Raging Bulls - Story of the Countach Vol. 1 - Issue N. 6 #RagingBulls

In the late 60s, Automobili Lamborghini took the world by storm with the Miura.

The Miura was widely acclaimed after its intruduction in 1966 and was a very succesful car that went as far as revolutionizing the concept of ‘supercar’, but by the early ‘70s it was starting to show its age, especially due to the arrival of new, more modern rivals, such as the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. As such, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided it was time to start working on a successor for the Miura.

The start of a new chapter in Lamborghini's history

Lamborghini’s chief engineer Paolo Stanzani and his staff, which included test driver Bob Wallace, assistant engineer Massimo Parenti and designer Marcello Gandini of Bertone, started working on the Miura’s successor, then known as “LP112“, in 1970.

Stanzani and Ferruccio Lamborghini agreed that the Miura’s successor required a mechanical design that enabled the greatest possible performance as well as a body that was both aerodynamically efficient and aesthetically daring, the same principles that had informed the Miura’s development and enabled its commercial success.

Despite Ferruccio’s preference for comfortable grand tourers, he recognized the commercial value of a more uncompromising sports car like the Miura and gave Stanzani’s team permission to further push boundaries with the LP112 project.

The resulting prototype incorporated successful aspects of the Miura, such as the rear mid-engine, rear wheel drive layout along with many new engineering and styling innovations, but at the same time many of the Miura’s design flaws were also addressed, improving high-speed stability and reducing lift-off oversteer as well as addressing the limited maintenance access, uneven weight distribution and cooling issues endemic to the Miura’s transverse engine layout.

The complete prototype took about a year of intensive development work.

An innovative design

In 1970, following the success of the Miura, Marcello Gandini and his team at Bertone were once again commissioned by Lamborghini to design and develop a body for the then-unnamed LP112. Chief engineer Paolo Stanzani supplied the design team with chassis information so that body design could proceed while the mechanical details of the prototype were finalized.

Following the Miura’s debut in 1966, Gandini had begun experimenting with a new, more angular and geometric design language in a series of concept cars for Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Lancia. In particular, the LP112 took a lot of styling cues from the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo and the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero; they were both entirely wedge-shaped, mid-engine designs with a low, flat front, truncated tail and angular details.

Both of these concept cars featured unconventional methods of entry into the passenger compartment, such as a the Stratos Zero’s hinged windshield and the Carabo’s doors which, hinged on the front, opened by rotating upwards. These ‘scissor doors’ attached to the vehicle structure at the front of the door using horizontal hinges, so that they lifted up and tilted forward when opened. The mechanism was assisted by gas struts, which supported the weight of the doors and smoothed the opening and closing motion. Gandini incorporated this door design as both a styling gesture and to facilitate entry, since car’s wide chassis and high and wide doorsills made entry using conventional doors difficult in narrow spaces. Conversely, care needed to be taken in opening the scissor doors under low ceilings. The Carabo’s scissor doors carried onto the LP112, and the cutting of the windshield and of the windows were also inspired by the Carabo.

The LP112’s bodywork was made with aluminum trapezoidal panels, also used in aeronautical constructions, mounted on a tubular steel frame. Although this construction was very expensive, it also guaranteed the construction of a frame that was both light and rigid. The lower parts of the bodywork were made of fiberglass, and the car featured pop-up headlights.

Shortly before the 1971 Geneva Auto Show, the finished chassis was shipped to Bertone where the prototype bodywork and interior was installed.

The shocking beginning of a legend

The prototype, now known as “Lamborghini Countach LP500“, was officially unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, where its unconventional design drew great public interest and extensive press coverage. The LP500 prototype had a crisp, wedge-shaped design that, compared to the Miura, was wide and very low but shorter in overall length.

The nose tapered sharply to a thin grille, an uninterrupted slope enabled by headlights in retractable housings that flipped down inside the body when not in use. There were no bumpers, aerodynamic spoilers, side mirrors and any other additions that would have interrupted the lines of Gandini’s design. Trapezoidal shapes appeared throughout the body, including in the windshield, side windows, door openings, hood and engine covers and taillights. Air was supplied to the engine and side-mounted radiators through louvered vents immediately behind the side windows, although later road testing quickly demonstrated these vents alone were inadequate to control engine temperatures.

