There are some cars that everybody knows. Doesn’t matter if they don’t know where their dipstick is or when their tyres were changed, they’ll know some cars. You know the thing: a 911, a Mini, a Beetle, a Range Rover, the Ford Fiesta. The icons big and small. And there’s one more we’d add to that list: the Lamborghini Countach.
Alright, maybe not everybody would know it’s a Countach. But they’d know it was a Lamborghini. After the relatively dainty Miura this was the car that really established Lambo as the purveyor of mad, bad, unabashed supercars. Doesn’t matter if you know the Countach from Wolf of Wall Street, from Top Gear, or from car magazines. Everyone knows a Countach. Everyone, by and large, loves a Countach as well.
Its significance in the Lamborghini story is now being reflected in values. Supercars this wild, with manual gearboxes and nat-asp V12s and tyres as wide as they are tall, won’t happen again. If you’re 50 now, you were born at the same sort of time as a Countach; if you’re mid-30s you were born at the end of production. This is still the supercar for a lot of people, because it was on sale for so long (Lambo couldn’t replace it until the Chrysler cash), and now there’s a clamour for the best ones.
The early, very pretty Periscopos have been in demand for a while, but now they all are. As this is PH, you’ll probably know it as a 25th Anniversary, launched in 1988 to mark Lambo’s quarter century. For a while derided as the Countach that jumped the shark, all spoilers and silliness, it’s now being viewed in a slightly different light. Not just because Horacio Pagani worked on the composite bits and Sandro Munari helped on the chassis. But because the best Lamborghinis always come at the end of the production run; late Huracans and Aventadors even were very different beasts from the first ones. So with all the learnings from QV, 5000 S and so on, this should be the best of the bunch.
Especially as it’s barely been used. As a 1990 car, it’s one of the very last Countaches to leave Sant’Agata; the very final one, driven on PH in 2022, was chassis 12085 - this is 12031.Though ordered new in the UK, this Countach spent the first quarter century of its life in Japan, where it covered just a few hundred kilometres. Since then, and in the UK, it’s had just two more owners and not very much more driving. So here we have an unrestored Countach with barely 1,000 miles on it. Even by Lamborghini standards, that makes it a very special thing.
Crucially, too, money has been spent in recent years, so hopefully the stuff that can seize up through little use is in good order. To this day nothing will quite draw a crowd like a Countach, especially a red one. And if LHD is a bit scary for the UK, it makes this one perfect for a European road trip. The ideal thing for a factory visit, perhaps…
SPECIFICATION | LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Engine: 5,167cc, V12
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 455@7,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 369@5,200rpm
MPG: 12.6mpg
CO2: Lots!
Year registered: 1990
Recorded mileage: 1,791km
Price new: c. £90,000
Yours for: £575,000
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