Chris - I lusted for a Countach as well, for my entire adolescence - flash forward 20 some years and I’m walking around the corner to check out a local car show - a white Countach was sitting near the back, unmistakable - and you can always tell the Fiero bodied replicar versions, this one was real. As I walked around it and talked with the owner I was utterly shocked at the lack of refinement, lack of fit and finish, lack of sophistication, terrible wire-paths in the engine bay, etc, then to hear it requires a $12K service every 10K miles…wow. He told me sometimes the doors won’t latch properly and don’t stay closed and that the front bonnet always opens crooked. Handmade alright.
I remember a few lemon-law lawsuits over the Lambo Countach and Diablo. I always find it funny that people love the doors so much, because they were known to fail in both ways: locking closed or unable to latch. The locking closed must have been great pre-cel phone. Imagine yelling out of the too-small-to-escape-through windows to passerbys to call a locksmith.
Thanks for that sanjyoog. Ironically, as much as I was sure I’d never want to own one of those after talking with that owner - I was just as giddy and excited yesterday when a black one with chromed wheels passed by me in the opposite direction on Rt 136 in Abingdon, MD - I pointed it out for my son, but I don’t think he was anywhere near as excited as was I - not sure but it looked like a Quattrovalvole 5000 so it would be a late 80’s. I’ve never seen it around here but I hope I get to see it again!
Does anybody remember the 60minutes interview with Lamborghini folks at the Sant’Agata factory? I videotaped it and watched that segment over and over and over as a teenager! Their Marketing Director had his audience well defined: “You cannot take a da baggages…you must have another car like a rolls royce with a chauffeur to arrive a day later, you cannot have a da kids, only a…beautiful woman.” Here’s a link - I’m glad CBS has it archived ; http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7357739n
I love how those stickers that are based on the early '60’s vette are always placed the wrong direction on cars. It’s as though no one knows where it came from.