The Lamborghini Countach was a mid-engined sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design popularized, but did not pioneer, the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance supercars. The "cabin-forward" design concept, which pushes the passenger compartment forward in order to accommodate a larger engine, was also popularized by the Countach.

In 2004, Sports Car International named this car number three on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s, and it was listed as number ten on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

Name

The word countach ( ) is an exclamation of astonishment in the local Piedmontese language - generally used by men on seeing an extremely beautiful woman.Countach LP500 While the term is often considered untranslatable into English, it is essentially equivalent to the British lager lout verbalization "Fwwaaaa".Fact: date=July 2008 Or, it can also be considered the verbal equivalent of a wolf-whistle.Fact: date=July 2008

The Countach name stuck when Nuccio Bertone first saw "Project 112" in his studio.Fact: date=July 2008 The prototype was introduced to the world at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. Most previous Lamborghini car names were associated with bulls and bullfighting.

Styling

The doors, a Countach trademark, were of a 'scissors' fashion—hinged at the front with horizontal hinges, so that the doors lifted up and tilted forwards. This was partly for style, but just as much because the width of the car made conventional doors impossible to use in an even slightly confined space. Care needed to be taken, though, in opening the doors with a low roof overhead. (With the car's poor rear visibility and wide sills, this led to drivers adopting a method of reversing the car for parking by opening the door, sitting on the sill and reversing while looking over the back of the car from outside.)

Aerodynamics, however, were still unfortunately unable to match the sleek looks of the car.Fact: date=May 2008

The pure style of the prototype was progressively enhanced or cluttered (depending on one's point of view) by the evolution of the car to improve its performance, handling, tractability, and ability to meet mandated requirements. This began with the first production model, which included several vents which were found to be necessary to cool the engine adequately. These included the iconic NACA duct on the door and rear fender of each side of the car. The car design changes ended with a large engine vent directly behind the driver, reducing the rearview. Later additions, including fender flares, spoilers, carburetor covers, and bumpers, progressively changed the aesthetic values of the car.