1989 Lamborghini Countach

 

If you’re looking for luxury sports cars you might look for a sleek Lamborghini. Lamborghini is an Italian automaker which operates as a subsidiary of Audi which itself is owned by Volkswagen.  Audi took over Lamborghini in 1998 from a group of Malaysian investors who themselves had taken over the company from Chrysler.

1989 Lamborghini Countach
1989 Lamborghini Countach

The 1989 Lamborghini Countach featured in this article is a rare classic car indeed. It’s an extremely recognizable luxury high power car. It’s a car you’ve no doubt seen in a few motion pictures.

Lamborghini

Lamborghini started production in 1963. Ferruccio Lamborghini desired to produce what people would characterize as the ultimate driving machine. There are quite a few that would agree that he achieved his goal. In a lot of ways everything about the Lamborghini is about power and speed.

Ferruccio  Lamborghini was wealthy even prior to building his factory for the production of luxury sports cars. After World War One he founded a successful tractor factory. His auto factory Sant’Agata Bolognese was built to essentially to compete against Ferrari. Many at the time thought that the decision was unwise and that he stood a chance of losing his fortune. Obviously Ferruccio  Lamborghini made a huge success of his company. Over the years the company changed ownership three times but still to this very day the Lamborghini brand today is at the forefront of luxury super sports car production.

1989 Lamborghini
1989 Lamborghini

Lamborghini Styling

The unique and sleek styling for the Lamborghini Countach can be credited to stylist Marcello Gandini. One of the popular stories about the Lamborghini Countach is that, when designing the car, Gandini was considered relatively new to the field of auto design.

Gandini gave the Countach it’s distinctive scissor doors and it’s Formula One style wing. This rear spoiler was optional but certainly provided better handling a higher speeds. The first series of Countach’s were the LP400 followed by the LP400S in 1978. The LP-400 is thought to have the least drag of any of the Countach’s. In 1982 the models were called the LP500’s with increased engine power. After that were the LP500S.

Lamborghini Countach door
Lamborghini Countach door
The electric fans and the air ducts on the rear portion of the car help keep the engine cool and they obviously look good. These add a lot to the race car look.

The cars built for the U.S. market had to have some modifications. One such modification were larger front and rear bumpers. This of course took a bit out of the sleek front design but nevertheless Marcello Gandini ended up designing one of the most popular super sports cars, and in many ways race cars, in the history of auto design.

1989 Lamborghini Countach Specifications

The 1989 Lamborghini Countach was built with a V-12 315.8 cui displacement engine delivering  420 horsepower.This was the car built for the American market which also included a fuel injection system as opposed to it’s original six carburetors. This is what brought down the U.S. version to the 420 HP. The European model with the six carburetors reportedly could produce 455 HP.

Lamborghini Countach
Lamborghini Countach

Transmission is a five speed manual.

The cars length comes in at 176.4 inches and the wheelbase is 96.5 inches.

Links below are to three additional AutoMuseumOnline photo articles you’ll find interesting.

Shelby GT500 Super Snake

Auburn Boattail Speedster

2004 Lamborghini Gallardo

 

According to factory information the top speed for the 1989 Lamborghini Countance is about 183 MPH and the car can go from zero to sixty MPH in 4.7 seconds. Average MPG comes in at about 12.5. This MPG of course will vary widely depending on how you drive it. The zero to sixty time and the top speed is a bit better with the European models.

Lamborghini Logo
Lamborghini Logo

Front suspension is comprised of unequal-length Independent double wishbones, coil springs over double gas dampers and anti-roll bar. The rear suspension is put together withuUpper lateral links, lower A-arms, upper/lower trailing arms, dual coil springs over double gas dampers and anti-roll bar

Total production for the years the car was produced, 1974 to 1990 was 2,042. When 1991 came along the Countach was replaced by the Lamborghini Diablo.

(Photos from author’s collection)