The Motor Gallery
Gallery I, 1970sMarcello Gandini drew a wedge and the genre rewrote itself.
Side profileNo curve without intention. No surface without a reason.
Road and Track, Feb 1976“The fastest car we have ever tested.”
Scissor doorAn idea so strange that every supercar since has tried to inherit it.
Next ExhibitThe scissor door opens onto the 1980s.Enter Porsche 959 →
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1970s · Exhibit
Lamborghini Countach
The wedge that redefined the supercar silhouette.
Lamborghini Countach · 1974–1990 · Sant'Agata Bolognese
Produced
1974 – 1990
Engine
3.9–5.2 L V12, mid-mounted
Top speed
≈ 295 km/h
Units built
1,983
The Exhibit
Lamborghini
Countach

Revealed in 1971 as the LP500 concept and produced from 1974, the Countach crystallised a new language for the supercar: scissor doors, knife-edge surfaces, and a mid-mounted V12 placed longitudinally — giving the car its full name, Longitudinale Posteriore.

Marcello Gandini's drawing rejected the sensuous curves of the Miura that came before it. Where the Miura flowed, the Countach cut. The cabin perched ahead of the engine, the nose dropped to the road, the tail splayed into intakes that fed twelve hungry cylinders.

Across nearly two decades of production, the Countach progressed from the pure LP400 through the widened LP500 S, the four-valve Quattrovalvole, and the thirtieth-anniversary 25th Anniversary edition. Each revision added flare and horsepower; each compromised a little of Gandini's pristine original.

The written primary source for this gallery is "Lamborghini Countach Road Test." Road & Track, February 1976..1

Tier 1 · Primary

Primary Source Artifacts

02 artifacts
First page of Road & Track's February 1976 Countach road test, digitized by Curbside Classic.
Figure 1

First page of Road & Track's February 1976 Countach road test, digitized by Curbside Classic.

Road & Track, "Lamborghini Countach Road Test," February 1976, via Curbside Classic. (Fair use, magazine page scan) [Source]2

Second page of the Road & Track February 1976 Countach road test with specifications and instrumented-test data.
Figure 2

Second page of the Road & Track February 1976 Countach road test with specifications and instrumented-test data.

Road & Track, "Lamborghini Countach Road Test," February 1976, page 2, via Curbside Classic. (Fair use, magazine page scan) [Source]3

Tier 1 · Secondary

Secondary Source Artifacts

06 artifacts
Hero image from Chris Perkins' "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive.
Figure 3

Hero image from Chris Perkins' "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive.

Chris Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," *The Drive*, September 19, 2016. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]4

Editorial inline image 1 from Perkins' Countach article, illustrating the wedge-era design language.
Figure 4

Editorial inline image 1 from Perkins' Countach article, illustrating the wedge-era design language.

Chris Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive, 2016, inline image 1. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]5

Editorial inline image 2 showing aerodynamic development detail referenced in the Perkins article.
Figure 5

Editorial inline image 2 showing aerodynamic development detail referenced in the Perkins article.

Chris Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive, 2016, inline image 2. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]6

Editorial inline image 3 documenting the Countach's prototype evolution.
Figure 6

Editorial inline image 3 documenting the Countach's prototype evolution.

Chris Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive, 2016, inline image 3. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]7

Editorial inline image 4 from the Perkins article.
Figure 7

Editorial inline image 4 from the Perkins article.

Chris Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive, 2016, inline image 4. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]8

A 1976 Countach LP400 Periscopica as featured in The Drive's coverage, the exact specification Road & Track tested.
Figure 8

A 1976 Countach LP400 Periscopica as featured in The Drive's coverage, the exact specification Road & Track tested.

The Drive, *1976 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopica*, featured in Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach," The Drive, 2016. (Fair use, editorial photograph) [Source]9

Tier 2 · magazine

Magazine & Press Coverage

01 artifact
Pirelli factory advertising poster of the Countach in top-down view, showing the car's wedge silhouette and the P7 tires developed for it, a period primary source for how the Countach was marketed.
Figure 9

Pirelli factory advertising poster of the Countach in top-down view, showing the car's wedge silhouette and the P7 tires developed for it, a period primary source for how the Countach was marketed.

