Countach Downdraft 1985 to 1988.5

Awesome.

I think Jerry Palmer worked under my California neighbor GM Design Chief Ed Taylor who owned the ex-GM Miura P400 3186, which now lives with a great gentleman.

I'm surprised nobody from GM picked up that car, although Dave Gamret from Ford did end up owning a Countach LP400.

Driving a Countach on the 80s was quite an experience.

If that car was a Downdraft then it may be the one below in Colorado.

Thanks for sharing those memories Scott

Germany, I believe, Blu Acapulco LP500S

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Excellent.

Wow, small world, I knew the late Chuck Jordan, and, his son Mark Jordan is my neighbor!

Mark has this magnificent original Miura P400 3598 which he sometimes brings by the house http://joesackeyclassics.com/portfolio/blu-miura-3598/

 

Yes, he owned an early 1986 'Monospecchio' TR and a 1990 F40, both cars can be seen in this Automobile article, as can his son and my neighbor the Miura owner Mark Jordan https://www.automobilemag.com/news/vile-gossip-chrome-cobra-leaves-mortal-coil-137022/#chuck-jordan-and-sergio-pininfarina , naturally, because of his dad's ownership, Mark would love to buy back that F40 or in fact any other F40, so the search is on.

No, the GM Downdraft was not used in the Motor Trend or the Car & Driver test.

There were two red/tan Downdrafts in Detroit @ the same time, one at Ford and the other at GM, this confirmed to me by Lamborghini's CEO Patrick Mimran who authorized their conveyance.

The car below is the Ford car as tested @ the FoMoCo proving grounds @ Romeo, Michigan, the images taken by Aaron Kiley who provided them to me personally, some of which are exclusive to this thread.

Interestingly, these 2 Downdrafts caused Mimran to enter discussions with Ford, GM & Chrysler about @ joint project that involved a V10 Lamborghini front-engined 2 seater barchetta in the spirit of the old Cobra. That idea later became the Dodge Viper. Meanwhile, in early 1987, something happened and Patrick decided to sell. That story as told exclusively to me in considerable detail will be the subject of an article one day.

Note the Motor Trend article has erroneously transposed the technical statistics for a Fuelie in place of those of a Downdraft that should have been used.

Correct, two different cars

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A few more of the Kiley images

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Ultimate Diablo & Countach variants in convoy

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Memorial Day weekend 1986 you could have read about the car you were driving in Car & Driver magazine, featuring the other Downdraft

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Nice.

 

October 1986, that's famed race-car driver Bob Bondurant who is in the chopper behind the Nastasi-modified Downdraft that he chased round the track

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The backstory of this Countach feature is an interesting one, as facilitated by Bob Bondurant who used his beautiful black 341 Gazelle SA341G N101CL for monitoring students at his racing school as they went around the track.

Said Bob in an interview:

"I never actually went to a flying school. I got to where I could do a great job, but I was having a difficult time hovering. When driving racecars I always sat up straight. In the helicopter I would lean over a little bit trying to hang on to it, and I went to bed one night thinking that with the Corvettes I sat up straight, and so I did that the next day and all of a sudden I could hover. I got to be a good helicopter pilot and have a fantastic 341 Gazelle, an ex-Army helicopter. One time I was going to Sears Point, and the guy who ran the helicopter place said there was an FAA guy who liked to fly Gazelles and he could run me up to Sears Point and I said OK. So we got up over Southern California and were flying along the beaches looking at the girls on the beach, and I said, “I like your flying, it is really, really smooth.” And he said, “Thank you, would you like to really learn how to fly it?” I said, “I think so,” and so he said, “I will teach you how to fly.” So we got by Watsonville and by the winding river and he said he wanted me to go down to the river and follow the river and fly 50 feet above the river. I said something about the wires and he said he would watch for them with me. I was flying 100 feet and I thought it was 50 feet, and he said, “Down.” So we got down there and I really learned how to fly that thing fast and maneuver it. He asked me if I ever had a stall in it. I said in an airplane I had, but a helicopter will not stall. I didn’t know it would, most people don’t. He said, “Let’s take it up to 5000 feet and I’ll stay on the controls with you and I will show you how to do a stall.” And I thought if he ****s up it will be me and he and the helicopter. So we got there and all of a sudden he is flying backward down! I said, “Holy ****,” but he clicked a switch on the left panel and that is how you get out of a stall. So he did about four of them and he said, “It is your turn.” I said, “I don’t know if I can do this.” It took about half an hour to get to where I could really do it, and I said, “Why are you teaching me this stall?” And he said, “Very seldom you’ll get into it, but you’ll get into the mountains that are fairly low and you’ll get a lot of wind that will come down the top of that mountain and you’ll get into that situation and it could put you in a stall.” About five or six years later I was flying back to California, I had my son with me, and we were flying low in the mountains and all of a sudden the blades were up and down about ten feet and I said, “Holy **** were getting into a stall.” I saved it, and my son said, “Holy **** dad, we almost crashed,” and I said no, this guy taught me that. So we’re flying back to San Francisco with the FAA guy and he said, “I understand you race cars at the racetrack.” He said one thing I could learn to do is follow them around the track. So I dropped him off in San Francisco and I went on up to the school at Sears Point. I flew the helicopter every day."

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HLA 12065 looking good as ever

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Rick Lee's London-based Downdraft JLA12396

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1988 Imola, no less than 27 Countachs including a dozen Downdrafts rolled around the track

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Harry and his glorious HLA12165, a little birdie tells me he saw the light and took the wing off - again

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