1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary

Designing a successor to the delicious Lamborghini Miura was something of a challenge for Marcello Gandini, however, with the arrival of the Countach in 1971, he demonstrated to the world that his ability to create automotive drama was alive and well. In fact, the word Countach is Piedmontese slang for something that visually shocks and has no direct translation but 'wow' is probably the most polite. The first Countach appeared at the Geneva Show in 1971. Big, bright and brash like the rest of the 70s, the Countach was to remain in production, through various iterations for 16 years. With hindsight, it's clear that the car's flying wedge design, with a sloping snout that appeared to descend directly from the windscreen, and innovative scissor doors, became a template for every supercar that followed.

The original, beautifully clean profile was gradually bedecked with wings and things as fashions changed over the years, and frequent small mechanical changes were often the result of customer input in their capacity as unwitting development engineers. However, by the time Lamborghini was 25 years old and the Countach Anniversary was introduced in 1988, the majority of these teething troubles were in the past. The Anniversary was effectively a new Countach, mechanically very similar to the 5000QV but sporting much-changed styling courtesy of Horatio Pagani. The rear air boxes were restyled and enlarged, while the vents behind them were changed so that they ran front-to-back instead of side-to-side. In addition, a new air dam and side skirting, both with air intakes, were fitted, and the taillights restyled to be narrower, with body-coloured panels replacing the upper and lower parts of the previous larger lights.

These styling changes were striking on the 17-year-old design and had the added benefit of improving the engine's cooling, a problem with which the powerful Countach had always struggled. The Countach also featured 345/35R15 tyres, the widest available on a production car at the time. The factory only anticipated a limited demand but the sheer talent of this mature development meant that it actually became the most prolific Countach ever with 658 being built of which only 67 were finished in right-hand drive.

This example is one of those 67 right-hand drive cars and was supplied by Portman Lamborghini of Marylebone, London and first registered on the 31st of July 1989. Finished in Rosso Savaglia with Crema hide, the car’s service and maintenance record is impeccable, as evidenced in the service book and reams of receipts. When our vendor purchased this car on the 13th September 2002, he became only its third owner, remarkably low ownership for a thirty-three year old supercar but we do find that Countach owners tend to keep their cars longer than their contemporaries from other manufacturers and in fact this was our Vendor's second Countach, having covered over 50,000 miles in its predecessor. The Alpine cassette-radio is in full working order linked to its electric aerial and the car benefits from a factory fitted sports exhaust, more powerful air-conditioning and a newly designed steering wheel.

As with all Lamborghinis of this era, the odometer reading is in kilometres and shows 17,592 km or just 10,931 miles at the time of cataloguing. Our vendor is moving abroad and trimming his important collection of supercars and presents the car to auction in a simply stunning condition. The detailed history file includes recent maintenance, servicing and clutch works for a total of £25,000. We welcome any inspection of this very special motor car.