Lamborghini Countach LP 500: The Number 1 is back

(Motorsport-Total.com/Motor1) – 50 years ago, in 1971, the first design study of the legendary Lamborghini took place. KontachPresented at the Geneva Motor Show. Hardly any other car made more sense of its appearance than a flat sports car, it’s Serial version It hardly looked any different from 1974 onwards.

After three years of development, the No. 1 LP 500 nickname was sacrificed in crash tests in March 1974 and then disappeared. Now there is a rebuilding done in the framework Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este Submitted.

At the end of 2017, an important Lamborghini customer and fan of the classic car asked the brand if it was possible to rebuild the Countach LP 500 – a cult model known only thanks to photos from that time.

I spent the first few months collecting and analyzing the available material in detail. Giuliano Casataro, head of service at Polo Storico, asserts that “document collection was critical.” “Great attention has been paid to every detail of the car, the overall consistency and technical specifications.”

Photos, documents, meeting reports, original drawings, memories of some contemporary witnesses: all this contributed to as accurately as possible the form and function of every small detail. In addition, the support of the Fondazione Pirelli Foundation in providing the historical documents stored in its archive was necessary to rebuild the original LP-500 model frames.

Work began with the platform frame, which was very different from the tubular frame of later Countach models. In addition to the physical redesign, the design process also had to be chosen to fit the manufacturing methods of the time.

“For the development of the car that debuted in Geneva in 1971, a 1:1 scale model was made which, like the car itself, has been lost over time; but there are still many photographic evidence. This is exactly the approach that has succeeded in based on the Publications at the time, photographs on homogenization papers and other materials collected by Polo Storico, were able to reconstruct the mathematical principles that were necessary to produce the first model on a 1:1 scale.

The biggest difficulty was getting the exact size of the car. So we turned to the possibility of a 3D scan of the LP 400 (chassis number 001), which was a tremendous source of information. It took 2,000 man hours to get the final model, in the right shapes, that we were satisfied with. The same procedure was followed for the interior,” Burkert continues.

The collaboration with Pirelli, which has been around since 1963, has proven invaluable for rebuilding the tires of the LP 500 prototype. Thanks to photos and documents stored in the Fondazione Pirelli archives, the original designs of the Cinturato CN12 frame installed at the LP 500 show in Geneva can be used.

On the basis of these documents, the specialists of the Milan manufacturer Cinturato created the CN12 for the Pirelli Collezione tire line, intended for popular models built between 1930 and 2000, while preserving the original characteristics of the tires, combining a classic and modern appearance. techniques.

The Pirelli Cinturato CN12 for the Lamborghini Countach LP 500 is available with dimensions of 245/60R14 front tires and 265/60R14 rear tires. They have the same tread pattern and aesthetics as the 1970s, but with a rubber compound and a modern tire design.

The archives of PPG turned out to be decisive in the choice of color, because they made it possible, after careful analysis, to determine the exact composition of the manufacture of the yellow paint used, called “Giallo Fly Speciale”.

More on the new Lamborghini Countach:

The return of the Lamborghini Countach: premiere with a V12 hybrid engine

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