Lamborghini Countach
It's from 1974, before you were born.
- Iconic generation
- 1974 Countach LP400
- Origin
- Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy
- Designer
- Marcello Gandini (Bertone)
- Engine
- 3.9L mid-mounted V12
- Power
- 370 hp (375 PS)
- 0–60 mph
- approx. 5.4 sec
- Top speed
- approx. 175 mph (280 km/h)
- Production
- 1974–1978 (158 LP400s built)
About
As of 2026, it's 52 years old.
If the Miura was beautiful, the Countach was insane, and that was entirely the point. Legend has it the name comes from a Piedmontese exclamation roughly meaning 'wow!' (or something far less printable), supposedly blurted out by a workman who first saw it. It was the right reaction.
Marcello Gandini abandoned curves entirely and went full wedge: a low, sharp, angular doorstop of a car with scissor doors that opened skyward, an engine you couldn't see out of, and styling so aggressive it looked like it had arrived from the future. The early LP400 'Periscopo' is the purest version, before wings and wide arches piled on.
It was famously impractical, you reversed by sitting on the door sill, visibility was a punchline, and it was hot, loud, and difficult, but none of that mattered. The Countach became the definitive supercar poster, plastered on the bedroom wall of approximately every child of the 1970s and 80s.
For two decades it was the benchmark for outrageous, the car that defined what 'supercar' meant to an entire generation. It wasn't sensible. It wasn't easy. It was a V12-powered fantasy made real, and it remains the most uncompromising poster car ever built.
Lamborghini Countach through the years
Concept shocks Geneva
The LP500 Countach prototype debuts with radical scissor doors and a wedge shape.
LP400 production begins
The purest, cleanest Countach reaches the road as the Miura's successor.
LP400 S adds arches
Fender flares and wide tyres give the Countach its muscular, poster-ready look.
5000 QV
A larger 5.2L V12 adds serious power to the ageing wedge.
25th Anniversary
The final and most-produced Countach sends the icon off in style.
