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Originally Posted by spare_me_a_murci
"Only prototype was destroyed in barrier crash testing"  |
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Originally Posted by Doucette
Crazy, why???
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According to an old "Car" magazine article, by Georg Kacher, (sorry if the spelling's a little off), the Evolution Countach was produced as a way of progressing the then existing Countach, with a view to it being it's eventual replacement...
The main purpose of the car was to evaluate a "tub" chassis made from carbon fibre. As i am sure you know, each production Countach made had a tubular space-frame chassis, much like a Maserati "Birdcage", or Mercedes-Benz 300SL "Gullwing".
As i remember from subsequent articles, when the Evolution was crash tested, Lamborghini found that the vehicle's chassis would not "behave" correctly when the crash took place.
That is to say, the carbon-fibre chassis was so rigid that it would not "deform" and absorb the impact in a manner that would be safe to the occupants.
Also, the Evolution was uneconomical to repair, mostly because of the cost of producing and fitting a replacement chassis, (despite the fact that the crashed chassis may have appeared "undamaged": remember this was some years ago, when the properties of carbon fibre were not truly known), meaning the "production" Evolution would have been far easier to "write off", in the event of such a crash, than a standard production model.
I'm sure i also read in the same article that the Evolution had a "one-off" engine that was more powerful than the standard engine.
I'd love to see the factory rebuild the wreck, (assuming it still exists), and add it to thier museum...