Hey all,
For those that have never heard of one of these, here is a lesson.
This is Bertone 'Project 112', a design that Ferruccio Lamborghini paid for by selling his shares in his own company to finance it, thus giving up his company so that it could grow and this car could be made.
When time came to give it a name, it had already recieved a 'nickname'. All (in Italy) that saw it, would comment 'Countach!' which is an Italian word that loosely means Wow! So they decided to call it Wow or Countach! The word, by the way, is pronounced 'koon-taasch' and denotes both amazement and repsect.
The heart of the car was to have the Lamborghini V-12 engine, but had to have things moved around. This massive engine, which takes up half of the car, had to have the rear end (gears and axles) mounted into the block, and of course as the rear of the engine, with the drive shaft to this system coming from the transmission which was mounted in the front of the engine block. This was all in one, single, massive assembly, one block. Thus the engine also had a built in tranni, and built in rear-end, all in one. (Its hard to imagine that... Sort of reminds me of a jet fighter with its turbine taking up most of the interior of the fuselage).
The car was entered in the 1974 show car circuit and immediately became famous. It was then
Next, came the engineering of the concept car to make it road worthy. It was found to have overheating issues so Bob Wallace, test car driver, and some engineers took it out to the track and started doing testing on it, aerodynamics and vents were studied, cut, tested, changed, cut, tested, and finally she was running cool. 4 Years went into the refining of the wild wedge craft until finally 001 was rolled out and delivered to famed Formula One mogul Walter Wolf.
Some interesting tidbits to know about the Countach.
* They had a twin cam V-12, originally fitted with dual barrel Webber horizontal draft carburetors, 6 of them for the 12 cylinders. The engine sported cam driven dual Distributors.
* She sported 3 radiators located throughout the low wedged shape; one in the nose, and two at the rear in front of the rear tires, located in the shoulders of the back. When one started it, first turning the key on, the roar of 4 different fans would fill the air, 2 in the front, and one at each side of the rear. (I got to see hear that a few times).
* The door knob was hidden in the NACA duct/scoop, in the upper area, so you reached under and felt for a smooth, squarish chrome button, pushed that, and lifted up the door, which rose straight up.
* The original body series had a built in periscope in the roof ,which was a 1 inch high odd looking curved 'rear view mirror' thing molded into the cieling in the cockpit.
* When backing one up, usually the drivers learned it was easiest to leave the door open, sit half way on the side 'pontoon' and look behind you as you eased the craft backwards. Otherwise, your blind spots would play havoc with difficult reverse manuveres..
* The line from the front of the hood to the top back edge of the windshield was a straight line. This was a true wedge...
* You had a small trunk in the front nose area along with a small spare tire, as well as a second trunk in the very rear with its own opening trunk lid (boot) as well as the seperate engine hood.
* The sound of the engine going through its paces in a 'performance' manner is almost like a mix between a forumla one car and an old Kawasaki KZ with a 4 into 1 header. Beautiful sound.... whew... (wipes the sweat from forehead thinking about it).
* The engine, speaking of that, was origianlly designed for Ferrari's Formula One racding divsion by the famous Giotto Bizzorinni, famed auto designer and maker, who redid the F1 engine into a more suitable 'road engine' for normal everyday use. Ferrari didnt want the engine design, and Giotto, having been approached by Ferruccio for help in starting up his factory making a car, offered Ferruccio the engine for his car lines.
* Did you know that Ferruccio made tractors? Yes, he was first a tractor maker and mogul. You can still by Lamborghini tractors today and they are pretty nice farm equipment.
* The original story behind Ferruccio starting up his own car company was this.... Ferruccio was touring the countryside one weekend with his love, in one of his six Ferrari's. He was bothered by the bad breaking and decided to drop in and visit with the infamous Mr. Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari though, in conversation, was put off by a 'tractor maker' giving him advice on how to make his brakes better. Ferrari's were always noted for this and the answer back from Enzo was 'My cars are designed to run fast! Not slow down!' Ferruccio, fealing hurt, decided he would make his own cars. And so the story goes...
Its a wild story.
Here is the original prototype, Project 112.
Note in the prototype, no side NACA ducts, and no shoulder scoop boxes
Note the periscope slot built into the roof. This is the first car body design of the production Countach
Bill
For those that have never heard of one of these, here is a lesson.
