Another conversion of a closed Countach coupe into an open-top high-speed cruiser. But there was a little catch to this car, it was in fact a replica of the famous Countach, obviously the owner wasn’t rich enough to buy the real thing, so he settled for a replica. Built on a sheet steel chassis, instead of the steel tube-chassis of the original one, this car is bodied in a plastic composite, the interior is an imitation leather upholstery, but the worst thing is in fact the engine in this car, an old Ford V-8 engine has been modified to be fitted into the chassis.
In fact this car started life as a normal closed coupe, but during it’s transportation to an exotic car show, the driver had an accident and this Countach look alike which was on the back of his truck ended up on it’s roof next to the transporter. The roof was badly damaged, but surprisingly the rest of the car was still rather intact. So the owner decided to completely cut away the roof and use the car as a spider, since the chassis is a steel-plated based one, the roof wasn’t a part of the supporting part of the car like on the real thing, were the roll-over bars are integrated into the roof.
On the image the car looks rather nice, but I was able to see the car in real life, and the level of finish is very poor. The details have been completely overlooked and the cuts on the remaining parts of the roof are very rough. The leather imitation interior is poorly finished and the seats have seen better days before. Also the paint on the car looks rather strange, with little bubbles appearing here and there.
It may have seem like a great idea to convert his wrecked car into a spider, but next time he should try a real bodywork specialist and a better painter, so the result looks like a good job, even on a car show.
As always, the question remains, does it pay to get a replica of the real Lamborghini, even the Diablo has been copied using a V-8 engine. but if you see the price these companies have the nerve to ask you should wonder if you can’t find a second hand real Lamborghini for this amount. Maybe not a Diablo, but the Countach LP500S and even the QuattroValvole can be found at reasonable prices these days.
But keep in mind that the maintenance on a Lamborghini is rather difficult, and should be left in capable hands, even if this means you have to pay a little more.