looking for Countach Project

I can't help you with car, but I would like to say thank you for your service. Stay safe and God bless.

John

 

What is your price range? I went and looked at this one and the owner has had it for 2 years and never put tags on it plus he doesnt know any of the service history. I believe he is flexible on his price.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp;?tracktype=usedcc&searchType=21&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=50&largeNumResultsPerPage=0&sortorder=descending&sortfield=PRICE+descending&certifiedOnly=false&criteria=K-%7cE-%7cM-_25_%7cD-_4220_%7cN-N%7cR-30%7cI-1%7cP-PRICE+descending%7cQ-descending%7cZ-22315&aff=national&paId=253120678&recnum=0&leadExists=true

 

If you ask me this looks like a very good entry level Countach at this moment. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lamborghini-Countach-1986-Lamborghini-Countach-QV_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6290QQihZ005QQitemZ150214093815QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
I have no affiliation with the seller, so do your own due dilligence.
Sincerely Vic

 

+1

do the cosmetic's right at the 80% savings you spoke of and this car looks like a GREAT candidate - all the best in your pursuit and share the restoration once you are underway!

 

If you are interested in this one you had better hurry. I believe this car will be headed out of the country soon. It just had an engine out service but it does need some paint and leather work.

 

A 50k Countach is going to be a rare find in any shape. Your best bet might be to run a add in Hemmings.

 

I would agree that a $50K Countach will be a rare item and will need more than a little enthusiastic "sweat equity".

Even if you are a truly gifted "shade tree mechanic" you could easily find yourself over your head.

 

$50K Ain't going to happen and if it does it will require $20K in parts alone. Just for conversation sake you can rest assured that a $50K Countach will need a clutch job period. Now depending on the model 2 valve vs 4 valve the clutch T/O Bearing & pressure plate assembly will run you anywhere from $5K to 10K in parts alone. The car will at least need an engine reseal, especially seeing that you have just removed it from the car so plan on another $3K for gaskets, belts, hoses, tune up parts, fluid and filters. The car will need paint and interior work so throw in another $2K for that. The tires will be junk so there is another $2K "IF YOU CAN FIND TIRES". Then there is the rest suspension, brakes, ac. You will have hundreds of hours spent on getting the car back in shape and at least $15K to $20K in parts. Do the math $50K on a pig of a car and $15K to $20K in parts + 200 to 250 man hours of labor at no charge = $70K. Not a good decision, spend the money up front and get a PPI before finalizing any purchase. IMO the low end on the Countach at this point is $65,000.00 and probably not a good decision for the above listed reasons. The white 86 Countach seems like a good value at the moment because of the above listed items. I would make an price offer on this car relative to the outcome and findings of a PPI. Best of luck, Sincerely Vic

 

Don't ever let anybody tell you that it ain't gonna happen. I remember over 25 years ago reading an article in Car Craft magazine about how to shop for a muscle car. Under the heading of Corvette it said that the good deals were LONG GONE. Absolute hogwash. Back then, if you had paid the absurd price of $10,000 for some ragged out 427 Stingray and pushed it into a garage and threw a cover over it, you could sell the same car today for probably 5 times what you paid for it. I had a guy laugh at me when I told him that I was selling my 67 GTO because I hoped to find a decent Stingray. He said "You don't think that you're actually gonna find one, do you!". I just said that I was looking. I finally found a completely stock looking 66 Stingray convertible, bought it for $6500 and drove it home.

The naysayers will always tell you what you can't do. Ignore them and keep looking for the car in the barn. Even if you find a clunker Lambo that needs a ton of work, it will become that hypothetical "Stingray in the barn" that people will be trying to buy from you even if you never do a thing to it.

And don't let anybody tell you that Ferraris and Lambos don't have anything in common with a lowly Corvette. They will be the same people trying to beat you to the door of that barn, trying to swing the deal before you do. They aren't making any more of those old cars, and they will always be in demand, junky or not.

 

I think the advice given has been pretty good so far, most of it from people that actually own a Countach, have owned one, and work on one (2NA gave me great advice on fixing a leaking water pump for example). One site is coparts.com, it's a salvage dealers auction site. You will need to get a licensed dealer to bid on them, but you can check out the list. I have seen several Ferrari's, a Pantera, and several Lamborghinis. Ofcourse these are salvage vehicles, but this is where the flippers go. Horsefly is right, when these things are cheap, the buyers swarm like flies on horse $#%*.

