Countach, the ultimate supercar

I agree Ken. the 88.5 are fairly common . THe rare ones are the MY 1989 VIN KLAs.. right before the annivs.
The first 88.5 may be JLA12290 or could be from JLA 12287. The last was JLA12407. that one was for sale in NY (on Ebay) a while back.
JLA12290 is a nice Blue from S.Se. in Frankfurt if he still has it. He is the first guy who gave me his private impression of a DD QV as an owner. He hooked me..

So as you can see from the VINs there are tons of 88.5. I can personally identify 50 of them.

Edit: Most of the 88.5 seem to be in USA , UK and Germany. Most 88.5 cars are overwhelmingly in the USA

 

#12242 (a clean 88), also had the same slotted window vents.

 

I've seen this one advertised on DuPont. Anyone know the current state of the car?

 

It is currently listed in Dupont. Info given by the seller states
it is an 87 my and "updated with sideskirts since new". Didn't see any cockpit shots.
Maybe it is what we refer to as an 88.5, but at the very least i would say it lends proof to
your statement that 88.5 cars were built in 87 (since these skirts were available). The use of the word "updated" led me to think that it was NOT an 88.5 but an 87 plus skirts. It is for sale through Marino Motorsport ,but never heard of them before.

 

It started sooner than that.. my car is without skirts, but has the extra side vents for the
A/C and slotted vents for the windscreen. It is JLA12210
(best of both worlds imo

 

Hi Joe please could you confirm whether any of the RHD drive 88.5 era QV's had the AC upgrades as all the ones I have seen seem to have the analogue AC. As the numbers were small (15 I think brought into the UK of which at least one has ended up at eurospares ) I guess that lamborghini didn't bother with changing the AC for the right hand drive cars. My car is number 12410, delivered with the skirts etc in 1988 but the analogue AC
Kind regards
Keith

 

ah! your is the red /tan with red piping? VIn KLAxxxx so you do have a MY89. Probably the 3rd or so MY1989

 

November sounds right. Roy's blue car is the likely 3rd 1988.5 car made on Dec 1987.
Roy can confirm this fact.

August 1988 is the month they did the lasst cars fo MY1989 QV model (KLA still considered 88.5 model?) from what I have

 

Yes that is the one, recently purchased and in excellent condition. I haven't had a chance to review its full history which came with the car but for some reason it was delivered with brown piping and this was changed to red at collection.

 

OK Roy give the lot boy a screwdriver, and not the one you drink.
Below is a photo of the headlights on a then new 1983 Countach VIN DLA12649, from Jeremy Coulters book World Supercars 2.
This particular car had 153 KMs on it a the time of the photo shoot, so I doubt anyone messed with the headlights.
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Then if you want to mention rarity you may want to make the precision that is is one of the rare 88.5 that have the KLA vin. There are a lot ("lot" in the context of a countach serie) of 88.5 but most are JLAxx. Ther may be 16 KLAxx (from the top of my head). Some here may have the very exact numbers.
please post pictures. Its a beautiful DD car.

 

Dont know..dont care..it seems to drive just fine regardless when it was built...had it out agian yesterday for a extended Lunch/Drive. Perfromed flawlessly and into the 3 digits with out an issue. It was the first time I had to use the A/C (was 74 degree's here in Seattle yesterday)..blew ICE cold as I listned to "Rod Stewart" on the Stereo that still works as if it was new.

 

Nope, again, I could care less..I, as stated here earlier..am not going to get grey hairs and worry about a nut or bolt in the wrong place, if I have the wrong color wheels on it, if the exhaust is 1/2 inche to low, if the air in the tires have been replaced and are not the air that came in them from the factory..

I DRIVE my cars..I dont worship the like a false "God" and I dont let them sit in some over priced exspensive "man cave" rotting away just to say I have one.

Like I have always said, "If you want to look at it....buy a poster"

I am going back to my start, buy what I like, get it mechanical to the top...and drive the holly "piss" out of them as they were ment to be driven..they were built by mand for man to enjoy, not pick apart some 25 years later..and if that causes my cars to be off less value..so be it.....cause I sure as hell cant take the extra $10k in the grave with me...I refuse to be aperson of age that hs to look back with regrets and say "Darn, could have and should have"

Today is going to be SE30 day...it's been sitting to long as well..and this being the first day of the rest of my life...I am going to enjoy it...AND just so everyone is clear..my SE30, (1 of 2) that I will be driving today..has been altered..it has NEW Rossa Corssa tires on it and I also swapped the USA Belts (stupid ass electric mouse rails) for a set of Blue Euro SE 30 belts..but just on the drivers side...OMG what blastfmy have I done now...LOL

 

Well... on the early lambo level its when we think we know everything that we find out something unexpected ...

Here is what I'd love to know. Anyone with info could chime in here or privately to me if they feel shy:

The very 1st 88.5 can be one of these Vins: JLA12287, JLA12288, JLA12289 or JLA12290.
All 88.5 have the new AC. Never saw one without. some late MY88 have claimed to be 88.5 in selling adds but my understanding is that the new AC is one of the most important point to make the car an 88.5. We can't rely on the skirt to Id an 88.5.

I know of JLA12290 being an 88.5. I may post pictures when i get to my other computer. It would be fantastic to have someone coming out with proof that one of the cars is or is not an 88.5 with the VIN and the build date. We could ID or narrow the very first 88.5.

Even you Roy, could provide any of those info to make my day, despite that you dont really care about VINs. Wont spoil your drive and you will have the satisfaction of making someone in the world happy! We all have our "religion" at different degree right?

 

I don't know about you but it just pisses me off when someone is driving towards me with their high beams on. In your case if you drive this car at night you will be blinding oncoming traffic, seeing as your high beams are in the wrong spot and are wired to be the first bulbs activated when you turn the headlights lights on.
Hence it now becomes a mechanical / hazard issue and not an upside down S badge issue.

 

BOY you sure assume a lot..becuase I have driven it at night..and let me tell you there is no blinding of anyone..when I hit the brights on...it lights up and with these old style lights..you are lucky to see 100 feet in front of you compared to todays "truly blinding" lights..

But, there is two solutions for you..

1) Dont drive at night ion Seattle as you may run into me...

2) Buy it and change what ever makes you happy..

 

I am happy to give you anything you want on my Blue car..just ask, becuase I am not sure what you want..the VIN# is in the ad on my website with the car..

www.catsexotics.com

 

had it out weekend befor..what a Blast to drive..
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just pulling your leg. Your car is accounted for. it's the JLA number above I am really after. this way we can know excatly how many 88.5 from when to when and what vins range.
I am amazed that even this is hard to find out...

 

We had at least 3 88.5 in Sweden, one of them is JLA12366.

And a 5000S with 88.5 sideskirts