A Five-Time Le Mans Winner Had Never Driven a Countach. Then Lamborghini Handed Him the Keys for 1,000 Kilometers.

Two museum cars, one demanding rally, and a surprising choice of driver.

Lamborghini handed Emanuele Pirro, a five-time Le Mans winner who had never driven a Countach, the keys to the very last 25th Anniversary to roll off the production line and pointed him toward a 1,000-kilometer rally across central Italy.

The Countach's reputation versus Pirro's reality

The Countach is universally worshipped on bedroom walls yet widely assumed to be miserable to drive, with owners describing the experience as a constant contradiction of uncomfortable seating paired with an intoxicating engine.

The closing chapter of Lamborghini's analog era

The Countach 25th Anniversary was the final evolution of a design that first appeared in 1974, and every V12 supercar Lamborghini built afterward added layers of electronic mediation between driver and machine.

Lamborghini's overlooked grand tourer enters the rally

Gerald Kahlke, Lamborghini's Head of Communication, drove a 1973 Jarama GTS, a front-engine V12 grand tourer built for covering long distances in comfort rather than setting lap records.

Six days from Rome to Modena, with circuits in between

The 2020 Modena Cento Ore alternated timed hillclimb stages on closed public roads with circuit laps at Magione, Mugello, and Imola, none of them gentle on modern race cars, let alone museum pieces.

Concours lawns versus competitive rallying

Lamborghini entered museum cars into a competitive rally alongside other entrants and let them be driven hard, rather than restoring them for concours judging or offering curated track days with modern safety nets.

From the MUDETEC museum to the open road

Lamborghini pulled the Countach 25th Anniversary and the Jarama GTS out of its MUDETEC museum in Sant'Agata Bolognese and entered them in the 2020 Modena Cento Ore, a six-day rally covering 1,000 kilometers between Rome and Modena.

Pirro's verdict after hundreds of kilometers

Pirro called the Countach powerful with pure sensations, never filtered by electronic aids, and surprisingly comfortable, a meaningful assessment from a driver whose frame of reference includes decades of professional seat time in purpose-built race cars.

The last entirely analog Lamborghini flagship

The Anniversario represents the last moment Lamborghini's flagship was entirely analog, with no traction control, no ABS, and no power steering standing between the driver and a 5.2-liter V12 producing 420 horsepower.

The Jarama's quiet case for collector attention

Ferrari's front-engine GTs from the same era, the 365 GTC/4 and the Daytona, command enormous collector attention and auction prices, while the Jarama remains comparatively obscure despite sharing its V12 DNA with the Countach.

1,000 kilometers of proof that museum cars can still compete

Both Lamborghinis completed the rally in excellent condition, and entering them in a demanding multi-day event reinforced Lamborghini's philosophy more effectively than any marketing campaign could.