Lamborghini Countach (Osprey Classic Marques) [Hardcover]

Chris Bennett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Osprey Classic Marques | Publication Date: July 1993

Features photographs of the Countach from the initial 4.0-litre LP400 through to the 48-valve quattrovalvole and the Countach 25th Anniversary model. Marcello Gandini's masterpiece claimed the title "fastest production car in the world" throughout much of its life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Pub Co (July 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855323036
• ISBN-13: 978-1855323032
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,383,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent car, poor book, January 16, 2001

By 

John Peter O'connor - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lamborghini Countach (Osprey Classic Marques) (Hardcover)

The Lamborghini Countach was a shockingly outrageous car when it was first introduced and it was still on the automobile extreme when superseded by the Diablo. This book is a sadly pedestrian attempt to write about so dramatic a car.

This book repeats the standard formula for many such volumes. It contains a lot pretty photographs of the cars and a few simple words on the subject.

The photos are well presented, in good colour and on decent paper, but they are not really special. Mostly, they were obtained by tagging along at owners' club events or getting photographs from the factory. So we see lots of pictures of cars parked in grassy paddocks or being driven carefully on the track by their doting owners but nothing dramatic.

It is the same with the writing. There is a brief history of the company from its beginning to the end of the Countach era and a straightforward description of the car. The history conveys nothing of the drama in the company. The frequent trips to the financial brink, the strike prone labourforce or the Machiavellian twists and turns of the company's ownership.

Similarly, the description of the car tells you a lot about what it is like to look at or maybe to sit in or even to have one parked outside your house but the reader will never get an insight into what it is like to drive one of these cars hard over demanding roads.

If you want the latter, you should read the road tests that appeared in "Car" magazine in the seventies and eighties.

The book also contains some truly cringe inducing technical blunders. An example is the point where the author asserts that the V12 engine has a single cylinder head! The author also believes that the car's sump, clutch housing and gearbox case are part of the unsprung weight! These are by no means the only errors in the text. There are others along with contradictions and typos.

It's out of print and not really worth trying to find a copy. But, it shows up from time in shops that stock remaindered titles for a fraction of the original price and it is just about worth it then.