Modern Lamborghinis are marvelous pieces of precision engineering. Once Audi purchased the then-struggling Italian supercar maker in 1998, purists were afraid of how the notoriously sensible and serious German owners would change the imperfect yet exhilarating brand. As someone who was three-years-old when the purchase occurred, I’ve only heard fables about the old Lamborghini. Pre-Audi Lamborghinis like the bullish LM002 that Jalopnik’s own Andy reviewed were described as hairy-chested, uncomfortable, and unreasonable, but I never quite understood just how unhinged the old Lamborghini was until I watched this vintage “60 Minutes” episode.
The presenter rides alongside Valentino Balboni, one of the most legendary test drivers in automotive history who drove about 80% of all Lamborghinis ever built between 1973 and 2009, as he tested a red Countach at speeds up to 180 mph on public Italian roads. Lamborghini didn’t have a test track until it was purchased by Audi in 1998, so all of its cars were pushed to their limits and test driven on public roads. Watching Balboni weave around trucks and compact cars, even driving three abreast on a two-lane road with blind curves, certainly qualifies as unhinged in my book.
The interviews were unhinged, too
In an interview with Daniele Audetto, who was a former rally car driver in the role of marketing director for the Lamborghini Countach, the attitude and image that the company wanted to portray becomes clear. In classic Italian fashion, he equates a white Countach to “a beautiful virgin,” a red one to “a mature woman,” and a black one to “an intriguing woman.”
Watching this as someone raised in the world of political correctness, this style of conversation is simply wild to see televised, let alone someone holding the position of marketing director for a well-known carmaker. These were very different times. These folks really enjoyed sexualizing the Countach, with one article cited in the “60 Minutes” broadcast likening driving the Countach to losing your virginity. I’m certain that driving a Countach in the ’80s was an exhilarating experience, but this is no place for that sort of diction.
There ain’t nothing quite like a Countach
We live in a much different world now than in 1987, a world with much stricter emissions and safety regulations that would never allow for a car as maniacal as the Countach. And honestly, with overzealous and underexperienced social media influencers totaling their new McLarens and Ferraris, can you imagine if they were driving something as unadulterated as a Countach? Not even the modern Countach LPI 800-4 quite lives up to its ancestor’s insanity.
Thankfully despite being owned by the sensible Germans, Lamborghinis are still ostentatious, loud, exhilarating, and evocative, but the days of the unalloyed and raw cars like the Countach are gone. One take that I appreciate though comes from the magnificently mustachioed editor and publisher of Automobile Magazine David E. Davis, who says “I firmly believe that anyone who’s worth anything at all should own a 12-cylinder car before they die, because there’s nothing like it.” I think the world would be a better place if that were the case. In the meantime, we’ll have to do with listening to the naturally aspirated Lamborghini V12 roar in the POV footage in this documentary.
