Countach, the ultimate supercar

Beautiful , thanks for posting!

 

Worth mentioning is that MP's car does have a bigger engine as well...

 

Joe,
By faster I mean in a straight line.....400S is much more nimble in the corners and you are very correct regarding feeling the weight difference. When running mine back to back...the DD is much faster straight line. Which would I rather be driving on a nice road with a combination of tight and sweeping corners?...the LP400S no question about it. But as soon as the road opened up the DD would pull on the LP400S...at least in my case

Brian

 

Have you still that LP400S?
Thanks for the images, great stuff!!!

 

I hate to ruffle feathers, but the LP400S comes in several flavors..... most very slow and one very fast. The series 3 is by far the slowest of all Countachs, with the S2 right behind it. I have driven them all, and period magazine tests back this up. The S3 is just ~100 lbs lighter than a DD....it has the high body; it has the thicker aluminum body; lost all the magnesium of the LP400 in favor of heavier aluminum alloy; it has the little carbs; it has the lower compression. If fact, the LP500S was created to try to get more performance out of the Counach which was a dog by then, so even the factory, by its own actions, makes a defacto admission that the S3 is slower than a 500S. And nobody argues that a 500S is faster than a DD. So, imo it is silly for anybody to claim that the slowest variant is faster than the fastest variant! Now let's work backwards. Let's look at the S2 low body. This car still has the little carbs and thicker aluminum panel body work and same aluminum components. The only advantage S2 has over the S3 is the lowbody which accounts for about 100 lbs by my calculations. Still, no contest against a DD. Now we go farther back to get to the S1. Very early S1s (not all of them!) are the fastest of the 400S series because they have the high-output, big-carbed engine right out of the LP400. They have the thinner aluminum body, thinner light weight glass, and many magnesium components just like the LP400, and the lighter magnesium Bravo wheels. These cars are about 300 pounds lighter than the later S1 and S2 cars and maybe 400 pounds lighter than the S3. This very small number of cars (I wish someone determined when the changes happened in S1 cars, but I bet it is close to when the gauges changed....Joe maybe knows) are the only ones that I agree can outperform or even hang with a DD. Perhaps it was early S1s that Joe and the others were driving in their experiences. So, if you have a VERY early S1, you have an extremely fast and nimble car that weighs (and handles) like a Turbo Esprit, with a real 375 hp. If you have a later S1, S2, or S3 variants, you have a heavier, lower-powered car that was getting beaten by Porsches all day, and that were/are slower than all the other Countach variants. Those lucky ones with the early S1 cars have the most valuable ones imo, and all other LP400S owners have real cool, but relatively slow, cars.

 

+1

 

Good info..I still like my LP400 "Periscopa" car..prior to it going in under the knife it was a blast and a half, fast as hell car..just a lot of fun...cant wiat till it is all done this Summer.

 

Great conclusion to my numerous wonderings.

Indeed, I was not sure Series 2 were fitted with the small carbs. You seem to be certain about it... Good, I think it makes sense, with regards with "natural evolution".

Still wondering if some Series 1 were fitted with 40's carbs.... ?

 

Yea Roy, they are unbeatable! Highest top speed....best high-speed acceleration because of less aerodynamic drag with no flares, low body, and thinner wheels/tires! Best of all variants imo! Early S1 corners better with lots of rubber, but sticky modern rubber on LP400 fixes that. And the pure and original design is still amazing. .....no wonder they are getting so valuable, and still way undervalued imo; should be worth more than Miura SV imo. Sure Miura is beautiful, but put SV and LP400 next to each other and the crowd will make the desicion real clear. And I sold a Miura because it couldn't come close to the performance of the LP400 (which did after all, replace it). Miura bones just too old; creaky & flexy chassis, hard to shift and strange zero-camber steering, even more ape-like driving position. Don't get me wrong, Miura deserves to be where it is value-wise as it is one of the most awesome cars ever, but compared to LP400, I just think it and other Countach variants are extremely undervalued.

 

Just my 2cents to the readers:
Don't ever let the difference between them let you think NOT to buy one of them.
A Series 3 is still a Countach and if you are not a collector, which whom would be looking at 400 & S1, and are driving it, the difference will most likely never be achieved while owning it.
Do not get the impression that one is horrible than the other. They're not.
S3 are afforable and that's is the way to go if you are not rich. It will not be looked down upon.

 

love this encouraging message : have fallen in love with an S2, ...

 

Some of us even have one of the the dreaded fuel injected cars, and we all know no one wants any of them ;-)

 

Definitely. I sure wasn't trying to cut any car down. It was all a relative discussion. EVERY Countach is super cool. There are differences, but in the big scheme of things, like the impact any Countach makes, they are really small differences. Every Countach is awesome!

 

LP400S S3....Slow? Yes...but fast enough to be enjoyed and it still makes wonderful noises

Brian
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Plenty fast to get in all kinds of wonderful trouble.

Slow is a relative term.

 

A person should not look at just the factory advertised weights and quoted power. A buyer should also take into account, how well an unmodified car is set-up. I would 'guess' quite a few cars are not set up correctly. Example, if the internal components of the distributor are not within specs, the car will not produce the power, it is capable of providing.

A buyer compares two nice looking unmodified Countach autos, and comes away with reservations about the performance of a certain model. It may be mechanical issues with the particular car that was driven and not the model.


If you want a fast car, by modern standards, the stock Countach is probably not a good choice. It is a twenty five year old collector car.

 

considering i ate a guys lunch who was driving a F-360 i'd say that a Countach is still plenty fast, even by todays standards. At least enough to QUICKLY get into trouble. Anyway, that is not exactly the point of the Countach anymore at this stage in its life. As far as types, I also LOVE my good friends injected car too. Especially since he has owned it for 21 years and has put a total of about $4,000 dollars into it since that time. It has needed virtually nothing but tires and oil. (and we are talking about one that gets driven).

 

OM f-ing god! A Prius????? A f-ing Prius dwarfs a Countach too?!?!?! Just look at that picture hahaha........it's gotta be that the Countach plays tricks with a camera.

 

What's really remarkable in that picture is seeing Doug's Diablo. The three red cars look good together even if one is a Prius.

 

Tim,
You need to come back for a visit. The restaurant in the picture(with the three cars) is the one that you, Doug and I talked cars for about 3+ hours.....what a fun time.

Brian