Countach, the ultimate supercar

Carbon fiber on a vintage Countach is just plain wrong; and I'M in the carbon fiber business!

 

Perhaps the factory ran out of mice that day...

Thanks for the info.

 

You took the words right out of my mouth, Shame. Vic

 

You may be right about that, but if you love your wing and it starts to blister and come apart at the seams, the only way to retain a wing might be to go with carbon fiber. I recently read somewhere about a company made parts for a car out of carbon fiber but didn't want the "carbon weave" pattern poking through the paint so they placed a very thin layer of fiberglass over the entire piece before painting. If this works than it would be a good way of hiding the fact that you've put a corbon fiber part on your vintage Lambo.

 

I do not like the wing but one of the charms about it is how rough they were actually made. Stripping the paint off of a wing and repairing the aluminum IMO is the way to go. That way you maintain the originality of the wing and are merely restoring it rather than replacing it with a fake part. With regards to the the carbon weave showing this is known as 'read' and is an old problem that has long since been fixed with the use of proper materials and finishes. Whoever skinned a part in fiberglass to get rid of the read did not know what they were doing. I remember seeing the 25th Anni Countach when it came out and remarked at how the hood had terrible read on it. Years later, and well before I was in the carbon business, I was looking at a Tyrell F1 car with a friend of mine who is a very talented race engineer and aerodynamics specialist. The sidepods had terrible read on the tops and I asked him (thinking I was all smart) if he thought that 'texture' was to promote laminar airflow and avoid boundry layer separation at different suspension pitch angles. His answer was less sophisticated: 'No, that's just bad carbon fiber'

 

Re-making the "wing" for a Countach would be a relatively simple fabricating job regardless of the materials used.

I've made a number of fins and "canards" for race cars back in the 70's and 80's.

 

Joe,

Any idea which model Countach that was and the chassis number? I hadn't heard of this one.

 

Inside the factory in 1986.
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Monaco 1981.
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Good to know.

 

The 2 Countach's I've owned had perfect wings, so I never had to repair one. A few years ago a friend of mine had a wing that was in need of repairs. What he told me I do not know if it's true, so maybe Joe or Tim could chime in if they have knowledge pertaining to the subject. He said that, "Early big wings have a foam like filling in the wing, and when the wing starts to seperate moisture can get into the foam and make it expand. This exacerbates the problem, and makes the wing difficult if not impossible to repair". Again I have no first hand knowledge if this is correct or not.

 

my personal experience with early wings is good


i have seen some with "paint" problems, but i think they can be fixed

 

Joe, do you know the VINs of the two periscope cars in the photo?