Ride Along In a Harsh, Loud 1990 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary

Turn up your speakers; it’s V12 Lamborghini time.

This car lived in your bedroom, framed in cheap brass with that devilish profile. You know it as the dream car for an entire generation of ‘80s kids. With its sharp angles and glowering demeanor, the Lamborghini Countach encapsulated its time like few other supercars ever will. Everything about it drips with excess and /DRIVE’s tribute to this 1990 Countach 25th Anniversary, the final one built, captures that essence.

The car lives at Italia Autosport, an English shop founded by John Pogson. While Pogson has breathed Ferrari for decades, he can’t help but love the Countach’s utter insanity. The looks alone set this apart from any car ever made. As he rightly says, we can’t imagine a new supercar that will overdo excess in such a tangible way. The design comes across almost childlike and the Anniversary edition took the regular Countach’s insanity even deeper into that territory.

The car’s appeal, however, stems not just from the looks. Rather, the spy-movie looks pair with a dramatic V12 engine. It won’t rev to the moon, but the beastly engine bellows with real guts. Ferrari’s 12-cylinder engines scythe through the ears; Lambo’s engines pound the air into submission.

With oodles of power, the Countach squirrels around with no serious consideration for refinement. Since this was the 1980s, conspicuous consumption meant conspicuous everything. The Lambo’s big price tag meant you came away with a wedge-shaped hammer with which to beat into everyone’s head the phrase “Look at me!” And look, they would because how could you not? The Countach deserved every bit of attention.

Unlike modern supercar builders, 1980s Lamborghini had no vocabulary with the word “refinement.” The Countach engine barks over conversation attempts. The gearbox communicates vociferously and the steering chatters away, too. Since the car is meant to start conversations, it’s only natural for its mechanical components to participate. And nobody in their right mind would change a thing about it.