My pleasure. One day the story of the Countach will be comprehensively & accurately chronicled with all of this included. FWIW, before Walter formed his own F1 racing team, he was a sponsor of Frank Williams F1 team, that's how he learned the ropes and decided "I can do this myself". And so he did, winning 3 F1 Grand Prix in 1977 (Argentina, Monaco & Canada), a record that has yet to be broken for a debut team. Who introduced Walter to Frank Williams and thus got him into F1? His pal Giampaolo Dallara. The story of Wolf getting a revelation of how to improve his LP400 is exactly as told above. The F1 - Countach linkage is deep, and this was not lost on Patrick Mimran who immediately fielded Countach LP400Ss as Monaco F1 Grand Prix Pace cars in 1981/82/83. As for the Wolfman's sunglasses, they should be mandatory wear for every LP400S driver!
Speaking of Williams, check out this movie if you haven’t seen it , incredible! The part where Walter Wolf removes Frank Williams from the team is quite interesting to say the least. To think that this lead to the LP400S and beyond , wow. Cheers to Joe for sharing this, can’t wait to see the full Countach story come together eventually. An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later.
I apologize if this was posted here already. Looks like an S2 lowbody at Laguna Seca. Anyone know the chassis # and or story? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I've posted it in the main Countach thread, but it's a worthy addition here. Roy Rossi's S2. Featured on TV Show Eye on LA, Featured in Top Car magazine, featured in Automobile magazine after an assault @ the Virginia City Hillclimb in Nevada. I've been in this Countach @ 20 years ago along Coast Highway in Newport Beach, an interesting experience to say the least.
Coffee stop. One of the nicest restored Countachs we've had the pleasure of conveying is 1121316 Image Unavailable, Please Login
Does anyone know the VIN or have any further information on this 1978-1979 LP400S that was photographed in Japan on 23 September 2012 at Furusato Park? The colour appears to be lighter than Blu Tahiti and I was wondering if it could be Azzurro Dino Metallizzato? Thanks!
Looks like a later tall Countach with aftermarket bravo wheels, wrong mirrors, wing and way too tall to be a lowbody. Could also be a repaint with the owners choice of color.
This was an Acapulco Blue on Tan 5000S which was sold to Japan a few years ago. Owner repainted and put Bravos.
A photo I'm sure we've all seen. There was talk the factory possibly installed the sunroof, was this ever confirmed? Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's sooooo the best color. Can you post more pictures of the sunroof inside and out? I use to install sunroofs back in the early and mid-80's up here in the Westchester County area of New York. Just curious.
Sorry Peter, I dont have any other pictures. This car was discussed years ago, I remember the possibility it was built as a custom order from the factory. I don't know if that was ever proven to be the case.
I posted images of this car on the main Countach thread years ago showing details of the sunroof clearly, it looked neatly done, but I've no proof it's factory.
So glad it's there for those who love, or not there for those who hate. Not an option for certain supercars with a permanent wing or rear spoiler
Dallara's early wide-buttressed Moody wing without end-plates was the King of all Boy Racer wings, the young men in the image seem to approve of it, the real racing wings were on the WR1 F1 race cars which the truck behind the Countach transported Image Unavailable, Please Login
im pretty sure it negated some of the rear axle lift boy racer or not. the "real" racing F1 wings in the trucks behind also slowed the cars massively in a straight line as well but thats not a priority at a circuit like monaco. ask what happened to Rindt at monza when he tried running without the rear wing seeking more straight-line speed. ooops ! having no rear wing is great if you dont have to turn, brake or run in an open desert with nothing to hit. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.the-long-read-chasing-400km-h-in-the-worlds-fastest-f1-car.4KJFHbfjaU8GgqUEgsKQeU.html great photo btw
The Countach doesn't get rear axle lift like some cars do at high speed, actually, it's well-known to be just the opposite. Any longtime owner who's done considerable high-speed driving, or any of the factory test drivers who have lots of experience testing the Countach at high speed can explain that because of it's front-to-rear weight distribution bias towards the latter, the Countach actually suffers from notorious front axle lift at high speed, and the addition of a rear wing only exacerbates the issue! As Countach production progressed, what the factory did to correct this from the LP500S variant onwards was, they tuned the angle of attack of the car, giving the 1985 Downdraft a slightly downward pitch over the front axle over it's predecessor, with the result that the latter car felt very stable as tested to terminal velocity in-period without a wing by F1 pilots & professional drivers alike. Wolf's early 1975/1976/1977 Countachs were Sperimentale efforts by Dallara, who neutralized the wing's angle adjustment in deference to the Countach's tendency to front-end lightness at high speed, essentially rendering the Wolf wings a cosmetic enhancement, albeit an admittedly striking one at that. He advised the factory to employ the same setting on any wings they put on their cars, which makes the purely aesthetic applications. However, Lamborghini's red-blooded customers loved the Boy Racer look wing and the factory naturally accommodated them, so they became part of the car's story. Your post above is excellent theory, but it doesn't apply in this instance because the Countach is not an F1 race car. As I suggested above, the only truly functional wings on a Walter Wolf car were those on his WR1 F1 race cars.