Pirelli, *Countach Top View Poster*, April 1986, Wikimedia Commons. (Public domain) [Source]10

Tier 2 · celebrity-owner

Designers, Builders, and Owners

05 artifacts
Walter Wolf with his first Countach LP400 Speciale (chassis 1120148), the red-on-black racing-livery car Wolf commissioned Lamborghini to build as the first private owner's special. The Wolf cars pioneered the wide-body, flared-arch, rear-wing aesthetic that would define the LP400S production car.
Figure 10

Walter Wolf with his first Countach LP400 Speciale (chassis 1120148), the red-on-black racing-livery car Wolf commissioned Lamborghini to build as the first private owner's special. The Wolf cars pioneered the wide-body, flared-arch, rear-wing aesthetic that would define the LP400S production car.

Walter Wolf with his Countach LP400 Speciale, c. 1976, via LamboCars. (Fair use, educational, period photograph) [Source]11

The white 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary (chassis KLA12722) driven by Leonardo DiCaprio in *The Wolf of Wall Street* (2013), auctioned by RM Sotheby's in December 2023 for $1.655 million, a record for the 25th Anniversary specification.
Figure 11

The white 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary (chassis KLA12722) driven by Leonardo DiCaprio in *The Wolf of Wall Street* (2013), auctioned by RM Sotheby's in December 2023 for $1.655 million, a record for the 25th Anniversary specification.

RM Sotheby's, *1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary from The Wolf of Wall Street*, December 2023 auction catalog. (Fair use, educational, auction catalog photo) [Source]12

Nuccio Bertone with the Countach and its predecessor, the Miura, the two Lamborghinis his firm designed that defined the supercar idiom.
Figure 12

Nuccio Bertone with the Countach and its predecessor, the Miura, the two Lamborghinis his firm designed that defined the supercar idiom.

Unknown photographer, *Nuccio Bertone with the Countach and Miura*, c. 1985, Wikimedia Commons. (Public domain) [Source]13

Carrozzeria Bertone founder Nuccio Bertone in front of the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Countach, two of his firm's landmark wedge-era designs.
Figure 13

Carrozzeria Bertone founder Nuccio Bertone in front of the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Countach, two of his firm's landmark wedge-era designs.

Jesse Alexander, *Nuccio Bertone with the Stratos and Countach*, c. 1974, Wikimedia Commons. (Public domain) [Source]14

Period portrait of Marcello Gandini, the Bertone designer who penned the Countach LP500 prototype and LP400 production car.
Figure 14

Period portrait of Marcello Gandini, the Bertone designer who penned the Countach LP500 prototype and LP400 production car.

Unknown photographer, *Marcello Gandini in 1976*, 1976, Wikimedia Commons. (Public domain) [Source]15

Tier 2 · schematics

Design & Engineering

01 artifact
The Countach LP500 prototype, the yellow Bertone-designed car unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, reconstructed by Lamborghini. This is the design-schematic form of the car that Gandini drew.
Figure 15

The Countach LP500 prototype, the yellow Bertone-designed car unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, reconstructed by Lamborghini. This is the design-schematic form of the car that Gandini drew.

Dave Hamster, *Lamborghini Countach LP500 Prototype*, 2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. (CC BY 2.0) [Source]16

Footnotes

  1. "Lamborghini Countach Road Test," Road & Track, February 1976.
  2. Road & Track, "Lamborghini Countach Road Test," Feb. 1976.
  3. Road & Track, "Lamborghini Countach Road Test," Feb. 1976, p. 2.
  4. Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach."
  5. Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach."
  6. Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach."
  7. Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach."
  8. Perkins, "5 Things You Didn't Know About the Lamborghini Countach."
  9. The Drive, 1976 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopica.
  10. Pirelli, Countach Top View Poster.
  11. Walter Wolf with Countach LP400 Speciale, c. 1976, LamboCars archive.
  12. RM Sotheby's, Wolf of Wall Street Countach 25th Anniversary.
  13. Unknown photographer, Nuccio Bertone with the Countach and Miura.
  14. Alexander, Nuccio Bertone with the Stratos and Countach.
  15. Unknown photographer, Marcello Gandini in 1976, 1976, Wikimedia Commons.
  16. Hamster, Lamborghini Countach LP500 Prototype.
Next exhibit
Porsche 959 →
A road-legal prototype that invented the modern supercar.