Watch: Extracting the Engine From a Lamborghini Countach QV Requires a Really Tall Hoist

The Countach and other V12 Lamborghinis have a very strange powertrain, with a mid-mounted engine that has the gearbox installed in front and the driveshaft running back through the oil sump, to the rear wheels. Because of this interesting engineering solution, the powertrain needs to be extracted as a whole for any minute maintenance tasks. But since the tubular frame prevents this to be done from underneath, it requires that the whole ensemble be removed from above, using a hoist.

This presents some issues of its own since the engine and the gearbox together make for such a long contraption. So a very tall hoist needs to be used for the operation, as we found out thanks to Harry Metcalfe from the Harry's Garage YouTube channel. After he heard some alarming noises coming from the drivetrain, Harry had his Countach QV inspected in a garage. The cure required getting the engine out, together with the transmission. So he decided to shoot a video of the whole process, for all of us to marvel at.

You might be thinking what Lamborghini was thinking to put the gearbox in front of the engine on a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car. But the thing is this was a clever choice. Having the gearbox at the back would’ve made the Countach unnecessarily long, so the Italians decided to flip the whole thing around. Either way, the solution was obviously geared toward making the best packaging for the Lamborghini Countach, not to ease of maintenance.

This is a first-world problem though, but good to remember if you ever consider buying a classic Countach. It’s not an easy car to service and you need to budget such extensive operations for simple tasks like replacing the clutch. But then again, when you look at this beautiful Italian sports car and see how this engineering choice has allowed for the streamlined design, you wouldn’t want it any other way.