Lamborghini Countach 5000QV

In 1985, Lamborghini made the biggest improvement to Countach. The V12 was stroked to 5,167 c.c., incorporated a 4-valve cylinder head (called "Quattro-valvole" in Italian, which gave its name "QV") thus a total of 48 valves. Power jumped to a world-beating 455 hp, torque rose to 369 lbft. Finally, the Countach produced more power than the originally proposed LP500 prototype, which would have been capable of 440 hp from 5 litres of displacement.

Forget the 200 mph dream, this would never be achieved with the same aerodynamic. As the body was virtually unchanged from LP500S, people were happy to see the QV could run up to slightly over 180 mph, which was among the fastest in the world. Ferrari 288GTO and Testarossa had more or less the same top speed while other competitors were quite far below than that.

Compare with LP500S's engine, the 48-valve QV unit was very powerful and revvy, it was certainly a gem. The extra power was mainly achieved by the larger valves and the repositioned Weber carburettors - now mounted vertically instead of horizontally to enable straight forward engine breathing. However, this resulted in a large mound on the engine lid thus deteriorated the precious rear visibility.

Specifications:

Year of production: 1985 - 1988
Number made: 676
Layout: Mid-engined, Rwd
Gearbox: 5-speed manual
Chassis: Steel tubular space frame chassis, aluminium body panels
Engine: V12, dohc, 4v/cyl.
Capacity: 5167 c.c.
Power: 455 hp
Torque: 369 lbft
Weight: 1488
Top Speed: 182 mph
0-60 mph: 4.9 sec