Made To Drive | S13 E18

1988 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary: The Rocket Sled

Channeling two kinds of childhood whimsy.

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Michael Bodnar

3 years ago

Beauty of Lamborghini

Robert in LA

For those that want a little supporting material here is a Jeremy Clarkson review of this car, done by a very young Jeremy Clarkson, along with reviews of its predecessor, and the follow on car, the Diablo. In this video you can see that the 25th Anniversary has the Pagani aero-package, body kit. And when you compare with the Diablo it is a little clearer, perhaps, why the aero-package was necessary. For a 200 mph car, too much air was passing under the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F13d1LFlXc

Nice video. One of the more interesting innovations on the Countach is that, in order to concentrate the mass of the car in the center, and reduce polar moment, the transmission is in placed in front of the engine. This is a rear wheel drive, mid-engined car, with a gear box located beside the driver, with the drive shaft passing back, through the engine case, to the differential. Where else has this been done? One of you in the ‘hive mind’ of this forum will know.

Reply to Robert in LA

Engine, gearbox, differential and car, showing relative positions of each.

JB21

You know, that’s really interesting. I didn’t know that. I always thought it might be like 512BB, with an engine on top of a transmission, but alas!

@JB21 Well, I found it interesting. In order to make a car that stands up in a very competitive market sector for a quarter century, to have a rear engined 12 cylinder isn’t enough. Ferrari had done that. Moving the gear box forward helps keep the nose down, and drive shaft runs straight back right through the engine housing, and the differential mount is part of that housing too. All three are one contiguous structure. I don’t know if this was repeated on the Diablo or not.

Looking further, the follow on to this car, the Diablo, also had a 5 speed gear box located in front of the engine. The Diablo was introduced as a 2 wheel drive car. Having the gear box in in front of the engine made the eventual conversion to all-wheel-drive both simple and lightweight. In truth the Lambos never interested me much before now. There was a reason that a company that previously only built tractors was able to persist in a highly competitive market sector. The drive trains seem to have had a lot to do with that.

Christopher Gush

Refreshing to observe an owner who “drives’ his passion rather than covet it in the garage, out of the public view. Great sense of humor. Love the sled on the roof and the fact that he hasn’t washed it for the filming. The real deal. Quite the character who all can relate to.

Jurgen Vogl

to siwhit. The lambos are 1970’s icons not to everyones liking , but still liked by many. It’s like he said, who didn’t have aposter to drool over

si.whit

Smeared crap on a diamond, with that wannabe Testarossa bodykit

Scott Allen

Reply to si.whit

si.whit, i get what you are saying…you think the lambo is a diamond. but you don’t like the body kit…(at first read you get a different message) I would agree, bodykits can mess with a car.
Also, I wouldn’t have known it was a kit without your remark.

This body-kit (aero-package) seems to have been designed for the 25th anniversary Countach. Google ‘1988 Countach’, switch to ‘images’, and you will see a lot of cars with that kit. The aero-package probably really does provide down force at speed. A front lip and side curtains don’t have to be elegant to be functional. According to Road & Track Horacio Pagani designed the aero-kit and some suspension mods on the 25th edition. I am not a big fan of kits either, but this car probably left the factory just as we see it, minus the sled on top.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/car-design/a27323024/lamborghini-countach-25th-anniversary-edition-horacio-pagani/

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1988 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary: The Rocket Sled