In the following interview (Credit: Davide Cironi Drive Experience), the late Lamborghini chief engineer Paolo Stanzani explains why the Countach was born:

Just like the exterior, the interior was equally notable to contemporary audiences, as it incorporated various new technologies and bold styling decisions.
Gandini initially sketched a dashboard with all-digital readouts for the Countach, though this dashboard design was not fully realized in time for the 1971 Geneva Auto Show debut, the LP500 prototype instead using a conventional analog speedometer and tachometer, which however incorporated other innovations from Gandini’s original sketches, including aircraft or spaceship-inspired warning lights placed centrally on the steering column, within the arc of the steering wheel. One of these warning lights functioned similar to a modern cruise control system, illuminating when a set speed was exceeded. Another innovation was the inclusion of an on-board diagnostic system that displayed the status of the car’s individual subsystems superimposed on a schematic view of the entire car, located on the dashboard to the driver’s left.

Due to the poor rearward visibility inherent in the Countach design, a periscope was integrated into the passenger compartment roof, instead of a conventional rear-view mirror. This periscope system was obtained from Donnelly Mirrors, who had first developed it for an ESV project. Gandini also used a single-spoke steering wheel and deeply recessed bucket seats, which shared a stylized motif of segmented blocks. The low seating position, prominent transmission tunnel and wide door sills all contributed to the sensation of being inside a race car cockpit.

One of the LP500’s most iconic features is undoubtedly the scissors doors, which not only carried over to the production model, but also became a Lamborghini trademark, appearing on the Countach’s successors. Due to poor rearward visibility and the wide sills, many Countach drivers park by opening the door, sitting on the sill, and reversing into the parking spot while looking over the back of the car from outside.

The scissor doors made it difficult to exit the car following a rollover accident. Lamborghini engineers studied solutions to this problem including an easily removable “kick-out” windscreen or using explosive bolts to remove the doors following an accident, although neither were incorporated into the production Countach, which instead featured an axe located in the glove box, meant to be used to smash the windshield in case of a rollover accident.

The Countach's strong muscles

On the mechanical side, the LP500 was designed around the existing Lamborghini V12 engine, designed in 1963 by former Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, in a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout.
However, in contrast to the Miura’s transversely-mounted engine, the engine in the Countach was longitudinally-mounted, a solution that addressed cooling issues endemic to the previous Miura’s layout.

This was not an unprecedented layout for a V12, as it was already being used in the successful Ferrari P-series racing cars, such as the 330 P4, as well as the Ford GT40.

However, chief engineer Paolo Stanzani wanted to improve the weight distribution of the car even further and devised a new type of longitudinal layout that would avoid placing the mass of the transmission at the rear of the car. The resulting configuration had the output shaft at the front of the engine, immediately connecting through the clutch assembly to the transmission.

The transmission itself was a 5-speed manual with Porsche-type synchromesh and was mounted in the middle of the car between the two seats, directly below the gear lever, a position that didn’t require any complicated linkage. The driveshaft ran from the transmission through the engine’s oil sump to a differential at the rear.

This arrangement effectively sandwiched the length of the engine between the mid-mounted transmission and the rear-mounted differential. This configuration had numerous advantages over the Miura’s transverse engine, including an increase in stability from placing more mass near the car’s center, a shorter overall wheelbase, a more direct gear-shift linkage for easier and faster shifting, better cooling and easier maintenance access to engine components.

Stanzani’s engineering team wished to increase the Countach engine’s power over the maximum of 379 hp (374 hp) as seen on the Miura SV. The 3.9-litre version had been tuned to produce approximately 417–441 hp (412–434 bhp) in the experimental P400 Jota, but an engine of this specification was expensive to manufacture and was difficult to handle in normal city driving due to lack of low-RPM power.

