Countach LP400 Vintage Photos

I saw these images on Abi's IG, he has quite an archive of excellent period images and it's good to see these being shared these days.

I must say those black spats are tough to take, they are the one thing that holds the Wolf-style cars back aesthetically, Wolf's final Countach 1002 (below) in Team Wolf Racing dark blue works better from a livery standpoint IMHO

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I only ever loved the clean original LP400. As soon as the fender flares were added, I thought the design was ruined. The later models did lead to better things though.

 

Those are legitimate sentiments.

Having owned all the variants I've gone back-and-forth on this issue and the bottom line is, for me, I appreciate them all, Periscopa, Lowbodys, and Downdrafts being my favorites.

That said, I was standing next to him when Marcello Gandini's daughter translated to me that her father had just uttered sentiments with words to the effect that: "when I designed the spats to accommodate the wide wheels, finally I thought the Countach was finished". He was looking at an LP400 and QV side-by-side at a Concours D'Elegance which I was part of, meanwhile, he has shared those same sentiments elsewhere.

 

It will be interesting to see which guise it re-emerges as.

 

Stunning period photos. 3x Dallara wings in line, not bad! Last photo was taken out of the Miura SVJ #4860

 

how does the red lp400 with bravos and round flares featured in "Car" mag fit within this timeline

you dont car for the round wolf flares? i think there are both way cool...

 

No, I much prefer the angular finalized design which compliments all the trapezoidal shapes of the Countach, in the main body color as well.

I think black spats against a red or blue body don't look aesthetically pleasing because they look tacked-on and give off an aftermarket feel IMO.

 

These cars were pre-market not aftermarket. They were Esperienze solutions created before Bertone provided the production designs and should be celebrated as such. The same applies to the pre Silhouette and Jalpa mules with similar arches. 'Bruto' maybe but wonderful nonetheless and 1120112 in its S prototype guise is my personal favourite of ALL Countach.

 

I spent a morning with Sterzel a few years ago discussing Silhouette development. He joined Lamborghini in the third quarter of 1975 to replace Bob, was initially involved with the Silhouette and subsequently worked on S Countach development. Here he is recently reunited with one of the Wolf cars...

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

And here he is testing the Silhouette snorkel car during the winter of '75/76. He said it was freezing! Those arches are simply wonderful...

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Rest assured I know the history of these black spats, and I acknowledge that people love them, however, I've always thought that black spats against a red or blue body doesn't look aesthetically pleasing because they give off an aftermarket feel IMO.

FWIW I'm not alone in those sentiments.

 

Fantastic information as always Victor!

 

My preference is the red proto style, like shown in "CAR" magazine with the round front wheel arches, this is how the wide public got to know the car.

 

i know we have debated this before but i dont think it was exclusively a esperienze solution. gandini may had a hand in it along with dallara since gandini would often visit his race shop in help shaping body work for race variants much like he did with first batch of gr4 prototype alloy bodied stratos and insunouve x19 to house the new giant P7s built at his facility and tag as a bertone at the autoshows. Wolf has always contended that his flared countachs were more so a dallara modified car than a lamborghini works car.

I ran across photo of a development somewhere of abarth 131 in early 75 with round black arches. when it went into production later that year, bertone altered flares into the signature squared off version much like the CTs. timing would suggest it may have pre dated the CT and the silhoutte proto. ill see if i can find it to post up.

you should try to convince him towards the "red proto". it would please more than a few of us.

here are some close ups of of #1120188 i took at the SD museum when we had a car on exhibit there. i believe these are flares are the factory ones. the crudity of the panels and attachment rivets are typical during the bankruptcy years. think back to it now, i should have gone through the whole car and took more photos...

 

of all the CT's, im also partial to that "car" mag one ... or perhaps this 1120222 ex silveria car featured in this magazine that i picked up in japan. im a sucker for the clean piercing front end without the front spoiler.

at one time during the early 2000's, it had a similar configuration with bronze tecnomagesio bravos which differ slightly in color than the gold campys, round flares and no front spoiler or wing. i believe the original campys that came on the car were painted silver on the last photo.