The Countach front wing has like the Miura a Profile like a wing -> causing front lift at high Speed, mounting a rear wing is the hugest BS you can do to these cars. Otoh, installing a rear wing lowers the top speed that significantly that you hardly can get into the speed where front lift becomes dangerous - hilarious.
I keep forgetting that the Countach is a race car. Still not convinced. The wing is as iconic on the Countach as is the scissor doors.
The Countach doesn't get rear axle lift like some cars do at high speed, actually, it's well-known to be just the opposite. i dont own countach but ive spent enough time in wind tunnels to know that very few if any production cars have any real downforce on rear axles especially ones without a large protruding rear wing even amognst the moderns with aero diffused floor plans, active spoilers and active pitch control yet alone on a 50 year designed car with monkey bars tubes protruding from its undercarriage with a CD excess of .42 that was independently test by a german and Japanese magazine. Any longtime owner who's done considerable high-speed driving, or any of the factory test drivers who have lots of experience testing the Countach at high speed can explain that because of it's front-to-rear weight distribution bias towards the latter, the Countach actually suffers from notorious front axle lift at high speed, and the addition of a rear wing only exacerbates the issue! long time owners ...lol phil hill and paul frere used to do high speed test for the Road and Track "fastest" articles. hill mention there was too much front areo bias compared to the rear making the car nervous or unstable at elevated speeds. i believe they thought the later cars were better. what you are explaining to us is actually inverse of what you want fundamentally for a stable car aerodynamically. you always want the front axle to progressively loose traction first at elevated speeds. same reason why the tuning in understeer in all production cars. having more front end grip imbalance with lead to a disastrous high speed car. ask the first gen audi TT owners that slid down the autobahnn on their roof tops in which the high speed aero balance overcame dynamics of front heavy, fwd, understeering car. They quickly added a trip spoiler on decklid spoiling to cut lift (no pun intended) the iconic pure original profile. As Countach production progressed, what the factory did to correct this from the LP500S variant onwards was, they tuned the angle of attack of the car, giving the 1985 Downdraft a slightly downward pitch over the front axle over it's predecessor, with the result that the latter car felt very stable as tested to terminal velocity in-period without a wing by F1 pilots & professional drivers alike. im sure the later cars were better resolved in all aspects, however what you are describing isnt the sole reason. we basically have 3 issues, areo axle balance in Y plane along with the weight distribution. Center of pressure balance in Z plane. Center of Pressure balance in Z plane in relationship to the vehicles center of gravity to establish the rotational coupling. this will tell moment of Yaw angle of the airflow or effects of side winds which causes instability. the later is the important and complex one when factoring in high speed stability in which most folks overlook or dont understand fully.. The CT is rear bias car hence the need for monstrous rear wing if you want an effective COP to be located behind it. now this has nothing to do with downforce on the axles.. Dallara tested in prototype stratos in 73-74 at the pininfarina tunnel. it was one of the first independent test at that new facility which cost about 20k a day then which is a massive amount of $$. that car ended up with a rear wing and monstrous end plates which was refined into the two GR5 cars that ran in giro italia. He understood all these factors and from what i have gathered with your post you seem not to understand very much of it other than hearsay. Wolf's early 1975/1976/1977 Countachs were Sperimentale efforts by Dallara, who neutralized the wing's angle adjustment in deference to the Countach's tendency to front-end lightness at high speed, essentially rendering the Wolf wings a cosmetic enhancement, albeit an admittedly striking one at that. He advised the factory to employ the same setting on any wings they put on their cars, which makes the purely aesthetic applications. However, Lamborghini's red-blooded customers loved the Boy Racer look wing and the factory naturally accommodated them, so they became part of the car's story. I wasnt aware dallara was into woo-tang stylized body kits and wings? his business model sure have changed significantly over the decades. even if the horizontal element were removed neutralizing its effectiveness the vertical stanchions and end plate do play a role Your post above is excellent theory, but it doesn't apply in this instance because the Countach is not an F1 race car. is silly to suggest wings only work on race cars and its an theory. the 911 is notorious story for high speed instability. in its original body form, it has sprouted a ducktail, then a whale tail and yet again with a tea tray to a enormous bi-element wing in the 964 RSR road cars in its final guise as a road car. why didnt they pitch the car down to add stability since the front end is so light? with its pontoons exposed headlamp fenders, excessive rear weight bias and lift, its like throwing a dart backwards. Folks focus on the tails and its downforce and over looked its COP Z plane value. take a look at the F40 surface area of profile stanchions on where the wing sits, they are that way for a reason acting like rudders on an aircraft to help turn into the cross winds in a sense counter acting it... whales tails do that also to a lesser effect. speaking of racecars cars, the one CT that im aware of that actually raced in a organized sanctioned series is the JTTC Super GT in the 90's. you guessed it, like all the other cars out there, it ran the real manufactures backed race series with a "boy racer" rear wing. all the best, enjoyed the banter