Therefore, the engineers decided to increase the engine’s displacement to 4971 cm³, in order to extract more power while avoiding the usability problems of a race-tuned engine. This increase in displacement would however require a major redesign of the existing V12.

Lamborghini’s plan was to produce the 5.0-litre engine in time for series production and published specification sheets for the proposed production 5.0-litre engine at the 1971 debut of the prototype. Lamborghini reported this engine would generate 446 hp (440 bhp) at 7,400 rpm. One experimental engine was constructed by boring out a conventional 3929 cm³ engine block and was fitted to the Countach LP500 prototype for testing purposes. It incorporated many lightweight castings made from Elektron, an expensive magnesium alloy, with the purpose of saving weight. This engine, however, self-destructed during a road test by Bob Wallace in 1971. This made it clear that further revisions to the basic engine design were required to improve durability. The LP500 prototype was subsequently fitted with a 3929 cm³ engine for the remainder of pre-production testing.

The 5.0-lire engine was later shelved due to not only the aforementioned development problems but also, above all, due to the unfortunate economic situation in which the company was at that time.

The engine, gearbox and differential were mainly built from magnesium to reduce their weight.

A high-tech chassis

Paolo Stanzani and the Lamborghini engineering team developed an all-steel partial space frame chassis for the LP500 Countach prototype. This prototype chassis was constructed of both a steel sheet and square-section steel tubing, with wall thicknesses between 0.8–1.0 mm (0.031–0.039 in).

The front section primarily used stamped and spot-welded sheet steel, with certain areas stiffened by stamped ribs and welded reinforcement panels. Stiffening frames constructed of sheet steel and tubing extended through the center of the car, along both door sills and around the central transmission tunnel. The rear section of the chassis consisted of almost entirely square-section tubing and included diagonal bracing and multiple cross-members for strength.

This prototype chassis was constructed by Marchesi of Modena, which had produced chassis for earlier Lamborghini models.

The prototype chassis was stiffer and heavier than the Miura chassis. It weighed 107 kg (236 lb), while the Miura’s chassis only weighed 75 kg (165 lb). The additional weight was partially due to the lack of the lightening holes used in the Miura and partially due to the need to construct an extra-durable chassis for pre-production testing. In addition to the strength and stiffness improvements over the Miura design, engineers believed that greater use of steel tubing would result in a chassis that was easier for the factory to fabricate and easier to protect from corrosion.

Following testing of the LP500 prototype during 1971, Stanzani and his team decided to further revise the chassis design. The dimensions and layout were similar, but the steel sheet and square tube construction used in the prototype was entirely disregarded in favor of a full space frame constructed of welded round-section steel tubing.

Compared to the prototype, this design used a much more complex welded assembly of cross-braced tubular frames and was reinforced with sheet metal gussets in a few key areas. Tubes of 30 mm (1.2 in), 25 mm (0.98 in), and 15 mm (0.59 in) diameter were used, all with 1 mm (0.039 in) wall thickness, which resulted in a stiffer and, at the same time, lighter chassis, weighing 90 kg (198 lb). At the time, this construction technique was used in Formula One but was extremely advanced for a road-going automobile. Lamborghini’s engineers recognized that building a technologically advanced and visually complex chassis not only would have benefitted to the car’s performance, they also realized it would align well with Lamborghini’s marketing strategy and sell better than a conventional design.

The full space frame chassis was tested in a second Countach prototype and would be used basically unchanged on subsequent production cars.

Chassis fabrication added a significant amount to the cost of the car as each chassis required laborious hand-welding, first by Marchesi then again during final assembly at the Lamborghini factory. However, logistically this method of fabrication was relatively easy to incorporate into the low-volume, manually-skilled production line.

Stanzani had initially considered fabricating body panels from the lightweight alloy Avional, primarily used in aircraft construction, but found it expensive and difficult to obtain, so more conventional unstressed aluminum panels were used instead.

