Countach front wing question

I've seen white, red and black Countach's with the front wing in photographs.

On a side note.....what the hell were they thinking ?

 

Cannonball Run movie car had the front wing. It's on the registry. It was an option from the factory. They were thinking it was about to be the Miami Vice era.....All that silliness with ANY car is important, it represents the era the car was make.

 

Ive seen many. It looks kind of weird. But it helps downforce...I guess.

 

the front wing is used as a bumper, it was not a factory option. the importer needed a way to meet the feds bumper height requirment, thus the front wing was born. the top part has to be removed to get in the front bonet area. alot of people dont like it, i do.

 

Robert, I think you have been looking at the same car all those times. I know that I have. The car keeps popping up on different websites and for sale all the time.

Peter, sure enough it is in Cannonball Run. It is featured on the cover of the DVD.

I do not think it was from the factory because it blocks a set of lights. At least Brock Yates had the good sense to mount some lights to the wing in order to compensate.

Dream cars, I do not know if we are talking about the same thing. This is a smaller version of the rear wing. It is mount on the front bonnet.

 

i think we are talking about the same thing

 

We are!

I just was not sure. Those big bulky bumpers that you see on 25th aniversary models look like they would cover part of the bonnet.

Does it work well as a bumper? It does not seem like it would.

Truth be told I sort of like the front wing with the extra lights.

 

I like the front wing as well. does it work well for a bumper? i dont know but it was good enough for the feds in the early 80's

 

According to the following link, the black front-winged CT from the original '81 Cannonball Run movie is/was owned by Ron Rice of Hawaiian Tropic fame (incidentally, my former mechanic used to service his CT):

http://www.tropicbeauty.com/ron.cfm (see bottom of webpage)

This is apparently further supported by the following link to the lamboregistry page:

http://www.lamborghiniregistry.com/Countach/CountachLP400S/1121112.html

There was a discussion about this car at:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/t39475.html (see bottom half of webpage)

That forum link also alludes to the red CT from Cannonball Run Part 2 as being owned by John Schneider from Dukes of Hazzard.

I have a rather long video clip of the opening scenes / credits from the '81 Cannonball Run, but can't post it due to it's 2.5mb size in zip form. If anyone is interested in it, feel free to e-mail me. It was originally posted by Allan(Lambo) on JrV' s Lambo Talk site (under lambo videos > Cannonball Run). This video clip features the black front-wing CT in various chase scenes with a TA cop car.

BTW, I'd simply post a link to the file, but this board won't allow me to post any references to "that site".

 

ok here is what i know,

the countach from cannonball run 1 was owned by a Dr. in CA. it was rented from him to shoot the movie. ron rice then bought it from him after the movie for promotional work. it is a pretty car from afar up close it loses its appeal, it has 12 exhaust pipes (one for each cyl i guess), and "The Cannaonball Run" is scripted across the back of the car taking up all the space between the tail lights. I saw the car about 10 years ago at Ultimate Motor Works getting some work done.

For the countach from cannonball run 2, get this, the car is an older countach than the one from the first movie.(you can see this in the movie as the car has the roof where the center is sunken) that car came to Ultimate in the early 90's to be restored. it was still red and the white powder used in the movie was still deep in some of the seams. anyway that car was restored back to a light green color(its original color) I believe it was a lp400 (the model that had the skinny tires) and that car last i heard was out west somewhere.

I hope this helps I feel lucky to have seen and touched both cars from both movies as they are the cars that started my love for exotics.

mike

 

Mike,

and everyone,

My father was the Lambo Service and Sales in the 1980s with Joe Nastasi the Distributer and Trevor Thomas of "lamborghini USA" he said that the front wing was used (you are correct) as EPA DOT federalized "bumper" from 1983-1984 when the factory and Thomas subsequently designed the bumper "tips" on the 1985 cars that had road lights in them.

Anytime you need any lambo info holler!!!

-jt

 

Strange, when I was in europe, I saw several cars with the front wing. They told me it was an option when they bought the cars. Ya know something, bet we did this for d.o.t. and they caught on, for coolness. wow europeans taking after us.