 

I checked out Coparts. Notice this warning especially for Arkansas buyers on their website: http://www.copart.com/bidcard/arkansas.htm

This is a fine example of good ole boy politics in action. I'm located in Arkansas, so I knew about this scam before seeing it on the Coparts page. Here's what happened. There are dozens of rebuilders located here in Arkansas and some of them are associated with the state political types. There were dealers from Texas who were showing up at the Arkansas salvage auctions and buying up any cheap clunker that they could fix up. In the past, most of the clunkers went to Arkansas buyers. But with the increased demand for running cars down in Mexico, the Texas dealers were drifting further north into Arkansas and beating out the Arkansas dealers for cheap clunkers that they would take back to Texas and sell off to Texas and Mexico buyers. So the price of cheap clunkers at the local salvage auctions were being bid up higher by the competition from Texas dealers who were willing to pay more for the cars. The Arkansas rebuilders wanted some protectionism from these out of state bidders that were upsetting their sweet little applecart when it came to cheap rebuildable clunkers. So the good old boys in the state legislature passed a law requiring out of state dealers to pay a bidders fee and get an out of state bidders license before they can buy cars at Arkansas salvage auctions.

I found the whole circus quite intersting because I've always thought that salvage auctions were a violation of Anti Trust Acts anyway. They won't allow NON-dealers to bid on cars at auction, and most salvage auctions won't even allow a NON-dealer to browse the lot without a licensed dealer present with you. These shade tree rebuilders and wheeler dealers want a clear shot at bidding at whatever they want WITHOUT any competition from anybody. So they prevent NON-dealer individuals from bidding and now they prevent out-of-state DEALERS from bidding unless they pay a license fee to the state for a few hundred bucks. Pure political protectionism at its finest.

 

There was a red QV that was smashed up badly, pictures of it are on this site somewhere, I think under "sad Countach" , it came from coparts. I have a friend that does wreck rebuilds & he has bought several from there and it has worked out ok, he is who told me about the site.

 

First let me apologize to both yourself and Horsefly if I came off a bit harsh, that was not my intention. The statements I made reflect watching the Countach market over the past several years. That is not as many years as some here, however it is enough to cast relevance on market values and how they have changed over the past years. Several years ago you could purchase decent Countaches in the $50K range, that being said you could also purchase a Miura for $65K now look at their values respectively.

Horsefly I believe your reference to the Corvette you bought for $6,500.00 was in the past tense, it sounds like a great deal especially if they were bringing $10,000.00 at the time. I am a big fan of the second generation Vette, however I do not think it is a fair comparison to a Countach because of the production numbers.

Lamborghini made less than 2,000 Countaches over the 15 year run. Of these there were approximately 700 2-valve cars and 1,300 4-valve cars. Chevy produced 122,744 second generation Vettes. In 2005 Chevy celebrated the small blocks fifty year milestone. At the time they had produced almost 90 million 350 small blocks. The componentry for the Vette is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of Lamborghini components for the reason of supply and demand amongst others.

What I know as fact is that a clutch for a 2-valve Countach is $670, a T/O bearing is $3,900 and a pressure plate is over $4,100 and rising due to the euro vs the dollar. Now that’s a hefty sum of money for a clutch job, does this mean that every Countach needs a clutch, no. But chances are that if you are buying under the market value you are going to have repairs that dictate the lower price. The 1986 Countach that is listed on eBay was purchased several months ago from a sponsor here. If memory serves me correct the asking price was around $69,000.00 with disclosure that the clutch was slipping. Given this information the buyer had to price into his purchase approximately $10K for the clutch alone. Now I don't know how much the car was sold for, but I do know that $28K was what it took to get it to the point where it is now. I believe it would be fair to say that the cost of the parts alone amounted to half of the bill or $14K.

Are there $50K Countaches? Yes certainly, there was a carcass of a Countach that the asking price was $25K. The point is that the low end of the market is going to cost you more in the long run than buying in the mid-point of the market. Again best of luck to you and certainly no flame war intended towards Horsefly, Sincerely Vic

 

Depends on the part usually the local dealer, Evans Automotive or GT Parts. However some parts can be cross referenced IE: don't spend $700.00 on a OEM distributor cap when the Jag v-12 cap costs $89.00 or a $500.00 slave cylinder when you can rebuild your own for a couple bucks or just buy the Fiat slave for $80.

 

in italy you could find almost anything for countach: from OZ wheels, to badges, wings, lights, engine parts, boonets...ecc
prices are sometimes reasonable, sometime not (redlambo is right, engine parts are usually the most expensive)
the strong euro does not help to

i will second the suggest to buy a good one as you can, it is the best option for save money in the end
i bought a good one and i spent in the top of the market then.... i have seen a "cheaper" one that was for sale when i got mine in my mecanic shop: believe me i am MORE THAN HAPPY to have spent 20k euro more for the expensive one

if you have problems find parts, feel free to contact me, may be i could help you for parts in Italy

 

Since you go to Irak, may be you could spend some time in Dubai and hook up with thay guy John. He did what you want to do for a purcahse less than you are looking for. the guys in Dubai or Saoudi Arabia dont really care about the money but the car will need a complete take down which is what you want. The issue is that these guys never took car of the cars. If it gets of out gas they tend to leave it in the desert and buy something new.