Prototypes used aluminum panels between 1-1.2 mm thick, which was increased to 1.5 mm (0.059 in) for the production models. The aluminum body panels were fabricated by Bertone. These panels were supported by thin steel frames welded to the main chassis. Once the panels were in place, factory workers would then hand-form them in order to adjust the final body shape, surface smoothness and gaps between panels. As the spaceframe chassis did not have an integrated floor panel, a separate fiberglass and aluminum panel was installed underneath the passenger compartment.

The story behind the name Countach

Since the Miura, Lamborghini car names are traditionally associated with famous bulls and bullfighting, but the Countach was one of the few cars that broke with the tradition. Its name had nothing to do with bullfighting, instead it originated from the word contacc (pronounced [kʊŋˈtɑtʃ]), an exclamation of astonishment in the Piedmontese language.

Marcello Gandini, the designer of the Countach, explained the origin of the name:

When we made cars for the car shows, we worked at night and we were all tired, so we would joke around to keep our morale up. There was a profiler working with us who made the locks. He was two meters tall with two enormous hands, and he performed all the little jobs. He spoke almost only Piedmontese, didn’t even speak Italian. Piedmontese is much different from Italian and sounds like French. One of his most frequent exclamations was ‘countach’, which literally means plague, contagion, and is actually used more to express amazement or even admiration, like ‘goodness’. He had this habit. When we were working at night, to keep our morale up, there was a jousting spirit, so I said we could call it Countach, just as a joke, to say an exaggerated quip, without any conviction. There nearby was Bob Wallace, who assembled the mechanics—we always made the cars operational. At that time you could even roll into the car shows with the car running, which was marvelous. So jokingly I asked Bob Wallace how it sounded to an Anglo-Saxon ear. He said it in his own way, strangely. It worked. We immediately came up with the writing and stuck it on. But maybe the real suggestion was the idea of one of my co-workers, a young man who said let’s call it that. That is how the name was coined. This is the only true story behind this word.

— Marcello Gandini, Not Just Bulls: the Creator Tells Us the Story Behind the Name Countach

In order to further distinguish the various Countach models, Lamborghini also adopted a system of alphanumeric designations. These designations begin with “LP”, an abbreviation of “longitudinale posteriore”, meaning “longitudinal rear” in Italian, followed by a three-digitnumber designating the engine’s displacement. Eventually, as in the Miura, “S” was added for later high performance variants.

The three prototypes

In total, three Countach prototypes were made.

The first one, the LP500, was displayed at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show and later used for pre-production testing and development by the factory. This car had many mechanical and styling differences compared to the production version.

It was painted Giallo Girasole (Sunflower Yellow) and closely followed Gandini’s original design, though over the course of the development process it was modified with the additional air inlets to improve engine cooling, most notably a pair of NACA ducts was cut behind the doors.

Various windshield wipers were also tested on this car. The 5.0 liter V12 engine initially fitted to the LP500 was destroyed during testing and replaced with a 3.9 liter V12, similar to the engine used on the production LP400 and adapted to the new specifications.

The LP500 prototype’s career ultimately ended at the MIRA facility in England, where it was destroyed in a crash test to gain European type approval, even though its construction method was significantly different from the later production vehicles.

The second prototype (chassis #1120001), originally painted red, featured a bodywork much closer to the production version’s, already incorporating the side NACA ducts and air intake boxes tested on the first prototype, though it incorporated some styling details from the LP500 that would not carry over into production, such as trapeziodal windows and a bumperless nose with a silver, recessed grille.

Unlike the LP500 prototype, this 2nd car was the first Countach to be fitted with the tubular spaceframe chassis that later would also be used on production models.

Despite featuring a 3.9-litre engine, contemporary press releases still designated it as an LP500, possibly because Lamborghini engineers still intended to use a 5.0-litre engine in the production version.

On this car, a test was performed with dual windscreen wipers, residing both to the left and right of the front windscreen, though this system proved to be inadequate under rain at high speeds.
This 2nd prototype was first shown at the 1973 geneva motor Show, later it was repainted green and was also shown at the 1973 Paris Motor Show.

In addition to appearing at motor shows, Lamborghini engineers used the second prototype for road testing and as a reference to create the wooden master pattern for all body panels. This car currently resides in the Lamborghini factory museum.

