Posts Tagged ‘Countach’

Countach Evoluzione

Monday, October 25th, 2010

It looks incredible. It’s made of very light, very badass-​​looking material. And you’ll probably never own one.

But, it should come as no suprise that Lamborghini’s Vader-​​looking ‘Sesto Elemento’ concept (unveiled recently at the Paris Motor Show) is constructed using various manifest­a­tions of Carbon Fibre technologies.

Because as long ago as the mid eighties, the folks at Sant’Agata were exper­i­menting with the material with poster child for the wedge supercar the Countach.

In 1986 – 1987, a fellah called Horacio Pagani got involved with Lamborghini and was given free rein to use the Countach test-​​bed for all sorts of composites. The result was the strangely ‘indus­trial’ looking Countach Evoluzione. The creative future of the company, and perhaps of the entire auto industry, was glimpsed.

The LP 400 had been, of course, the first, the purest, most gobsmacking version of the Countach when it was unveiled in geneva in 1971. Dressed in the type of block colour paintjob that showed off perfectly the in audacious Gandini-​​drawn lines, at an aesthetic level the design never got any better.

For us the subsequent versions of the Countach appeared even at the time to be the result of a Halfords ram-​​raid.

The intro­duction of carbon fibre is one of the answers to the recurring question: ‘where next for supercars?’

With every supercar on the planet able to top 300KM/​H ( the sort of speed it’s difficult to achieve on track, let alone on the road), perhaps to focus on handling and accel­er­ation is the correct way to go.

If carbon fibre materials help you get to greater power weight-​​ratios, then perhaps Mr Pagani’s early exper­i­ments will be seen to be even more prescient than they already appear.

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Stars of the Seventies

Friday, July 16th, 2010


1970 Plymouth Superbird

A few more muscle cars trickled out in ’71, but the Superbird’s massive rear wing marks the literal high-​​point of muscle car design, and also its swan-​​song.

1971 Lamborghini Countach concept

Why are all the best supercars – McLaren F1, Bugatti EB110 – launched into the teeth of reces­sions? Fortunately, the Countach’s incan­descent styling meant it lasted into the nineties.

1972 Volvo VESC

This ESV embar­rassed some of the bigger players who had taken a distinctly lax approach to their buyers’ health. Volvos have sold on safety ever since.

1973 Austin Allegro

Just bloody awful: epitomized everything that was wrong with the British car industry. Some say there’s no such thing as a bad car now, but there was back then.

1974 Volkswagen Golf

There had been hatch­backs before, but none looked as good, or mixed premium feel with affordable price like the Golf. Set the template that family cars still follow.

1975 Porsche 911 Turbo

‘911’ and ‘Turbo’ put together have always seemed slightly tauto­lo­gical, and were certainly terri­fying in these early cars. But 35 years on they’re still being made.

1976 Aston Martin Lagonda

William Town’s insane styling is one of the stand-​​out designs of the decade. Digital dash and computer-​​controlled everything meant they broke down as much as they stood out.

1978 Lancia Megagamma

At the Turin motor show Giugiaro unveiled a concept that would spawn not just a new car, but a whole new type of car.

1980 Audi Quattro

It might have been launched in 1980 but the Audi Quattro  –  full of brawn but laced with new tech – was the ultimate expression of seventies automotive ethos. A truly modern performance car; still sensa­tional to drive, and still inspiring current fast cars.

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All Hail The Wedge

Friday, July 16th, 2010

If any single design concept is synonymous with the 1970s it must be The Wedge. Redolent of an imagined space-​​age future, the design was conceived at the end of the 1960s by epoch making designers like Giugiaro and Gandini. It wasn’t until the decade that moon shots came and went, however, that they saw the light of day, wrought in steel. Here are six of our favourite wedges.

The Dome Zero

Japanese company Dome released the Zero concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 1978, It was supposed to be a demon­stration of homolog­ation special for a new line of sports cars. However, it failed to pass homolog­ation regula­tions in Japan. In 1979 the company debuted a revised version of the car that came with U.S standard safety equipment. In the same year, a racing effort was launched at Le Mans but the ‘Zero RL’ failed to finish the race. Not the most successful wedge design, but it looked great anyhow.

