I’m not sure where Cohort poster JC lives, but I think it may well be Carmel, CA. That would explain the number of rather rarefied cars he’s found parked at the curb there, including this Countach. Too bad it’s not parked next to a Camry, which would allow a visual comparison as well as a comparison of their acceleration times, which we did here, with rather surprising results.
This is a later LP400S, 500S or 500 QV (Quattrovalvole), but I’m not going to try to pin it down. It’s not one of the very late 25th Anniversary Editions, which tells you what a very long life the Countach had (1974-1990). But only 1983 were built over that quarter century, so they’re not exactly common.
Ah, but the Camry has doors that open outward, so it’s worthless. Only upward-opening doors have value.
but… a Camry blends into traffic better than a Lambo; doesn’t attract too much attention from the Police.
“The cars keep going faster all the time
Bum still cries ‘Hey buddy, have you got a dime?’
… And the beat goes on, the beat goes on”
“The Beat Goes On”, Sonny & Cher, 1967, written by Sonny Bono
I know that street. Absolutely Carmel.
One thing to be said that I find very endearing about the Countach is it is a diminutive car, more so now than ever amidst the crossover epoch, but it has a commanding presence like no other in the supercar field. Its capabilities are irrelevant to what it is, just as they are on a mid 60s Cadillac that also has unmatched presence in the luxury field. If you’re a 16 year old who got the keys to Dad’s V6 Camry and happened to pull up to a Countach at a stop light, you’re still the loser no matter the outcome when it turns green.
Maybe it’s its often imitated/never matched design or simply its long production presence making it timeless but it doesnt have to compete with anybody, one pit a Countach against a period 512BB/Testarossa or 930 Turbo with unfavorable outcomes for the Lambo too, but nobody bought a Countach based on how it performed, it was a supercar in specification with great Bertone design and didn’t need the tenuous motorsport connection like Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren et al did. Lamborghini as it was founded set out to make more desirable and more radical street supercars than Ferrari did, statistics are irrelevant.
Lamborghini lost that after the Countach, the Diablo and every model to follow imitates it like all the competion did(and still does), attempting to be truly competitive with them be it in performance, comfort, practicality et al, but at the end of the day the Diablo, Murcielago, Aventador and probably whatever succeeds that are still cars in the Countach mould, they’re poseurs. In the inverse of the previous scenario that same kid in a V6 Camry, or lets say a Tesla for the sake of realism, wins a race against any one of those at the light, it is something to brag about.
So rare to see on in the wild.
Is that a parking block in front of the rear wheel?
In that setting, looks so cute.Makes meant to pet it. When it grows and fills the parking spot, will be too old to pet.
In 1985, I saw one parked in front of the Ritz in London–in August, not a fashionable time to be in town. I find it difficult to be interested in a car I know I can’t sit in with an upright head.
My older brother was born in Carmel when my father was at Navy PG school in Monterey, and I was conceived there but born in Norfolk VA. Haven’t been back since. I gather it’s high rent now.
Timeless Classic, if you can call a supercar that.
Here’s the one from the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” (Spoiler Alert: Not the one they wrecked).
I spotted it a few Saturdays ago when I attended Hunt Valley Horsepower’s Cars and Coffee.
Parked next to my Mustang, this thing appears a lot smaller in the metal than it does in pictures, that’s for sure.
It was also much louder than I thought it would be when the owner started it up. It sounded like a Mustang engine…. a P-51 Mustang engine. 😉
I got some really good shots of it, and even a video of it leaving, as things were winding down at this point. Sadly, those files are too big to load here. This one is a 1989 25th Anniversary Model. But somehow this math does not add up. If they were built from 1974 thru 1990, wouldn’t an ’89 be a 15th anniversary model? Maybe they mean the company as a whole.
Here’s a better shot, without my Mustang photobombing the picture.
It’s a screenshot of the aforementioned video as he was about to leave…
One is a sculpture.
One is a commodity.
1974 to 1990 does not round up to a quarter century.
Somehow, despite being a child of the 1980’s, these cars do nothing for me. I find them to be even more overrated than the time span is over estimated. They aren’t that pretty. They aren’t that fast. They aren’t that well made. No thanks.
If one could travel back to 1988 with a current Camry TRD, the people of the time wouldn’t have been too surprised when the Camry blew the Countach’s doors off.
Mini CC effect, I just finished building the Lego Countach I received as a Father’s Day gift from my son.
It’s quite possible that a Camry is faster than a Countach but it will never have the sense of occasion you get from scissor doors and a gated shifter.
I remember Walter Payton had one. I already thought he was one of the top running back I’d ever seen, but his Countach put him over the top.