WATCH: Lamborghini reconstructs 1971 Countach LP 500

Lamborghini recently commissioned a passionate reconstruction of the very first Countach, the LP 500, for a particular “important collector.”

It took Lamborghini Polo Storico, the center dedicated to classic Lamborghinis and the preservation of the historical heritage of the House of the Raging Bull, over 25,000 hours of work to complete the one-of-a-kind commission.

The Italian luxury sports car maker has released a series of short clips dubbed “The Wait” on its official YouTube. These clips highlight the development of the restoration project culminating in one final video titled “The Countach LP 500 is back!” You can check it out here.

“The Countach reinvented high-performance cars and it became an icon in terms of stylistic language that even today, after decades, still inspires contemporary Lamborghinis. Bringing the reconstruction of the first Countach to the concept class of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, in the year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this model, is something extraordinary because it allows us to admire the legendary 1971 LP 500 in person for the first time in so many years,” said Automobili Lamborghini Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann.

The Countach LP 500 was first introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971. Unfortunately, after three years in development, the LP 500 was sacrificed in crash tests in March 1974 and then disappeared.

After 43 years, a classic car aficionado and important Lamborghini customer asked Polo Storico if there was any possibility of creating a reconstruction of the Countach LP 500. And while the legendary LP 500 was indeed a popular model, references to the vehicle were limited to only the photographs taken during its time.

Lamborghini Polo Storico says that it took a month just to acquire all the available materials to allow the automotive brand’s restoration department to make an in-depth analysis.

“The collection of documents was crucial. There had been so much attention paid to all the details of the car, to their overall consistency and to the technical specifications,” explained Polo Storico Head of Service Giuliano Cassataro.

Polo Storico started with the platform chassis followed by the bodywork and the interior reconstruction. The work system used in these components was specifically selected to respect and faithfully recreate the production methods of the time.

The same goes for the car’s mechanical components. Original Lamborghini spare parts or restored components of the time were used, and if they were not available, parts were completely rebuilt.

Lamborghini Polo Storico also tapped Lamborghini Centro Stile for the historical reconstruction part of the project. Centro Stile Head of Design Mitja Borkert said, “The LP 500 is of paramount importance to Lamborghini because it gave rise to the design DNA of all subsequent models. To arrive at the car that debuted in Geneva in 1971, a 1:1 scale styling model was developed, which along with the car itself was lost over time, but extensive photographic evidence of it remains. This is the same approach with which we decided to tackle the project.”

Borkert added, “starting from publications of the time, from images on homologation sheets and other material recovered from Polo Storico, we were able to reconstruct the mathematics necessary for creating the first 1:1 scale model. The biggest challenge was to create the exact volume of the car, and for this, we used the opportunity to take a 3D scan of our LP 400 (chassis 001), which was an enormous source of information. It took us 2000 hours of work altogether to arrive at the final model, with lines that satisfied us. The exact same procedure was followed for the interior.”

The support of Fondazione Pirelli, said Lamborghini, was also fundamental in providing historical archive material to recreate the tires mounted on the original LP500 model. Thanks to the images and materials preserved in the archives of the Pirelli Foundation, it was possible to use the original plans of the Cinturato CN12 tire fitted on the LP 500 for its Geneva debut.

The reconstructed Countach LP 500 also rides on Pirelli Cinturato CN12 tires — the same ones worn by the original Countach in ‘71.

When it came to choosing the color, the PPG archives proved to be crucial, making it possible to identify the exact composition for producing the yellow color used, identified as “Giallo Fly Speciale.”

The revived 1971 Countach LP 500 and was unveiled over the weekend at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, an annual “competition of elegance” held in Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy.

Photos from Lamborghini

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