Lamborghini is pulling references from across the Countach’s near 20-year stint on sale. However, it is for the most part a tribute to the original LP500 Concept and the first LP400 that went on sale in 1974. There’s no massive wing, no blistered arches, no box intakes on the haunches. Instead, a nod to the LP400’s NACA ducts and slats aping what turned out to be the completely inadequate intakes on the LP500 prototype. They are raised, but bleed gracefully into the car’s natural lines.
Upfront, per the original, the nose is aggressively sloped down compared to almost everything else that’s based on the Aventador platform. Front lights, a pivotal part of a car’s personality, come over too, with these slim-line LED-lit cuboidal items a definite nod to the original. On the top, a nod to the iconic Periscopica design, spreading outwards as it moves back across the engine and down to the rear end.
At the back, the Sian’s rear lights nestle within a recreation of that o-so iconic rear-end shape from the original Countach. Below that, there’s a substantial diffuser, in which the quad exhaust tips nestle, not so original then given the ‘70s wedge predated that technology’s use on road cars. Subtle vents hide under the rear lights and under those, the massive tyres are gloriously visible. What’s definitely different, is the lack of chubby tyre sidewalls. They disappeared with the last of the Diablo 6.0, with low-profile items taking their place.
The inside is very much Sian, with new hexagonal air vents and themes and colours borrowed from the original. The crime scene of red that is the entire interior is pure ‘80s excess. The square patterns in the seats make the modern-day diamond- and hexagon-stitch patterns we’ve become used to seem a bit fiddly.