The Lancia Stratos Zero

The Lancia Stratos Zero was a Bertone design exercise that was showcased at the Geneva show of 1970. The Zero was just 883mm high so drivers would have to lift the windscreen to mount the car. The Stratos HF production car was based on the concept – albeit very loosely.

The Maserati Boomerang

The Maserati Boomerang concept was presented at the 1972 Geneva Motor Show – sitting next to Giugiaro’s other famous wedge of that year, the Lotus Esprit M70. Its windscreen had an extreme 15 degree windshield rake. Giugiaro’s company ItalDesign appar­ently used the Boomerang as inspir­ation when designing the Delorean. In 2005 the original Boomerang concept was sold to a collector at a Christies’s auction for $1,000,000.

Pininfarina-​​Ferrari Modulo

Paulo Martin designed the rare and famous Pininfarina-​​Ferrari Modulo concept– and gained 22 design awards along the way. The extreme design was developed using the Ferrari 512-​​S racer, and was primarly a showcase for cutting edge build techniques – and of course to flex the flair and passion of Pininfarina to maximum degree.

Countach Concept

The original Countach concept was an unadul­terated, ground­breaking production design drawn by Gandini for Bertone in 1971. Its striking scissor doors were pilfered from the Alfa Carabo of 1968 – but were actually a practical requirement because of the extreme width of the car. The pure design of the concept was trans­lated loosely into the production first LP400. Soon however, splitters, wings and other safety equipment were added to the mix – watering down this most pure of seventies wedges.

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Murcielago Schmurcielago

Monday, March 16th, 2009

murc_4

Lamborghini released late last week the first photo­graphs of a limited edition Murciélago LP 650 – 4 Roadster. This hyper-​​exclusive hyper-​​roadster will include an uprated 6.5 litre V12 engine that produces 650 hp, along with permanent four-​​wheel drive. With 660 Nm of torque, performance is at 0– 100km/​h (0-​​62mph) in 3.4 seconds. The top speed is around 330 Km/​h (205mph). Only 50 of the special edition model will be produced with a Grigio Telesto exterior that combines grey bodywork with a special bright orange logo featured on the front spoiler and sills. It features orange brake calipers and a trans­parent V12-​​engine cover, which shows off the engine behind the driver.

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Of course, the Murcielago is an incredible creation. With each lighter, faster, more powerful manifest­ation of the car it becomes more stunning and desirable. But does it really even come close to the beautiful outrageousness that was the Countach LP400 of 1974 (Above)? Coming hot on the heels of the gorgeous but relat­ively under­stated Miura, the Countach repres­ented the quint­essence of a Lamborghini legend that in our opinion, the company has been trying to invoke, not quite success­fully, for almost 40 years. You can see the echoes of the Countach’s design in the contem­porary Murcielago, but it’s a digitised, almost too perfect resonance.

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Marcello Gandini and Nuccio Bertone were responsible for the design of the LP400. It had twelve cylinders mounted lengthwise (Longitudinale Posteriore – hence LP) and a wedge-​​shaped body only 1.07 m tall with scissor doors. With its lack of compromise and unfor­get­table person­ality (not to mention the blistering performance) it redefined the very idea of the sports car. I remember seeing a white one parked on our local high street on a Saturday afternoon. It caused a sensation. I can remember feeling something akin to infatu­ation for weeks after. Even today the cars gather crowds wherever they go. But back in the mid seventies the muscular braggadocio of the beast seemed to have come from Mars rather than the hills of Northern Italy.

countach_2

So why does the newest Murcielago leave us a little cold compared how the Countach made us feel? It might be that technology has seemed to make the production of supercars too easy. In the same way as the Apollo program took men to the moon using little more than a slide rule and a greasy spanner, the Lamborghini Countach defined the future of cars with hand-​​beaten steel and 4-​​star brawn. The genius of the Murcielago is undoubtedly there. It is just hidden in a super slick format we’ve seen so often before.

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