Countach Evoluzione

It looks incredible. It’s made of very light, very badass-looking material. And you’ll probably never own one.

But, it should come as no suprise that Lamborghini’s Vader-looking ‘Sesto Elemento’ concept (unveiled recently at the Paris Motor Show) is constructed using various manifestations of Carbon Fibre technologies.

Because as long ago as the mid eighties, the folks at Sant’Agata were experimenting with the material with poster child for the wedge supercar the Countach.

In 1986-1987, a fellah called Horacio Pagani got involved with Lamborghini and was given free rein to use the Countach test-bed for all sorts of composites. The result was the strangely ‘industrial’ looking Countach Evoluzione. The creative future of the company, and perhaps of the entire auto industry, was glimpsed.

The LP 400 had been, of course, the first, the purest, most gobsmacking version of the Countach when it was unveiled in geneva in 1971. Dressed in the type of block colour paintjob that showed off perfectly the in audacious Gandini-drawn lines, at an aesthetic level the design never got any better.

For us the subsequent versions of the Countach appeared even at the time to be the result of a Halfords ram-raid.

The introduction of carbon fibre is one of the answers to the recurring question: ‘where next for supercars?’

With every supercar on the planet able to top 300KM/H ( the sort of speed it’s difficult to achieve on track, let alone on the road), perhaps to focus on handling and acceleration is the correct way to go.

If carbon fibre materials help you get to greater power weight-ratios, then perhaps Mr Pagani’s early experiments will be seen to be even more prescient than they already appear.