THE DEFINITION OF SPEED

First owned by racing driver Pierluigi Martini, his Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole proved Lamborghini's reputation for building the fastest car of the day

- Massimo Delbò

It is a beautiful day on the shores of Lake Maggiore, although a summer storm is bruising the sky as I drive out in this 1986 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole. If every Countach is a special car, this one – chassis number FLA 12894 – is more special than most, though its unusual past is unknown to the people whose heads are turned by it on the refined Stresa promenade. Even though I try to keep a low profile, the vision of this Countach thrills the crowd. Phones are held aloft to capture the moment, an Audi RS driver waves while turning ahead of me and gives me the thumbs-up, and a group of gentlemen simply erupt in applause as I pass. And this is 2025 – things could all be so different in another car or, indeed, another place.

All of this makes me think once more of the effect the Countach must have had in 1971, when it was first displayed at the Geneva motor show. Shown as an ‘ideas’ car, just to see if the market was ready for such a revolutionary shape, it drove everybody crazy. Every car magazine of the time put the yellow LP500 Countach prototype on its cover, making it one of the best-known show-cars in history – and leaving Lamborghini with a problem to solve. Quickly! The market not only wanted it, but craved it, immediately and without considering that the show car was very far from being ready to be manufactured in series. It took Lamborghini's legendary development driver Bob Wallace a good three years of hard work to hone it for the road. And that was merely the beginning of a long career, during which the Countach evolved continually.