The Lamborghini Countach is still one of the most distinctive super sports cars today, but at the beginning of its existence it was shocking mainly because of its appearance, which one enthusiast decided to change.
This year, the Lamborghini car company celebrates its sixty-fifth anniversary, but today we will focus on a slightly younger model, which is one of the turning points not only in the history of the brand, but also in the world of super sports cars. We will be talking about the Countach model, which was first presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971.
The car with the unusual opening of the doors, which we still see at the brand today, completely shocked at the time with its sharply cut and futuristic design, which was created in the Bertone studio and the main credit for which was given to Marcello Gandini. Its distinctive curves became a magnet for the eyes, on posters decorating children’s rooms and garages and defining the future of the brand for many decades.
However, while the design broke boundaries, the performance was not so famous. The first pieces, labeled LP400, got the drive unit from the Miura model. It was a mid-mounted 3.9-liter V12 engine designed by the famous Giotto Bizzarrini, producing 375 horsepower. It wasn’t bad for its time, but enthusiasts expected more from the more modern (and heavier) successor to the Miura model.
After all, it is worth remembering that the LP500 concept promised a 5-liter V12 engine at the Geneva Motor Show, the output of which should have reached 446 horsepower. The first production version from 1974 thus lagged behind, but the car company’s technicians worked on the further development of the engine. This was followed by the introduction of a more modern version of the L400 S (which was paradoxically even weaker) and the LP 500S with a 4.8 liter V12 engine. Despite the increase in torque, however, the performance has not moved anywhere.
A fundamental change came only in 1985, when the automaker introduced the LP5000 Quattrovalvole (QV) model. The engine, with a volume increased to 5.2 liters and new four-valve technology, offered 455 horsepower and 500 Nm of torque, which were finally the right values for the futuristic-looking supercar. However, some customers did not want to wait for the automaker’s innovations.
Around the 1980s, in the field of motorsport, the advent of supercharging engines with turbochargers began to make a significant impact, thanks to which it was possible to get significantly more power from the drive units quite easily. However, the management of the Lamborghini car company did not want to go down this path. The technicians wanted to preserve the atmospheric character of the V12 engine.
However, the automaker’s rejection of turbocharging did not stop a certain Max Bobnar, who was among the most important Lamborghini dealers in Europe, managed the brand’s affairs in Switzerland and was originally one of the people who convinced the brand’s management to use turbochargers. So when he didn’t succeed directly at the car company, he tried it himself.
In 1980, Bobnar bought a Countech LP400 S, i.e. a slightly modernized version, which, compared to the original LP400 model, offered power limited to only 355 hp. Two years later he then hired Franz Albert to help him make the car more interesting. At the same time, Albert originally worked for the German tuning company Koenig-Specials, for which he modified a pair of originally aviation Rajay turbochargers for application to a twelve-cylinder Ferrari engine.
During the cooperation with Bobnar, he was actually given a similar task – to create a twin-turbo supercharger for the twelve-cylinder under the hood of the Countach model. Unfortunately, information about the exact modifications of the 3.9-liter V12 engine is not known, but according to the information of colleagues from Autoevolution, who drew attention to the story of the exceptional conversion, the output should have been around 700 horsepower.
The uniqueness of what is probably the most powerful Lamborghini Countach of the time was completed by the installation of extended side skirts with distinctive turbo inscriptions, new wheels and bright red paintwork. Bobnar probably drove the car for a while, but eventually sold it, and after a while the car was considered lost and probably destroyed in an accident. However, Vinwiki’s John Temerian tracked down the car in the collection of a wealthy collector in Reno, Nevada, and eventually bought it from him.
However, the story of Max Bobnar and the turbocharging of the Lamborghini Countach did not end there. When he sold his first Lamborghini Countach Turbo in 1984, he decided to purchase a second modernization of the model, called the LP500 S. Under the hood this time was a 4.9-liter V12 engine, whose output returned to 375 horsepower and the torque increased to 418 Nm. Until the introduction of the 5.2-liter four-valve engine, this was the maximum. But it was not enough for Bobnar again.
He again approached Franz Albert, who set to work again. There is also significantly more technical information for the second modification. On the engine, Albert reduced the compression from 9.2:1 to 7.2:1, replaced the Weber 45 DCOE carburetors with 40 DCOE carburetors, and equipped each bank of cylinders with a Rajay EF60 turbocharger with an intercooler. At a filling pressure of 1.5 bar, the engine produced 748 horsepower and 876 Nm of torque. That is, almost twice the performance of the serial car.
In addition to the engine modifications, there were also modifications to the five-speed manual transmission, which received modified gear ratios. According to several period tests, the Lamborghini Countach LP500 S Turbo was supposed to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.6 seconds, which ranked the car among the fastest supercars of its time. The maximum speed is unknown, but the speedometer was marked up to 425 km/h.
As with the first car, the second Countach Turbo also received several specific modifications. Ronal lightweight wheels were placed in the undercarriages, the body was painted black, and Britax racing seats with black leather upholstery and four-point harnesses were placed inside. The second Countach Turbo was eventually sold by Bobnar, and after several changes of ownership, the car ended up in the collection of a German collector, who should still own it today.
The pair of supercharged supercars are still among the strongest representatives of the Countach model line, and although not factory modifications, they are also among the rarest representatives of the line. Their price will be related to this, which will be astronomical.
