You’ll have heard the story a hundred times about how Lamborghini’s most famous car got its name. According to the legend someone – some say a guard, the car’s designer Marcello Gandini says a body profiler – caught sight of the car and exclaimed one word: “Countach!” That word has been variously translated as referring to shock and astonishment, something a bit ruder, or, according to Gandini, “plague” or “contagion.”
Whatever the word really meant doesn’t really matter. We can all get the gist of it and understand why the guy might have yelled it. Hey, the Countach looks outrageous even now, more than 50 years after anyone had laid eyes on the prototype, so just imagine the impact it would have had on a simple Italian labourer who probably commuted to work in a bubble-shaped 18 hp (18 PS) Fiat 500 if he even had a set of wheels.
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Yesterday, Lamborghini pulled the wraps off the Countach’s great, great grandson, the 2024 Revuelto LB744, a car whose hybrid-assisted, naturally aspirated V12 has us itching to get behind the wheel. That engine gives the Aventador’s successor a genuine USP at its price point, which is expected to be around $650k/£450k. The only other V12 supercars around are the Gordon Murray-designed GMA T.50 and Aston Valkyrie, both of which cost upwards of $2.5 million and are sold out. And the Revuelto’s closest rival, the Ferrari SF90, is powered by a hybrid -equipped twin-turbo V8.
About That Styling
When it comes to styling though, has Lamborghini really pulled out all the stops? It’s certainly a cool looking car and there’s no doubt it will turn heads when it drives down the road. It looks more athletic than the Aventador, we love the Y-shaped lights, the high-rise exhaust and the menacing black holes in each corner of the nose. And of course it’s got the scissor doors that you don’t get on the SF90 or Lamborghini’s baby Huracan. And it looks infinitely better than the GMA T.50. But no one is going to spit their coffee out when they see it for the first time like they did when the Countach was new.
You might argue that no Lamborghini since the Countach has had the effect it had. That Lamborghini has spent the last 30 years carefully and cleverly evolving that same wedgy design theme and that the firm’s design team has ensured that the latest car is instantly recognizable as a Lamborghini.
Or do you think Lamborghini should have put its design pedal to the carbon firewall and pulled off something even wilder to recapture that Countach spirit? Leave a comment and let us know.