The Lamborghini Countach LP500 prototype which debuted at the 1971 Geneva motor show has been given a conclusive restoration at the hands of the brand’s Polo Storico. The iconic design benefited from 25 000 hours of labour to bring it back to its Autoshow condition.
Lamborghini Polo Storico, which began in 2015, is the division of Lamborghini that is responsible for preserving the historic identity of the company from Sant’Agata Bolognese. Its main tasks include the certification and restoration of all Lamborghini cars produced up to 2001.
The first months of the Lamborghini Countach LP500 restoration project were spent acquiring all the material available and undertaking an in-depth analysis. “The collection of documents was crucial,” underscored Giuliano Cassataro, Head of Service and Polo Storico.
“There had been so much attention paid to all the details of the car, to their overall consistency and to the technical specifications.”
Photographs, documents, meeting reports and original drawings all contributed to establishing the form and function of every single detail as accurately as possible. The support of Fondazione Pirelli was also fundamental in providing historical archive material to recreate the tyres mounted on the original LP500 model.
For all the mechanical components, as in 1971, original Lamborghini spare parts or restored components of the time were used, or failing that, parts were completely rebuilt. For the historical reconstruction part of the original design, Polo Storico turned to the Lamborghini Centro Stile where the team led by Mitja Borkert, Head of Design, set to work on a very challenging project.
When it came to choosing the colour for the Lamborghini Countach LP500, the PPG archives proved to be crucial, making it possible to identify, after careful analysis, the exact composition for producing the yellow colour used, identified as “Giallo Fly Speciale”.
