This Dismantled Lamborghini Countach Is A Dream Winter Project

We regret to inform you that it is now (assuming you’re reading this near the date of publishing) September. That means the nights will soon be drawing in, and colder weather is on its way. The perfect time, we think, to be contemplating a winter project to keep yourself occupied over the colder months. And so long as you have the money, it surely doesn’t get any better than this - a 1982 Lamborghini Countach 500S that is currently sat in bits.

Bought by the current owner in July 2000, the Countach hasn’t been driven since 2008. It was dismantled and blasted back to bare metal ahead of a complete respray plus a refurbishment of the cabin, but neither happened. The business tasked with the work went bust, at which point the Lamborghini went into storage. For whatever reason, the project was never restarted.

Cars like this do come up for auction from time to time. Last year, we were looking at a Ferrari 365 GTB4 Daytona which was sold in pieces due to an aborted restoration. Historics auctions says that all of the parts that were taken off for the car are present and correct “to the best of our client’s knowledge,” and included in the sale is a new windscreen.

The supercar was far from a basket case before being dismantled, it should be pointed out. In 2004 the Countach had its 4.8-litre V12 engine stripped down and rebuilt, with a fresh clutch and a new exhaust added at the same time. That kind of work doesn’t come cheap, and that’s before we get to the renovation “of all accessible chassis areas” and the suspension overhaul the car was treated to over 2005 and 2006.

It was running (no doubt beautifully) when stripped in 2008. All it’s waiting for now is for someone to swoop in and pick up the project up from where it was left 13 years ago.

The Countach was originally black with a black interior, and it’s one of only 37 LP500S models out of 321 to be built in right-hand drive. Just to make it seem extra special, it appeared on the front cover of a 1996 book called Lamborghini: The Spirit of the Bull, and in the late 1990s Vicki Butler-Henderson drove it in an episode of old-format Top Gear.

Just to show how much the classic supercar market has changed since then, Butler-Henderson notes in the segment that values for a good one “range between £30/40,000”. Even adjusted for inflation that’s left than half the lower estimate for this to-be-completed project example.

The guide price is £145,000 - £180,000, although that still pales in comparison to what you normally pay for a Countach that doesn’t need painting and putting back together. It’ll be going under the hammer at Ascot Racecourse on 25 September.