Countach!
The first Countach prototype was unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show as the LP500 concept. Produced by Lamborghini from 1974 through 1990, the Countach was styled by Marcello Gandini of Bertone.
Most previous and subsequent Lamborghini names are associated with bulls and bullfighting. Countach was an exception:
“When we made cars for the car shows, we worked at night and we were all tired, so we would joke around to keep our morale up. There was a profiler working with us who made the locks. He was two meters tall with two enormous hands, and he performed all the little jobs. He spoke almost only Piedmontese, didn’t even speak Italian. Piedmontese is much different from Italian and sounds like French. One of his most frequent exclamations was ‘countach’, which literally means plague, contagion, and is actually used more to express amazement or even admiration, like ‘goodness’. He had this habit.” ~ Marcello Gandini
The Countach is the stuff of legends, appearing on teenage boys walls, and in movies like Cannonball Run and Rain Man. Unbelievably, comedian Jay Leno daily drove a Countach for five years. Trips to the grocery store must have been epic. But one story from Jay will warm the cockles of your heart. A local high school kid had bragged Jay was his uncle. To save face the kid asked Jay to drop him off at school in the Countach, which Jay did, even calling after the kid saying “tell your mom Uncle Jay says Hi.”
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