This is Bertone 'Project 112', a design that Ferruccio Lamborghini paid for by selling his shares in his own company to finance it, thus giving up his company so that it could grow and this car could be made.
When time came to give it a name, it had already recieved a 'nickname'. All (in Italy) that saw it, would comment 'Countach!' which is an Italian word that loosely means Wow! So they decided to call it Wow or Countach! The word, by the way, is pronounced 'koon-taasch' and denotes both amazement and repsect.
The heart of the car was to have the Lamborghini V-12 engine, but had to have things moved around. This massive engine, which takes up half of the car, had to have the rear end (gears and axles) mounted into the block, and of course as the rear of the engine, with the drive shaft to this system coming from the transmission which was mounted in the front of the engine block. This was all in one, single, massive assembly, one block. Thus the engine also had a built in tranni, and built in rear-end, all in one. (Its hard to imagine that... Sort of reminds me of a jet fighter with its turbine taking up most of the interior of the fuselage).
The car was entered in the 1974 show car circuit and immediately became famous. It was then
Next, came the engineering of the concept car to make it road worthy. It was found to have overheating issues so Bob Wallace, test car driver, and some engineers took it out to the track and started doing testing on it, aerodynamics and vents were studied, cut, tested, changed, cut, tested, and finally she was running cool. 4 Years went into the refining of the wild wedge craft until finally 001 was rolled out and delivered to famed Formula One mogul Walter Wolf.
Some interesting tidbits to know about the Countach.
* They had a twin cam V-12, originally fitted with dual barrel Webber horizontal draft carburetors, 6 of them for the 12 cylinders. The engine sported cam driven dual Distributors.
* She sported 3 radiators located throughout the low wedged shape; one in the nose, and two at the rear in front of the rear tires, located in the shoulders of the back. When one started it, first turning the key on, the roar of 4 different fans would fill the air, 2 in the front, and one at each side of the rear. (I got to see hear that a few times).
* The door knob was hidden in the NACA duct/scoop, in the upper area, so you reached under and felt for a smooth, squarish chrome button, pushed that, and lifted up the door, which rose straight up.
* The original body series had a built in periscope in the roof ,which was a 1 inch high odd looking curved 'rear view mirror' thing molded into the cieling in the cockpit.
* When backing one up, usually the drivers learned it was easiest to leave the door open, sit half way on the side 'pontoon' and look behind you as you eased the craft backwards. Otherwise, your blind spots would play havoc with difficult reverse manuveres..
* The line from the front of the hood to the top back edge of the windshield was a straight line. This was a true wedge...
* You had a small trunk in the front nose area along with a small spare tire, as well as a second trunk in the very rear with its own opening trunk lid (boot) as well as the seperate engine hood.
* The sound of the engine going through its paces in a 'performance' manner is almost like a mix between a forumla one car and an old Kawasaki KZ with a 4 into 1 header. Beautiful sound.... whew... (wipes the sweat from forehead thinking about it).
* The engine, speaking of that, was origianlly designed for Ferrari's Formula One racding divsion by the famous Giotto Bizzorinni, famed auto designer and maker, who redid the F1 engine into a more suitable 'road engine' for normal everyday use. Ferrari didnt want the engine design, and Giotto, having been approached by Ferruccio for help in starting up his factory making a car, offered Ferruccio the engine for his car lines.
* Did you know that Ferruccio made tractors? Yes, he was first a tractor maker and mogul. You can still by Lamborghini tractors today and they are pretty nice farm equipment.
* The original story behind Ferruccio starting up his own car company was this.... Ferruccio was touring the countryside one weekend with his love, in one of his six Ferrari's. He was bothered by the bad breaking and decided to drop in and visit with the infamous Mr. Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari though, in conversation, was put off by a 'tractor maker' giving him advice on how to make his brakes better. Ferrari's were always noted for this and the answer back from Enzo was 'My cars are designed to run fast! Not slow down!' Ferruccio, fealing hurt, decided he would make his own cars. And so the story goes...
Its a wild story.
Here is the original prototype, Project 112.
Note in the prototype, no side NACA ducts, and no shoulder scoop boxes
Note the periscope slot built into the roof. This is the first car body design of the production Countach
Bill
He still has it to this day along with a lot of other exotica including a Mercedes Vito van fitted with a 600bhp Lambo V12 engine!
