Countach Downdraft 1985 to 1988.5

Happy Easter everyone!!!
R

 

In actual fact I met him in Italy and recognised him. He worked for Centro Stile Bertone from 1966 to 1980 and made the models and drawings for the prototypes including Miura, Marzal, Countach, Urraco, Jarama, Athon etc not to mention many well known Bertone cars...There is a complete summary of his career here...

https://it.linkedin.com/in/arrigo-gallizio-11604b31

 

I saw these last week, they are gray. There is also another pair for sale that are black like mine, did some Countach have gray mirrors ?

 

they look painted as in the anniversary cars

 

Canna di Fucile means gunmetal. Btw that is the correct paint code for the engine cover, slats and ears of Urraco, Silhouette and Jalpa...

 

Hi Joe,

I must say its been great to finally scan and share these photos I've had in albums and shoe boxes for so many, many years. I must thank my parents for driving me across the country to attend those old test days so many times too.

Glad you like them and that they have recorded so many of the UK cars when they were new or nearly new.

As I said on the other forum, I still have quite a few from the silverstone historic festival days that I will scan in the new year. Some nice ones of Valentino when he attended those events too.

Oh and thanks for sharing them on this amazing thread so that others can enjoy them!

Cheers
David

 

I'm not convinced. I don't have photographic evidence but my memory suggests these cars where at the same Castle Combe event at the same time.
For some reason I also think D421 was owned by another guy who happened to be called Rob.
I will see if I can do any digging to back up what I think.

cheers

 

Joe, I must say the color is special. I'd personally prefer a brighter shade of the one, but this one should stand out in dramatic conditions, like autumn in Switzerland with forest and leaves and other places with high light contrasts. It looks awesome at night, under spot lights. And it looks way too dark under perfect sunlight which California is famous for, so the special nature gets unnoticed. The early morning pics are awesome!
It's a kind of mature color.

 

Do you know about any fast driving footages of a Countach?
It seems, people always complain about Countach being hard to drive, pedals are heavy and so on. You know, they say the same about LM002 which after few hours of driving I've found really nice, the the pedals were not as heavy as they seem at first. I wouldn't notice them later on, even if driven in traffic jams!

Recently, I've found something that was out for a long time, but I haven't noticed it.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOHnEFriQg[/ame]
It's Henry Pescarolo driving a Countach. And by his driving Countach does not seem as a bad car to go fast and corner.
So many people from racing were involved in Countach development: say, Gian Paolo Dallara (although he wasn't in charge and was young), Bob Wallace, who wanted a race car feel, then Walter Wolf, who could handle fast cars. And yet people blame it for literally not being a Ferrari. Where is the truth?
My point was that a very little number of people handled the real race cars of 70-80s and maybe if compared Countach seemed very friendly and easy to drive. For those, who stepped out of the personal luxury coupes, it was a nightmare.