In a matter of days, during the 2021 edition of Monterey Car Week, Lamborghini will unveil their latest ‘few-off’ limited edition, this time an homage to the 50th anniversary of the legendary Countach prototype that was unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, a car that arguably changed the future for Lamborghini, a company that didn’t even exist for a decade at that time as Automobili Lamborghini SpA was founded on May 7. 1963, but already had the automotive work of art in production, the Lamborghini Miura, by many considered as the first supercar in history.
The bright yellow Lamborghini Countach was introduced in March 1971, with a massive 5-Liter V12 engine, a digital dashboard, and for the first time on a Lamborghini, upward-opening doors inspired by the Carabo concept at that time, little did people know back in the Seventies, these doors would become a Lamborghini trademark on every single V12 flagship model to be built since then, it would take Automobili Lamborghini SpA another three years to get the Countach ready for production, during which time the engine was downsized to 4-liter which explains the LP400 designation for the 1974 Countach production version.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lamborghini Countach we will be seeing a new supercar being unveiled at Pebble Beach in a few days, but as usual, Lamborghini has been showing teasers on their social platforms already, from those we already gather the car will be named the Countach LPi800-4, which means we are looking at an Ibrido model (hence the i in the LPi designation) with a power output of 800 hp, and while people mention the Sian underpinnings will be used, it seems they lowered the overall power output for this Countach homage.
As we know, the Lamborghini Sian was the previous ‘few-off’ model based on the Aventador, and the first car from Sant’Agata with a Supercapacitor, making it effectively the first hybrid Lamborghini production model, albeit only 63 coupe and 19 roadsters, but strangely enough, the Sian had a total of 819 hp, 34 hp from the electric motor and 789 hp from the NA V12 engine … so is the engine for the Countach LPi800-4 detuned then?
Perhaps the new Countach LPi800-4 goes with the basic Aventador SVJ engine with 770 hp and adds 30 hp of electric power to get to a total of 800, or it’s just a marketing thing and this new limited edition takes the entire drivetrain from the Sián, with her 819 hp, and they just call it LPi800-4 because 819 would sound strange?
Rumor has it only 112 units of this new Countach LPi800-4 will be made, as a reference to the internal designation of the Countach back in the Seventies, being LP112, and it will only be available as a coupe, no Roadster because there wasn’t a factory-built Countach Spyder or Roadster either … pricing? Expected to be between €2,500,000 and €3,000,000 … I for one can’t wait to see the entire car in a few days when they unveil her officially.