The Mysteryous Story Behind the World's Oldest Lamborghini Countach

Lamborghini participates in the classic car show for the first time. It does it in its 60th anniversary year and does it in style. The Italians took the very first Countach ever built to the Auto e Moto d'Epoca event.

It is a 1973 Lamborghini Countach LP 400, chassis #001 (1120001), which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show on March 15, 1973. The model does bear similarities with the LP 500 show car, which had been on display in Geneva three years before, but not that many. It was actually more similar to the production car, scheduled to arrive in 1974.

This Countach was originally painted in red. Once the Geneva Motor Show was over, the carmaker used it for test and development trials. Several months before, the prototype had been the star of a photo shoot for the leading British magazines of the period. Behind the wheel was test driver, automotive engineer, and mechanic Bob Wallace. The photographs were shot on the way to Sant’Agata Bolognese, the home of Automobili Lamborghini.

Years wrapped in mystery followed for the oldest Countach in existance. The car simply seemed to vanish. Nobody outside Lamborghini knew where the red Lamborghini Countach was. The firm took a Countach LP 400 painted in Verde Medio (green) at the car shows that followed. But still no sign of the red Lambo from Geneva.

The truth behind all the mystery was that the vehicle had been painted from red to green and left like that. But during a restoration procedure that took place in 2003, after the LP 400 was found in Switzerland, experts found out that it was the exact car that had been exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show 30 years before. Under the layer of green paint, there was the original red. What everyone thought to be two different cars, two distinct Lambos, were, in fact, one and the same.

Lamborghini brought bare metal to the classic car show in Bologna

And there is one iconic model keeping the Countach company at the Auto e Moto d’Epoca classic car show. It is the 1972 Espada Series 3, the first four-seater produced by Lamborghini. Chassis number 8824, it was powered by a front-mounted 12-cylinder engine. It could came with seats for four passengers and offered plenty of luggage space, too, yet remaining fast. Lamborghini kind of fast.

Lamborghini introduced the second series Espada in 1970, and the S3 debuted two years later. The final version remained in production until 1978. The car, which is now on display at the classic car show as a work in progress, was delivered on September 28, 1972, to a Lamborghini dealer in the Milan area and then shipped to its first owner, a customer from Japan, a Lambo enthusiast.

It looks the way it does because it is in the middle of a restoration process, carried out by Polo Storico, the department of Automobile Lamborghini that is responsible for classic car restoration, the certification of classic cars, and the organization of events dedicated to collectors. After the restoration is completed, the car will return to its owner in Japan.