First Lamborghini Countach LP 500 restyled version unveiled
The Lamborghini Countach LP 500 restyled version was recently presented in the Concept Car category at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. Over 25,000 hours of work were spent at Automobili Lamborghini’s Polo Storico Classic restoration center to recreate this highly collectible historic model, with the Lamborghini Centro Stile design center also playing a crucial role in body reconstruction and style supervision.
At the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971, Automobili Lamborghini presented the “idea car” Countach LP 500, which instantly became the star of the show, with photos that were widely circulated and featured in mainstream magazines around the world. The Countach LP 500 was scrapped in March 1974 after a crash test, and the classic has not existed since then.
At the end of 2017, a classic enthusiast and important Lamborghini customer approached the Polo Storico Classic Car Restoration Center to ask about the possibility of recreating the Countach LP 500, a legendary car that could only be known through photographs of the time.
In the first months after the program was launched, Lamborghini acquired all available materials and carried out an in-depth analysis. “The collection of documentation was crucial.” Giuliano Cassataro, Head of Technical Services and Polo Storico Classic Car Restoration Center, said, “We focused on all the details, the overall consistency and technical specifications of the model.” Photos, documents, meeting reports, original drawings and recollections of those in charge at the time – all of these helped to determine as accurately as possible the form and function of each detail. To recreate the tires mounted on the original Countach LP 500, the Pirelli Foundation played an important role by providing historical archival material.
The remodeling work began with the platform chassis, which was completely different from the tubular frame of the subsequent Countach models. In addition to its redesign, the Polo Storico Classic Car Restoration Center also had to decide on the working system used to build it, in order to comply with the production methods of the time. The body was built using the same process, and was analyzed and defined using a variety of modern technical instruments. Once the sheet metal hammering and forming phase was completed, the traditional Italian process system would take over the technical work. A similar process was used for the interior, including the lightweight diagnostic instruments used in the 1971 prototype. And all the mechanical parts of the vehicle are either from original Lamborghini spares or restored parts, or have been rebuilt from the model’s original materials.
Established in 2015, the Lamborghini Polo Storico Classic Car Restoration Center is dedicated to the preservation of the brand’s historical identity, with the main task being to certify and restore Lamborghini models produced before 2001. To this end, the Classic Car Restoration Center is responsible for preserving and acquiring new resource information for the company’s archives, making it possible to establish and preserve the value of all classic Lamborghini models. Due to the demand of Lamborghini classic enthusiasts, the Restoration Center also focuses specifically on the production of spare parts that are no longer available on the market.