The third prototype (chassis #1120002) was the first Countach to be built entirely in the Lamborghini factory, with the sole exception of the chassis, which was built by Marchesi.

It is sometimes considered to be the first pre-production or first production LP400 Countach. This car had the finalized production LP400 body style, which was 13 centimetres (5.1 in) longer than the previous prototype bodies to increase interior space.

The trapezoidal side windows seen in the first prototypes were replaced with a three-panel design, which was easier to manufacture. The wheel arch shape was slightly changed to prevent the rear tires from rubbing when the suspension was compressed. To improve long-term durability, the thickness of the body sheet metal was increased from 1.2 mm to 1.5 mm and the suspension and gearbox mounting points were made from tubing with a greater wall thickness.

This first production prototype was finished in a bright yellow with natural brown upholstery; the dashboard was covered with dark brown suede.

This was also the car that would be featured in the factory folder and was shown at the 1974 Geneva Auto Show.

It took Lamborghini a total of three years to turn the LP500 prototype in a production road car, but by the time the car was ready Ferruccio Lamborghini, following a series of financial difficulties (read Issue N. 5 for more information), had sold the company to Swiss enterpreneurs Georges-Henri Rossetti and René Leimer and had left the company. The first production Countach, dubbed ‘LP400’, was going to be the first Lamborghini built without Ferruccio as the company leader. The future of Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini did not look as bright as the yellow Countach, but it was this single model that would keep the company alive over many troublesome years.

The first model, the LP400

The Countach entered production as the ‘Lamborghini Countach LP400’ with a 3929 cc (3.9 L) engine delivering 375 hp (370 bhp) at 8,000 rpm and 365 Nm of torque at 5,000 rpm.

Lamborghini claimed a top speed of 315 km/h (196 mph), which makes the LP400 the fastest among the various Countach models; as a matter of fact, even the QV introduced during the ‘80s had trouble keeping up with a finely tuned LP400.

Externally, little had changed from the final prototype except at the rear, where conventional lights replaced the futuristic light clusters of the prototype. The styling had become rather more aggressive than Gandini’s original conception, with the required large air scoops and vents to keep the car from overheating, but the overall shape was still very sleek.

The characteristic that has made this model famous is the characteristic cut on the roof, which became necessary while designing the car to make room for the periscope rear-view mirror, a solution that was later abandoned during industrialization. Nevertheless, the cut on the roof remained, and earned the Countach LP 400 the nickname “Periscopica”.

The LP400 was fitted with narrow 215 mm tries on 14-inch wheels, but their narrowness and the slick styling meant that this version had the lowest drag coefficient of any Countach model. The emblems at the rear simply read “Lamborghini” and “Countach”, with no engine displacement or valve arrangement markings as is found on later variants.

The first production Countach (chassis #1120002) left the factory on April 11, 1974 and was delivered to a customer in Milan.
By the end of 1977, the company had produced 151 Countach LP400s, with the last one (chassis #1120300), painted black with white interior, delivered to a Customer in Belgium on January 2, 1978.

Purists among the Lamborghini enthusiasts see the original LP400 Countach as the only ‘uncluttered’ model made of this exotic super car, with no wings, no wide wheels, just pure lines.

Today this first production model of the Countach is considered to be the most valuable; as a proof of that, in June 2014 a 1975 model sold for GB£953,500 at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed auction.

Below, an image gallery of the LP400 (Credit: RM Sotheby’s) and a video:

The Walter Wolf Countach

In 1975, Walter Wolf, a wealthy Canadian businessman and owner of the Wolf F1 Racing team in the 1970s, purchased an LP400; however, he was not satisfied with the LP400’s engine and asked Gianpaolo Dallara, the chief engineer of Lamborghini at that time, to bolt the spoiler from one of the Wolf team’s F1 cars to the Countach’s roof.
That didn’t really work, and the idea for a properly aerodynamic Countach was hatched.
Wolf asked Pirelli to develop the world’s first 345-series road tire; this would result in the Pirelli P7 low-profile tires, at the time the largest road tires ever made.

