPI 800-4 is immediately recognizable from its distinctive inverted wedge shape, with the rear bumper featuring a lower, sleeker line, and the ‘hexagonita’ design shaping the three-unit rear light clusters. The LPI 800-4 sports the four-strong exhaust tailpipes of the Countach family, connected within the carbon fiber rear diffuser. Access for driver and passenger is of course via the infamous scissor doors, first introduced on the Countach and which have become a Lamborghini V12 signature.
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