 

Walter Wolf told me personally that Giampaolo Dallara was the one who built his Wolf Countachs 1120148 & 1120202. Separately, Giampaolo Dallara told me the same thing. From what I was made to understand by the two men, Dallara received a standard Countach and made it a Wolf Countach.

I have inspected 1120188 in person and again, the black spats just do not work for me, of course, in the mid-70s, black circular spats were everywhere, even on a new VW Golf GTI, which I also didn't care for. That said I recognize their importance amongst the faithful.

I inspected 1120222 in 1996 when La Jolla Classic Car's Rob Peacock offered it to me @ $55,000. I recall the previous owner had painted over the black spats (images exist online), so clearly he felt the way I do. Piecing together the car's history at that time, I was told that from Silvera, the car went to Florida (where it was repainted & re-trimmed eliminating the gold interior), then Ohio, then California.

Anyway, I was in a Countach-buying mood when Rob showed me the car, having bought another one also at the time. However, I knew the history of the car, and knew that I would have to restore it back it it's gold spats & trim which was altogether too much for me. I passed and he sold the car to Japan, but as I recall it took him nearly 2 years to do so.

Bear in mind the car does not work well @ speed without the front spoiler hence they were built with them in place emulating the Wolf car's - see below.

@ 10 years after my encounter with 1120222, I fortuitously came to own Silvera's earlier & sublime Countach LP400 1120056, and I always thought that car was worth the wait. The lesson to myself was, hold out for what you really like. I went back to Giampaolo Dallara and he confirmed the latter car's special engine tuning in writing. Of interest, @ the time I owned 1120056, I reached out to Albert Silvera's daughter Elisabeth, and I learned that her mother Gladys (Silvera's wife) was responsible for the choice of liveries & color-schemes for the Silvera Lamborghinis including that of 1120222

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

did dallara ever claimed they ran with 16inch bravos? you knew that i was highly dubious of that claim since there where never any P7 or other street tires in 16s that were remotely wide enough to fit on 12 wide rims outside of pure race rubber.

it would have been cool if you would have bought that car joe, as for the original color combo... women!

ive never driven a ct in any guise but it may be worth debating whether the front spoiler configuration works well at speeds. if memory serves, according to Frere and Hill in the high speed group test, the ct exhibits more front axle down force than the rear axle which exactly the opposite of what you want at high speeds when running without the rear wing. last thing you want is the rear to axle to lose traction first at elevated speeds.

having the rear wing would restore axle balance along with moving the center of pressure forward less yaw sensitivity. dallara developed the wolf package with all these appendages and running with one remove would alter this balance.

here is a photo a dallara built stratos testing in the only full size wind tunnel in italy at that period to show his workings were much more than just styling based. this newly built full size tunnels were a rarity as a whole back in the 70's. interesting to see a bertone in a pinninfarina tunnel. i reckon dallara knew what he was doing since he studied aeronautics at milan polytechnic university. it would be fantastic if somebody puts a ct in rolling road tunnel to get modern data would it?

 

That also would be my preference...

The flat topped arches, introduced on the Silhouette in 1976 and subsequently the Countach S in 1978, cleverly disguised the gap that would have been created by the smaller tyre diameter tyres in the existing round arches...

 

No, that was Walter Wolf's claim, and he made it to me on the basis that Dallara used F1 Lockheed brakes, and to accommodate these, they specially cast 16" Bravos.

Although Wolf could easily have paid Pirelli for several sets of specially moulded 16" P7s (after all, he was the benefactor of the P7 for the Countach), I too remained highly dubious of that claim, and of course it's never been substantiated.

 

No regrets, however, I have no doubt women would admire it as it's livery was designed by one, specifically this one, Gladys Leveque Silvera, accomplished pianist, El Rancho Hotel director, and wife of Albert Silvera

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Albert Silvera with his beloved 1120056 which we were fortunate to buy and privileged to own for a few years, Giampaolo Dallara assured me the engine was tuned and explained how - I felt it, compared with the other 2 LP400 we owned

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Silvera taking 1120056 for a drive

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Albert & Gladys Silvera circa 1980s

Image Unavailable, Please Login