To be able to fully use the extra grip of these tires, Dallara had to return to Lamborghini and completely redesign the suspension of the Countach, because of the massive width of these tires it was necessary to keep them as horizontal as possible on the tarmac at all times.
To complete the exterior changes, four large fiberglass wheel arch extenders were installed, with the front ones connected by a deep chin spoiler.
Dallara also custom tuned the engine.

This first prototype, painted red, now belongs to Eiichi “Eddie” Okado, owner of a small Lamborghini specialist shop in Japan, who drives it regularly.

A second prototype, finished in a brilliant Bugatti light-blue, with natural leather upholstery, gold colored wheels and pin striping, featured a special V12 engine that was enlarged to 4.8-litres, after Wolf noted that his first prototype now had grip more than equal to engine power.

As with the first car, the wheel-arch extensions were black and this time the rear wing was electrically adjustable from within the cockpit. Like the first Wolf Countach, this car featured Walter Wolf signets and Canadian flags. This particular car was recently restored and is currently located in Germany.

A third prototype, painted dark/navy blue and fitted with the gold accenting that became a feature of the Wolf Racing livery and special Walter Wolf Racing hubcaps, had an even bigger 5.0-litre engine similar to the prototype LP500’s engine, which made nearly 500 hp. This car also featured double-disc Borg & Beck F1-type clutch and eight-caliper disc brakes, which were now fully adjustable from within the cockpit, and completely reworked suspension.
This car was displayed at the 1978 Geneva Motor Show as the first LP400 S, though it didn’t have the iconic rear wing, however Wolf did have it installed before he took delivery of it.

The third “Wolf Special” is now also located in Japan; it belongs to Shinjirō Fukuda, who is an enormous Walter Wolf fan and has had his Vector W8 and Maserati MC-12 painted in the Wolf Racing livery and also campaigns a Wolf-liveried Porsche 911 in the Japanese Porsche GT cup series, for which the entire team dons Wolf Racing branded coveralls.

There is no copyright infringement here, as Wolf gave his blessing to the effort when he visited Japan several years ago.

Below, an image gallery of Okado-san’s Walter Wolf Countach (Credit: Hagerty), plus a video of former Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni driving the 2nd car, as well of a video of Okado-san driving his own Wolf Countach:

The new, improved Countach LP400 S

A new, improved version of the Countach, dubbed “Lamborghini Countach LP400 S“ (also known as ‘Countach S’), was unveiled in 1978.
It featured many of the improvements tested on the Wolf cars, most notably the Pirelli P7 tires (205 mm at the front, 345 mm at the rear, both on 15-inch wheels) and the fiberglass wheel arch extensions, which gave the car the fundamental look it kept until the end of its production run, while also making the bodywork less aerodynamic. The previous LP400’s iconic cut on the roof was also eliminated.

At first, there was no rear wing option for the LP400 S, but following the popularity generated from the rear wing of the Walter Wolf Countach, Lamborghini was forced to make an optional V-shaped rear wing available; it was mounted over the rear deck and, while improving high-speed stability, it also reduced the top speed by at least 16 km/h (10 mph). Most owners ordered the car with the wing despite this disadvantage. At first it was a large wing mounted on two vertical fins, later two end plates were added at its outer limits. The LP400 S’ handling was improved by the wider tyres, which made the car more stable while cornering.

Originally, the LP400 S was fitted with the same engine as the previous LP400, a 3929 cc V12 with a claimed 375 hp and 45 mm Weber double body carburetors, though it was later detuned to 355 hp (350 bhp). Furthermore, US-spec models had to be federalized and power dropped even further to just 325 bhp.

The standard emblems (“Lamborghini” and “Countach”) were kept at the rear, but an angular “S” emblem was added after the “Countach” on the right side.

Production of the LP400 S can be split into three different series:

Series I

Series I cars can be identified by distinctive magnesium Campagnolo “Bravo” wheels with protruding hole edges, 45 mm (1.8 in) carburetors and a lowered suspension ride height, leading to the common nickname “lowbody”. Early series one cars used small Stewart-Warner dashboard gauges, which were changed to larger Jaeger versions halfway through 1979.

