2022 Lamborghini Countach: the rebirth of a halo car
The Lamborghini Countach has been a legendary supercar since it came out in the 80s. The sharp, boxy design has been a poster car in many rooms; I have seen old photos of my father in his room with a Countach poster in the background.
Although the new Countach reboot does not look much like the old angular variant (Lamborghini came a long way from reusing Nissan 300ZX headlights and being bound to use straight body lines because they were financially struggling to make the design rounder), Lamborghini has paid homage by keeping enough cues from the old car.
Lamborghini announced the new Countach as a special edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the halo car. Limited to only 112 models, the LPI 800-4 Countach is loosely based on an Aventador. The taillight design has probably been adapted from the existing Lamborghini Sian; what makes the new Countach a "Countach" is the portrayal of the old angular design but in a more refined, modernized way.
The iconic back panel fins and wheel design is there, the headlight design is the same, rectangular box, but with more features and not borrowed from Nissan, and the engine is still a V12 but with a hybrid system (not a 3.9L anymore, but a 6.5L), which pushes almost 700 kW where 0-100 km is in about 2.8 seconds; not too shabby.
"The Countach not only embodies the design and engineering tenet of Lamborghini but represents our philosophy of reinventing boundaries," says Stephan Winkelmann, current CEO of Automobili Lamborghini. The homologation to the old Countach has indeed been done tastefully, perhaps can be another poster car for the coming generation. Currently priced at 2.6 million dollars, sales of the car will start in early 2022.
The new Countach might not be priced sensibly, but when this amount of money is spent on a car, it's not just a "supercar" anymore; it's rather an art piece with four wheels.