Lamborghini has unveiled the Countach LPI 800-4 – a limited edition paying homage to the legendary wedge-shaped Countach which recently celebrated 50th years since it was first revealed to the world as a revolutionary design and technology rule-breaker.

The LPI 800-4 is instantly recognisable as the elevated descendant the original Countach design that became the poster car of the 1980s and a symbol of automotive cool. The Countach moniker – a fitting expression of surprise and wonder in Piedmontese dialect and pronounced ‘Coon-tach’ – is one of very few Lamborghini model names not connected to bulls.

The Countach’s distinctive silhouette with the essential line running from front to rear, sharp angles and lines and idiosyncratic wedge shape, innovated modern super sports design as well as future Lamborghini models. The Countach LPI 800-4 develops the characteristic lines of the Countach’s five models over nearly 20 years, concentrated into the purest realisation of iconic automotive design.

The final outline is pure and uncluttered, with references to the first LP 500 and LP 400 production version. Giving the LPI 800-4 a distinctive Countach face, inspiration was taken from the Quattrovalvole edition in the assertive lines of the front bonnet with long, low rectangular grille and headlights, as well as in the wheel arches with their hexagonal theme. The sharp inclination of the greenhouse adopts the straight lines redolent of the original Countach, adjoining the powerful, clean front-to-rear line. There is no fixed rear wing outside the pure lines, and the airscoops are integrated fluidly in the strong shoulders of the car, embellished with the distinctive Countach slatted ‘gills’. The iconic and aerodynamically powerful NACA air intakes cut into the side and doors of the LPI 800-4 while the distinctive Periscopio lines running through the roof to the rear of the car, particularly distinctive if viewed from above, appear to float towards the rear of the car.

The rear of the Countach LPI 800-4 is immediately recognisable from its distinctive inverted wedge shape, with the rear bumper featuring a lower, sleeker line, and the ‘hexagonita’ design shaping the three-unit rear light clusters. The LPI 800-4 sports the four-strong exhaust tail pipes of the Countach family, connected within the carbon fibre rear diffuser. Access for driver and passenger is of course via the infamous scissor doors, first introduced on the Countach and that have become a Lamborghini V12 signature.

When it comes to power, its aspirated V12 engine combined with Lamborghini’s hybrid technology, the new LPI 800-4 retains the inimitable V12 experience and sound from its Longitudinale Posteriore (LP) mounted powerplant combined with the hybrid (I) technology developed for the Sián. Delivering 814 hp as maximum combined power (rounded at 800 in the name) from its aspirated powerplant (780 hp) and electric motor (34 hp) to its permanent four-wheel drive transmission, the LPI 800-4 produces peak Lamborghini performance of 0-62 mph in just 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 220mph.

Produced in a run of 112 units, the number denotes the ‘LP 112’ internal project name used during the original Lamborghini Countach’s development. All 112 examples have already been sold.

Return of the Countach