[imagesource: Lamborghini]
Meghan Markel is 40, Barack Obama is 60, and right in between is Lamborghini, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Countach.
Rumours have been whispered here and there for months about how Lamborghini would be releasing a new limited-run hypercar inspired by the Countach, a make that debuted in 1971.
Now, to commemorate the anniversary, the car manufacturers are making the news somewhat louder with a few official teasers of the retro Countach tribute.
A short video makes up the first teaser, including snippets of the original Countach, ’80s synth music, and a voiceover speaking directly at anyone who had a picture of the iconic sports car on their wall as a kid.
The video ends with the announcement that “the new Lamborghini Countach is coming”:
We make dreams come true. We did it with the classic Countach in the 1970s. And we’re doing it again. The new Lamborghini Countach is coming. #Lamborghini #Countach pic.twitter.com/nXctgIuyqe
— Lamborghini (@Lamborghini) August 9, 2021
The other teaser is a still image of the new car under a cover (the image up top) with the tagline “the future is our legacy,” a sentence that The Verge finishes with “whatever that means”.
We can’t see the car, clearly, but images allegedly pulled from the customer-only Unica app showed off some vents and a name: Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4.
The Road Show by CNET unpacks this name:
Lamborghini has used the LPI moniker once before, on the hybrid Asterion concept from 2014. LPI stands for Longitudinale Posteriore Ibrido, meaning the car will have a longitudinally-mounted engine in the middle of the car with a hybrid system.
Initial rumours pointed to the new Countach using the same V12 and supercapacitor hybrid system as the limited-run Sian, and that’s the likeliest setup. But that car didn’t use the LPI designation, so there’s a chance the new Countach could use a full hybrid system, maybe even a plug-in-hybrid setup — the Asterion did, after all, and so will the Aventador’s replacement in a few years.
This would be a great way to preview that car’s powertrain. The 800 in the name refers to how much power the car will make in metric PS, so about 789 horsepower, while the 4 means it will be all-wheel drive.
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If you want to order, you better be quick:
Lamborghini has apparently been taking orders for the new Countach for months now, so this won’t be just a one-off special.
My guess is that Lamborghini will make 112 units of the new Countach, as the original car’s codename was LP112, with a price tag of at least a few million dollars each.
A few million dollars as in somewhere around the $2,6 million and $3,6 million marks, based on other cars from the brand.
The new and improved Countach will make its official debut during Monterey Car Week, which kicks off later this week.
[sources:theverge&roadshowcnet]
