It seems a lot of people like the concept of a Barchetta, back in 1992 Lamborghini unveiled their prototype of a Diablo Roadster, with a very low windshield and a ‘tunnel’ between the buttress behind the headrests through which the driver could see traffic behind the car in the rearview mirror that was actually fitted on top of the low windshield, by 1995 the actual production version of the Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster was introduced, with a full windshield.
In 2005 Lamborghini repeated this with the Concept S, this time based on the Gallardo from 2003, the Concept S also featured a very low windshield, but this time a section of the body was fitted between the seats, effectively dividing the cockpit into two sections, the rearview mirror was actually hidden, and came up from this divider electronically when needed. Later that same year the beautiful Gallardo Spyder was unveiled in Frankfurt.
Lamborghini continued this path in 2012 with the absolutely stunning Aventador J, a one-off Barchetta version of the 2011 Lamborghini Aventador, but this time they actually sold their concept to one lucky customer, making the Aventador J the first one-off from Sant’Agata, something they repeated with the SC18 in 2018 and again in 2020 with the new SC20 that was recently unveiled, but while the Aventador J was built by Lamborghini and subsequently sold, both the SC18 and SC20 were ordered by a customer, and only then it was built by Squadra Corse after a design by Centro Stile.
Only a few days ago we saw a YouTube channel present a Lamborghini Huracán Aperta, effectively an RWD Spyder they completely cut the front windshield from, making it a V10 powered Barchetta, by adding a supercharger, power was boosted to 840hp … so what if someone would take
This is exactly what Jon Sibal was thinking when he saw the official press photos for the Lamborghini SC20, so he created his very own impression of a Countach Speedster by removing the front windshield and the roof … he even put an air-ride suspension on her to slam her down to the street.
While I don’t think anyone would be tempted to cut up a real Lamborghini Countach, this might actually look really good, and judging from the renders, Jon Sibal used the Quattrovalvole for his creation, built between 1985 and 1988, a total of 610 units left the factory doors, making it the second most built Countach model (the 25th Anniversary reached 657 units) … so it would make sense to take a QV for this process.
While Jon Sibal calls her the Countach Speedster, I think Countach Barchetta doesn’t sound too bad either … or if we consider the naming for the SC20, and considering this Countach could have been built in 1988, why not call it the SC88 … but then again, there was no Squadra Corse back in 1988, but it’s still fun to think about this.
We will probably never see a Countach Speedster or Barchetta in real life, but I have already seen convertible versions of a Countach replica, so that might be another possibility.
