LP400S Countach (237 Made 1978-82)

The Countach S actually came into being because Pirelli had finally (and belatedly!) made the Pirelli P7 tire available for production. The Countach was originally designed with a special competition tire in mind but unfortunately the LP400 had to make do with the almost outdated (and quite inadequate!) Michelin XWXs, as Pirelli had not yet completed testing on the then state-of-the-art P7.

Cast alloy Campagnolo Bravo styled rims in sizes of 15x8.5 inch (front) and 15x12 inch (rear) were shod with 205/50VR-15 and 345/35VR-15 respectively. The wider tires necessitated the addition of fibreglass fender flares front and rear. The front flares blended nicely into a new front spoiler that wrapped around the front of the car and housed driving lights and air intakes for the front brakes. Rear flares continued around the rear of the car to giving an aggresive appearance. These flared additions were carefully and artistically styled by Gandini himself, who admitted that his creation finally looked complete and purposeful in this specification.

With the larger wheels also came larger 11" disc brakes, shocks and better improved suspension geometry. Engine power was 375bhp at 8000rpm and 267 lb/ft at 5500rpm.

Dallara, by now (1976) a freelance Engineer, was previously the Chief Engineer responsible for Sant Agata's legendary original supercar; the Miura, and has since (in the 1990s) become renowned as one of the World's best racecar Chassis Engineers with his multiple-time Indy 500 winning chassis. Walter Wolf had realised by looking at his Wolf Racing Formula One car that what his LP400 really needed to improve handling, was a departure from the traditional wishbone suspension and on to the parallel linked susspension of the F1 cars. Wolf wholly funded Gian Paolo Dallara's development of the LP400 into the LP400S, through a pair of personally owned prototypes (1120148 & 1120202). Wolf also courted Pirelli into the long-awaited completion of the then state-of-the-art P7, and the Countach S was born.

For Wolf's third Countach (also the Factory's official Countach S prototype), Dallara carefully reworked the suspension geometry and reset the ride height lower to the ground. These cars were known as the Countach S 'Series One' (Dallara Lowbody) and just 10 were built in 1978 with a further 40 in 1979. The 'Series One' cars were distinguished most significantly by it's slightly smaller appearance due mainly to the lowered suspension settings along with chassis and body differences and not found on the 'Series Two' highbodied cars. Of lesser significance on the S1 were the continued use of Campagnolo Bravo wheels, small Stewart Warner guages, big 45mm Weber carburators on the original LP400 engine, etc. These latter differences were inconsistantly applied throughout production of the S1s and even appeared on some later S2 cars, hardly qualifying these items as distinguishing features. The S1 is, however, still revered as a lightweight sports version of the original LP400, a raw version favoured by some over the S2 Countach which was a taller (roomier if you happen to also be tall), softer, heavier car by some 400 - 700 lbs due to the installation of EPA equipment and side impact "crash bars," etc.

The LP400S also came with an optional $5000 rear wing that did add to the appearance of the car. It is debatable whether this did anything possitive for downforce. The wing was known to take a few mph off the top speed so many customers did not buy these.

These Countaches are the best handling Countaches (as their slalom times show when tested by Road & Track etc.) and can be described as the very definitive Countach, with a much advanced handling setup complete with P7s, as the Countach was originally intended. There were 155 Countach S Series Ones built and 82 of the Series 2. It is also interesting to note that Ferruccio Lamborghini himself, chose a white Countach S #1121164 to keep in his collection (which included almost every production model including a Miura SV #5028) during the 80's.

In a 1990 European magazine interview Ferruccio Lamborghini said "Niki Lauda came to visit me and wanted to try out my cars. I said, 'Take the Countach and drive it to Milan. When you come back, tell me your impression'. Enzo Ferrari did not like that at all as Lauda still worked for him at the time. He (Enzo) was always pretty jealous... Naturally Lauda was very impressed with the Countach"

The LP400S was introduced at the 1978 Geneva Motor Show.