Looking at a Countach tomorrow

+1. That is the exact reason I wanted a carbed car. I wanted something I would feel ok working on myself. I've delt with several cars from the 80's and their fuel injection problems. Bad sensors, bad injectors, a computer. None of that is in my Countach. I really have not had that many problems to jade me with carbed anything. Motorcycles, lawn mowers, my Jalpa, Pantera, etc. But my old Corvette (1989), I wore out a good pair of walking shoes on that one.

 

Good call Raymond,

Weber carburettors were "state of the art" technology for their time.

The fuel injection from the 80's is not the same as your Lexus or Chevy has today. Countach fuel injection isn't well documented (considering the small number built) and was designed by Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse) long before onboard diagnostics (OBDII) were available. Pretty primitive by today's standards. It was basically a "band-aid" to get the cars into the US and meet the emission requirements of the time. The fact that it wasn't used on all the cars says a lot for how much the Company invested in it's development.

A fuel-injected car can indeed start and run well if everything's working right but when it's not, it can be more difficult to fix. There are a few variations (I've seen several) plus apparently some that were done with aftermarket parts (like the one on Dupont). This will only add to the confusion and potential difficulty in selecting a good car to purchase.

 

I can probably get any carbed, point ignition car home from a roadside breakdown. All you can do with a bad ecu car is crank it until the battery is dead. My Weber carbed LP400s was quite tractible under all driving conditions.

Only problem I have in a CT is making every intersection a full 90 degree stop/turn so that you can actually see oncomming traffic. Same as driving a panel van delivery truck with no side windows I suppose.

 

Well, there you go. Having never owned an FI italian car, I promptly insert my foot in my mouth! I guess I was assuming it could not possibly be worse than the issues those of us with older lamborghinis deal with but I'm understanding now that it is.

 

Don't be too hard on yourself.

Your advice about finding a "well sorted" car is still good.

 

Yes he passed away in October, so Jas is gone and Trefor is gone.

 

Another big loss was John R. Vanlandingham (JRV on the **************** boards) at Pinnacle Motorsports. Very sad when those with lots of knowledge are lost. :-(

Didn't JRV have a Miura as well?

Mike

 

I know a bunch of mechanics who service older cars, their opinion is meanwhile, better have an oldstyle distributor with contatcs, an oldstyle fuelpump driven directly by the fuses, since every additional relais, control unit etc can break and will sooner or later, the less you have the less problems. Imagine the megamighty Porsche 959, there are a number of cars which do not run anymore because their special electronic broke and there are no spare parts.

You can translate this on every modern car, in a few decades you will have tousand of mechanical good cars sitting around with broken electronic, the more connected systems the worse it will be.

 

Good points I tend to agree with you, and I was rather surprised to learn that a car with FI built in the 80's has fuel reliability issues, which blows my mind. I'll add this for thought - I've only ever met one mechanic under 40 who knows how to (and more importantly, is able to) properly set up a 6-carburetor engine, and as much as I wish that I'm talking about me, I'm not. I only hope I can learn to be as competent as he is some day!

I guess the takeaway for the purposes of this discussion is that it's good to have a top-notch mechanic nearby who is familiar with these cars prior to purchasing, because it will make your enjoyment of the car that much greater.

 

Actually, I think we should have him give us a clinic one of these weekends to share some knowledge, before he gets fed up and decides to retire. I'm not joking.

 

We'll have to pay for his airfare from Japan, and a translator, as he does not speak a lick of English! It's the first time I've ever seen anyone set up carburetors without using a syncrometer - perhaps that's normal for the skill players, but I was still impressed. Our first trip around the block was fantastic, but he could "hear" that my plugs were too hot. A quick swap of plugs and the car was running even better. I'm sure there's plenty of older guys out there who can do this, but I've never seen any 30-something with this level of voodoo.

 

Sorry, I thought you were speaking of the older gentleman of our mutual acquaintance here in OC.

 

Ah, yes, he's quite excellent as well!

 

I would run from that car if it doesnt have service. 2500 miles is great till you put 15K into it to make sure there are no issues. but it sure looks sweet!

 

i think Sammy agrees with you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfNATuw1DRs


happy motoring

hf

 

It does not say it needs serviced or not. A couple hundred dollar inspection will tell you if there are issues. I doubt it's a money pit. But then hey, to me a 1989 is darn near a new car!

 

If you like the car, make an offer pending approval of a detailed PPI, from a competent shop. If you want to drive the car, it will lose some value when you put mileage on the car. Garage queens that have sat, often have some mechanical issues come up, when you begin to drive the car on a semi-regular basis.

Some Anniversario cars in the U.S., still have very low KM on the odometer. When the car was new, you had a few owners/speculators who purchased these cars and immediately trashed the key, in the hope that the car would appreciate in price, while it sat in the garage for years. With that, some garage queens never had any service or drives. I have no opinion on the car you posted.

 

Why are you still dicking around?
Why aren't you having Roy or Joe help you get a car?
It sounds like you are VERY inexperienced with these cars to the point that you should spend more time to yourself researching and educating yourself and understanding. THEN you will have narrowed your search, THEN it will easier and quicker to buy one. You keep asking us what we think. We have already handed you several cars and you've done nothing with it.
I would appreciate and expect you to get your act together.

 

Huh? Multiple owners of brand new Annivesarios threw the key in the trash? Are we really expected to believe this stuff? Name a couple then. With chassis numbers please.

The stuff we have to read in this section *roll eyes now if you need to*

 

I'm still having trouble with his unfortunate run of bad luck: you know, the non-running cars, the ones without wheels, etc.

 

I guess Ralf meant this more in a figurative sense and not literally as I believe there were a few speculators that purchased the 1989 Anniversary Countach from an investment stand point and not really to drive them. Unfortunately for them it was not the best investment vehicle.

 

Thanks Vic,

bingo !

It is not difficult to understand my post.

 

OK I get it now.

I have this tendency to take people's posted words at face value. I will have remember to read between the lines and search for the figurative meaning next time.

But for the record and for those concerned readers that were momentarily lead astray, nobody ever trashed their Countach key.