The very early 1978 cars had the original, unpadded LP400 steering wheel, while later cars used a different, padded style.

Only 50 Series I cars have been produced, making it the most desirable among the three Countach S series. The final chassis number of this series was #1121100.

Series II

Series II cars can be identified by their smooth, concave wheels and lowered (“lowbody”) suspension ride height.

The rims were changed due to the fact that the S1 LP400 S’s Campagnolo “Bravo” rims were about $2,000 each at the time, making them very expensive, so Lamborghini decided to replace them with cheaper aluminium Campagono wheels.

The Series II LP400 S is the most common among the various Countach S series, with a total of 105 cars made. The final chassis number of this series was #1121310.

Series III

Series III cars can be identified by their increased suspension ride height compared to S1 and S2 cars. The suspension was raised by three centimeters because many customers ended up damaging the deep front spoiler, hitting the sidewalk with it. The usable interior space was also increased by 3 cm (1.2 in)

82 Series III cars were produced. The first chassis number of this series was #1121312 and the final chassis number was #1121468

In total, 327 Countach Ss were made.

Below, an image gallery of a Countach LP400 S Series II (Credit: RM Sotheby’s) and a video:

Walter Wolf (born 5 October 1939) is a Canadian oil-drilling equipment supplier who in the early 1970s made a fortune from the North Sea oil business and decided to join the world of Formula One (F1) motor racing.

Wolf was born in Graz, Austria. His mother was a Slovene from Lower Styria, while his father was an Austrian. After the Anschluss, the family moved to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Wolf spent his childhood in Maribor, Slovenia. After his father returned from a Soviet military internment camp in 1951, the family moved to Wuppertal in West Germany. In 1958, they moved to Canada.

In Canada, Wolf became a renowned businessman. At first his funds helped prop up Frank Williams’ fledgling F1 team before Williams left in 1977 to form Williams Grand Prix Engineering (later the Williams F1) team. Wolf’s team continued as Walter Wolf Racing and before being wound up in 1979 managed to win three F1 Grands Prix.

In 1993 Wolf helped finance the unsuccessful American fire apparatus company Firewolf Industries, housed in a former Piper Aircraft factory building near Lakeland, Florida, US. The actor and vintage car collector L. Christian Mixon worked as a sales manager for this company briefly in 1993.

Walter Wolf was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1998.

In 2008, he was involved in the so-called Patria affair, a corruption scandal involving the Finnish company Patria. The Finnish broadcasting company YLE’s investigative program MOT made claims that he was a mediator in the paying of bribes to Slovenian government officials, including Prime Minister Janez Janša. Both Wolf and Janša rejected all accusations as being untrue. Finnish police issued an arrest warrant against him, but so far he has not been apprehended. (from Wikipedia)

End

The first volume of Raging Bulls - Story of the Countach ends here. In the next volume we’ll look at the Countach’s evolution during the ‘80s, starting from the 1982 LP5000S all the way to the 1988 25th Anniversary.

The Countach had a huge impact on car design and inspired many of the cars that came in the following years. Its characteristic wedge-shaped design was adopted by other famous cars such as the Fiat X1/9 targa roadster and the successful Lancia Stratos rally car, which won three World Rally Champoinships between 1974 and 1976, and also popularized the cab-forward design that is still used by most supercars of today.
The Countach was, and still is, an icon.

In 2004, Japanese manga writer Haruto Omezawa started writing a manga dedicated entirely to the Countach. Said manga, titled simply “Countach“ (“カウンタック”), was published until 2012 and has been serialized in 28 volumes by Young Jump.

The Countach was also featured in Circuit no Ōkami, a shōnen adventure and racing manga serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from January 1975 to June 1979, written by Satoshi Ikezawa.

Plus, the Countach appeared in all of the Cannonball Run movies.

Thank you for reading this article! Raging Bulls will return soon with Issue N.7! Don't miss it!