Countach, the ultimate supercar

And I can't believe nobody knows what happened with the wreck.

 

Thank you guys for the kind words!! Having fun with the YouTube series and trying to create something as factual and concise as possible to inform the next generation!

Yes, Part 2 is specifically on the Downdraft and the 25th. : )

Tried to dumb down as much information and keep it as clean as possible was much more difficult than I thought. I could spend 48 minutes just talking about "Low Body" cars.

 

Nice piece John, there was a mischievous twinkle in your eye when you uttered the moniker "QV"

 

And what a difference an inch can make

Thank you for this

 

Let's do that. I know of a S1 and S3 that are together, possible with an S2. Would make a great video.

 

There is no denying my love for the QV car. You will see in Part 2...

We have been very fortunate in the past year to have had every example from LP400S, 5000S, QV FI, QV DD and 25th Anniversary. They are all so special, but it is still shocking just how wild the European spec QV car is to drive. While we just sold our personal example, I am eagerly waiting to one day replace it with another one!

The next car will be some crazy color, no wing, with Gold wheels... (Putting that out into the universe...)

 

Any news on your blue qv fi car ? Just curious,love its color combo,thanks

 

I beg to differ by proffering this unedited image from Timpelen's archives > gold wheels & sills.

Look at the silver trim around the windscreen and door-windows of the LP500, and the silver wheel rims of the Lancia Stratos Prototipo in the background, this proves that the toning of the image is unadulterated as the image has suffered no yellowing.

Accordingly you can see the clear white of the Bertone sign.

Also, look at the white-clear headlamp and driving lenses of the Miura SV.

Then by contrast look at the gold wheels & sills of the car, similar in tone to the yellow Pirelli script painted on to the tires.

It makes sense that the debut SV had gold sills & wheels as the works wanted to introduce this as an option for the new SV, which many cars went on to be specced with.

To me, even though I think the present-day silver livery looks better for this color scheme, the fact that this Miura SV 4846 was displayed @ the 1971 Geneva Salon with gold wheels & sills is, well, pretty much indisputable

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Sorry I missed this, it's a 1966 Lola T70

 

Will post more photos and documentation, I honestly just have not had the chance.

 

I am totally on board! What part of the country??

 

Good luck finding a Downdraft in a crazy color, no wing & gold wheels

Having personally owned multiples of every type of Countach variant made at Sant Agata, the conclusion I've finally drawn after messing with these cars for 30 years appears to be the same as yours

 

I know your views on this matter but I simply do not agree.

If you are able to claim that the colour of the wheels of your car 'are reflecting off the dark charcoal industrial carpet ' in your garage https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/145840088/ I trust you will understand why I believe that the use of floodlights reflected the body colour of the prototype onto the silver wheels of 4846. No, the two pictures were simply taken at different time of day under different lighting conditions.

Nor does there appear to be a shred of evidence at the factory that gold wheels were fitted...

 

Just to be clear you attached the first [incorrect] summary. The correct version [I hope} is:

S1 Low body with Bravo wheels 1121002 to 1121100
S2 Low body with disc wheels 1121102 to 1121310
S3 High body with disc wheels 1121312 to 1121470 +1121483 +1121485 +1121495

The last three cars were in the 500S range of chassis numbers but fitted with 4L engines...

 

I just realized I described your car... hahaha

I was hoping for Yellow...Acapulco Blue...

 

Just from a pure physics standpoint of light and how it travels, the even gold tones of the wheel would not be there if it were reflecting the yellow paint. The reflection would be patchy, and would be more prominent in areas that represented a mid-angle between the lens and the car, and less prominent in the other areas - but the gold coloring does appear to be very consistent with a gold wheel and not reflections.

 

Have another look. In the picture posted by Joe the wheel appears golden but the sill is silver. Unless of course I am going blind in my old age...

 

As somewhat of a photopgrahy student for @ 30 years, I think that cover image as used on CAR magazine's May 1971 was simply taken without flash, ergo the poor lighting of the car in the background (the SV) whereas the image I proffered was taken with flash, those are the different lighting cinditions, the show stage would remain a constant.

Thank you again, yes indeed, this is the right summary.

Correcto.

I freely admit that I am going color-blind in my old age.

However, I have some personal experience with this. My own Miura SV 4884 with perfectly color-matched sills & wheels was photographed in certain light-sources to show the sills having a much more silver tint. Placing the car in a different setting solved the problem next time. The reason for this is that whereas the wheels are being viewed in a vertical plane, the sills curve away to the car's under-belly starting from a vertical plane to almost a horizontal plane, and so they often are photographed to show a lighter or darker shade of gold than the wheels, depending on light sources.

I too started off years ago believing the sills & wheels of 4846 were silver @ Geneva in 1971, but now I'm as confident as I can reasonably be that they were in fact gold.

Even though there is no proof of written-down spec of gold sills & wheels for 4846, the fact that it stands to reason that they would have presented the new SV with the new gold livery makes sense and corroborates what the photograph proves anyway.

 

That's funny.

Blu Acapulco Downdraft? I can only pray for you.

 

Well, in the post I quoted, you only talked about the wheels not being gold - you never mentioned the sill.

Zooming in to the picture the sill is not visibly silver, however I do agree that it's a similar shade to the floor so it could be gold or could be reflecting the floor (not the yellow prototype - the physics of light just doesn't work that way). I believe it is gold however, because it shows very similar colors (heavily pixelated) to the upper right side of the wheel, which is also pointing down away from the light (the sills are curving under the car away from the light) and the upper right of the wheel would not be reflecting the floor to the camera, but other parts of it would be if that were the case.

 

I've been thinking about this and had a look at the image you posted too of the magazine cover. That image to me is not color correct - the Bertone sign has an orange tinge to it (as opposed to white in Joe's image) and quite frankly, the Muira looks almost black! Lighting would have a difference, but should not make a white sign orange.

One thing to remember is you're not looking at photographs - you're looking at a photograph of a piece of paper printed 45+ years ago which was most likely printed in a 4 process color (CMYK) based on a strip of a photo taken with 45+ year old film technology. Same of course applies to Joes pic - however the color differences could be a couple of things.

Firstly, a photo lithographer (or "stripper" as my ex-brother in law used to say he was) stripped the 4 color components (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - CMYK where the K means "Key" which is usually black) from which the printing plates were made. It appears to me that either the film was off, or his stripping was off, hence the overly orange color of the yellow car, and the orange tint to the Bertone sign.

Secondly, it's widely known in the print industry (my Dad owned printing companies since I was knee high to a grasshopper) that gold and silver colors don't print well in CMYK. I think sometime around the 90s 6 color processes started to come out - in particular to include gold and silver inks, and also other variations used a lighter Cyan and a lighter Magenta (in addition to the normal ones) for very subtle light colors. So really, we can't even be sure that either picture is color accurate, but given the color of the Countach, Bertone sign, and the Muira itself, Joe's image seems more accurate. Even the orange car in the background looks to be a richer orange.

Anyway - not trying to add fuel to the fire - just more information to think about. Now. Back to Countachs...

 

John probably in Europe or Japan a DD in a rare color awaits. Need to put the word out. What sort of a premium would you assign to a DD in a rare color?

 

The beauty has found its place ;o)
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We have been through all this before and none of it changes my opinion. Maybe another colour image of 4846 will one day emerge to prove my point. This was the Bertone stand so perhaps Gandini or some of the other ex Bertone people will remember...

 

Miura 1960, that LP500 model is glorious, I take it it's 1/18th scale...? The Carabo looks fab too, very nice!