The big Countach tech problem is...

...to find a good mechanic.

But what exactly is "a good mechanic"?

Very simple, he is the guy that:

1) knows very well the car, knows its typical faults and knows when he can tell you "the car now works how it has to do".
2) has a bit of knowledge about mechanical science
3) can put his hands on your car without destroying anything
4) has the necessary tools
5) is intelligent
6) has the necessary time to find what's the real problem of your car is
7) never tells you "the problem is the actual gasoline without lead"
8) never tells you "the car does not work well as you do not know how it has to be driven correctly"
9) does not need your help more than one time to discover the reason why your car does not work well
10) do not look at you like you were just a stupid rich chicken he can rob.
11) is not too much expensive
12) does not create by himself problems to your car just to increase the bill.
13) just wants to fix your car.

Thirteen points: i passed through four Lamborghini "specialists" since 2010 and now i can say i have an almost perfectly running car, but i never found a guy that could fit more than half points of the list...

 

I have to say that he was (and still is) the best of the bunch in my personal rank.

ciao

 

I have a big advantage over most of you: i live in Italy close to Lambo factory and here we have the best Lamborghini specialists in the the world.

Despite this, it's very difficult to find a good mechanic here too. I think the average level of world Lambo specialist is lower than here and by far, and i think they are even more expensive.

I do not want to say "that is bad", i just want to point out how difficult is to find a good mechanic that can have many of the 13 features.

I'm sure that everyone here experienced a bad "Lambo" mechanic, as if i had so many (medium level) problems with mechanics despite living so close to the factory, i'm almost sure that somebody that lives in the US or overseas experienced some disasters and sinked a lot of money worthless.

I'm sure some owners of those old cars never drove their cars in the "factory standard" running mode. And i think it worths the money, as those cars are music for ears when correctly tuned.

So i do not want to point my finger against a name or anyone, as i think that's a big common problem worldwide when you talk about the pre-Diablo cars.

ciao

 

My experience:

1) I had to tell the mechanic where fuel tank cap was (of course he was not the Lamborghini offcial service nor the no.1 in the world Lambo specialist that mostly restored my car)

2) three different times (and two different mechanics) he told me "the car does not run well as you do not know how to drive it correctly"


3) eight different times (and with all four mechanics) i had to explain what real the problem was, as they were totally off course and wasting time (and my money) on the wrong pieces. Three of those times i had to solve the problem by myself with independent mechanics as they did not succeed to solve the problem neither after i told them "the problem is there, change or fix that piece".


4) Four times (at least) i felt the mechanic knew very well what the problem was but he just wanted to waste time to increase the bill so he told me "maybe is that, maybe is this"


5) When i take the car to a very cheap not Lambo mechanic that works on popular cars and i tell him "do that" without explaining what the problem was, the car then works great and the bill is ridicolous.

6) when you change your Lambo specialist mechanic and take the car to another Lambo specialist, he immediately finds something that did not work and your car starts going by far better. But that is the first and last time he improves the car by himself...


7) the last problem i had was fixed with 1,50 euro (one euro and fifty cents) in five minutes in my garage: estimated cost by the specialist was.. who knows, i did not fixed it in three previous attempts...


ciao

 

I want to add this.

My car engine and transmission was mostly restored by No.1 in the world top ranked Lambo mechanic, you can see his picture on several Countach books. He has 42 years of Countach experience and i think at least 30 years at the Factory Official Assistance Service... If you visit his shop, you can see there several of the most famous Lambo vintage cars in the world and he has more work than he can do also today. He restored the green LP400 prototype you can see at the factory Museum. Valentino Balboni send "his" cars there. But my experience with him (better, them as the shop owner is his son and he just work there to help his son as he is retired) was not what i expected to be.
Yes, i was very proud when himself in person called me at the phone and told me "your engine is closed and ready to start, if you want you may come here and hear the engine working as we are testing it this afternoon" It was great, but after some weeks i was no more so happy. However, he gave me a car that could work and go wherever i wanted: it was not a disaster, just an incomplete and not debugged work.

So i think years of experience are important, but you need also other qualities: you need an "expert" to start the work and do the main things, but the car works really well just when also small things are fixed, serviced, checked and tuned.

The most important steps towards the "perfect working mode" were done by the followin mechanics:

1) Giancarlo Ferraresi, Mirandola (MO): an electrician that installed a booster solenoid (35 euro), changed main battery cables and starter motor cables (120 euro). He usually fixes tractors and trucks. Since then the car always starts, cold or hot.

2) Carlo Sgarbi, a retired Weber carburator specialist, Massa Finalese (MO): he fully serviced the carbs, despite they were just serviced by... i do not want to tell who. I personally delivered the carbs to him and took back to the mechanic shop. This man is the only one that fits all 13 points.

3) Giancarlo Breveglieri Lamborghini Service Crevalcore (BO): he discovered that the carbs linkage was not well tuned and had some weared joints, that the throttle wire was rusted and the spark timer needed a service. After those works the car improved as never before, runs smooth and started pulling like a beast also over 5000 RPM and helding fifth gear at 40 miles per hour too.

4) Autorettifica Modenese, Modena: they opened the differential case and tuned the play between the gears. No more "clunck" noise when you selected the reverse gear or selected the first gear coming from the reverse gear. No.1 in the world Lambo mechanic said there wasn't any "clunck" noise coming from the differential case... Now i'm sure there isn't! They also serviced the differential self locking system.

5) Casa del freno, Modena. They restored and fully serviced brakes calipers, brake pump and changed brake pads too. No.1 in the world Lambo mechanic said they worked well also before, but maybe he did not know brake did not pass the DOT periodical test... Now i'm sure they work as they have to do: 700 euro i was very happy to pay.

6) Myself. I found the problem that put my car on the rescue truck three times and made me waste 2000 + euro: a fuel tank venting tube badly installed by the Lambo specialist (that was not the N.1 overall in the world rank that mostly restored my car).

7) Myself again. I found the problem that caused a not perfect idle, some misfiring and many explosions in the muffler when i released throttle pedal. I do not want to tell what the problem was, i just want to tell that was not solved by the Lambo expert (that was not the N.1 overall in the world rank that mostly restored my car) in three attempts. I solved the problem with 1,5 euro: i'm not a genius so it means the problem was very easy to solve...

ciao