Lamborghini's new hybrid Countach is coming to Pebble Beach -- yes, really

If you can believe it, 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Lamborghini Countach, which first made its debut in concept form at the 1971 Geneva Auto Show as the LP500. Rumors have been swirling for months that Lamborghini would be commemorating the occasion with a new limited-run hypercar inspired by the Countach, and today the brand confirmed it with a few official teasers. Lamborghini really is making a retro Countach tribute, and maybe most shockingly, it will stick with the Countach name.

The first teaser is a short video consisting of quick clips of the original Countach interspersed with '80s synth music and a voiceover talking about "a new image ready to be hung on the wall," ending with "the new Lamborghini Countach is coming." Lamborghini also released a still image of the new car under a cover with the tagline "Future is our legacy," and we can see that its wedge-shaped silhouette is extremely close to that of the original car. It has a superlow front end, a sweeping greenhouse and a tapered rear with a wild overhang. This is all very promising, especially as Lamborghini's first (and really only) attempt at retro design was the stunning Miura concept from 2006.

Thanks to some leaks on Instagram, we know even more details. The car's full name will be Countach LPI 800-4, with the "800" getting little bull horns on the end digits. Lamborghini has used the LPI moniker once before, on the hybrid Asterion concept from 2014. LPI stands for Longitudinale Posteriore Ibrido, meaning the car will have a longitudinally mounted engine in the middle of the car with a hybrid system. Initial rumors pointed to the new Countach using the same V12 and supercapacitor hybrid system as the limited-run Sian, and that's the likeliest setup. But that car didn't use the LPI designation, so there's a chance the new Countach could use a full hybrid system, maybe even a plug-in-hybrid setup -- the Asterion did, after all, and so will the Aventador's replacement in a few years. This would be a great way to preview that car's powertrain. The 800 in the name refers to how much power the car will make in metric PS, so about 789 horsepower, while the 4 means it will be all-wheel drive.

Another leaked image from Lamborghini's customer-only Unica app shows a close-up of the new Countach's vents mounted aft of the side windows. The vented intake is most reminiscent of the 1971 concept car and not the production Countach that followed three years later, which replaced those vents with a larger, boxy intake. But the new car does also have a squared-off intake too, and we can also see a gas cap -- or maybe it's a charge port.

Lamborghini has apparently been taking orders for the new Countach for months now, so this won't be just a one-off special. My guess is that Lamborghini will make 112 units of the new Countach, as the original car's codename was LP112, with a price tag of at least a few million dollars each. Lamborghini built 63 Sian coupes and 19 roadsters at somewhere between $2.6 million and $3.6 million a pop.

The reborn Countach will make its official debut during Monterey Car Week, which kicks off later this week. Expect it to be shown at The Quail and then also put on display at the main Concours event, where it just so happens that one of the featured classes is the Lamborghini Countach, to celebrate the 50th anniversary. As far as birthday celebrations go, this should be a very good one.

Watch this: The Lamborghini Sian is a V12 Hybrid beacon of hope

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