It is safe to say that some cars just started out as dream cars, cars that adorned many bedroom walls on giant posters, usually supercars and exotic automotive art you just don’t see every day on the open road (depending on where you live naturally), and the Lamborghini Countach is one of those ultimate motors dreams are made of, especially back in the late Seventies when Lamborghini came up with an even wilder version of their Countach LP400, the very car that introduced the now-famous ‘Lamborghini doors’, the upward opening ‘scissor’ doors that have been used on each and every V12 flagship from Sant’Agata ever since they first showed up on the 1974 Countach LP400.
After four years of production of the Countach LP400, Lamborghini revealed the LP400 S, now adorned with wide fenders, even wider wheels with massive 345mm wide tires from Pirelli at the rear, a deep front chin spoiler and as an unofficial option, the by now well-known rear wing, it didn’t have any aerodynamic purpose, in fact, it even slowed down the Countach, but many customers had it fitted to their Countach anyway, a car with an MSRP of US$85,000 back in 1978, these days you can almost add another zero at the rear as values have sky-rocketed for just about any model in the Countach range, with the narrow-body LP400 going well into the seven-figure roams nowadays.
While a Lamborghini Countach is a legendary car today, back in the late Seventies they weren’t really sought-after in the United States, a market that was a long way from Sant’Agata in Italy at that time, but that was about to change dramatically … thanks to a movie. Let’s take a closer look at chassis number 112.1112, a car that left the factory gates in Sant’Agata in a stunning combination of Nero over Senape, or black on dark tan or light brown in English, initially this specific Raging Bull was delivered to a local client in Italy, but this beauty would find her way into the United States at the end of 1979 or in early 1980 … to become a movie star in as the legendary Cannonball Run Countach.
Instead of boring you with the rather extensive list of modifications and updates, like an additional wing at the front, not two, not four, but twelve exhaust pipes at the rear, and quite innovative for 1980, a phone in the interior, I’m going to let it all be explained in this amazing video from the Hagerty Drivers Foundation in their amazing, 79-minutes documentary found on their YouTube channel on this unique movie car, “The Cannonball Run Countach: Supercar Legend” brings you the entire story about this car and what it meant for The Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash! Kick-started by famed auto journalist Brock Yates as a rebellion against American speed limits and automotive regulations of the 1970s:
