I recently moved to Chapel Hill NC and went out with some locals the other night named Will and Chris. They told me that a while back they were walking downtown and saw a Lamborghini parked out front of a bar. They were right beside it talking loudly about how gaudy a yellow Lamborghini was (they didn't know the owner was sitting in it). The owner got out and shot them both a look like they were dicks... it was Michael Jordan.
I got to sit in a Delorian once. A buddy of mine was holding an art opening at a home where one of the owners had purchased one. I think 'rad' adequately conveys the sensation of tucking into one of those :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamborghini_Countach 6 out of 5 stars.
Huh. That's what I'm going to say when I see Marianne next. I'll just look her in the eye and whisper "countach"...
http://delorean.com/ There were an assload of parts left over when John DeLorean got arrested. Those parts were bought up by Big Lots (you can't make this shit up). There are still plenty available. Problem with the DeLorean is it's a miserable vehicle. It has half the engine it was supposed to and they leak. I've looked at buying them a few times, but the bottom line is they always suck. I've known people who own them; they say it's kind of like driving a really cool-looking station wagon. The Lamborghini Countach, by comparison, is a wild'n'wooly vehicle. It was Lamborghini's second rear-engined car (after the Miura, a lovely machine that commands a substantial premium over the Countach these days), Lamborghini's whole raison d'etre (Old Man Lamborghini, who had made a fortune building and selling farm equipment, took exception to Enzo Ferrari's assertion that rear-engined sports cars were too twitchy and dangerous to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public so he created his own). Marcello Gandini designed it before he really knew what the fuck he was doing - and he was given free reign to do all the goofy shit that he wasn't allowed to do on the Miura or Espada. This is the primary reason why the Countach is loved by "teenaged boys who are now in their 30s and 40s" but generally reviled by the automotive press - it sucks as a car. The visibility is horrible. They're impossible to get into - the door sills are 18" wide. The windows only open 3". And they're made of lightweight enough aluminum that if you lean against the car you will dent it forever. Combine that with the fact that Lamborghini went broke making them - by 1985 the V12 had inch-tall deck plates to increase the stroke (and radically decrease the reliability of what is already a DOHC Italian V-12 with extremely problematic aspiration). Combined that with the fact that the original prototype didn't have nearly the cooling to satisfy said-same problematic Italian V12, and what you end up with is a sleek space ship covered in ridonkulous ducts everywhere. And, of course, as performance "improved" the ducts got more ridonkulous. The 1988 Countach LP5000S has a higher drag coefficient - .41 - than the Camaro Iroc Z of the time. The little monsters got a whopping 4MPG, yet they couldn't go much over 150. They were far more "show" than "go" which is why you see lots of pictures of people around them, but rarely pictures of people in them. That said, I have a soft spot in my heart for them simply because I grew up at the right time. For me, though, it's all about the original LP400: http://autowallpapers.net/m/lamborghini/wallpaper/Lamborghin... No stupid wings, no stupid bumpers, minimal ducting, and goddamn 70-series tires. That car came out the year before Starsky and Hutch. Some contemporaries: http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/07/car-lust--1974.html http://www.lovelyabandon.com/uploads/2011/04/amc_gremlin_74_... (and a favorite: http://www.festivals-and-shows.com/images/1974-corvette-stin...)
I had a dream where I had a silver one with maroon interior. I hate maroon. I always wished this car was real: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coyote_024.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_M6A They were just space frames with fiberglass bodies and a Chevy V8. Granted, they were these things in a combination that did pretty damn well on the race track. The Manta Mirage, one of the most popular kit cars ever made, is a pseudo-okay knock-off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_Mirage They aren't the best, however. There was a company called Marauder Cars whose replicas were faithful enough that they got certified for vintage racing. I've been next to one at the Vintage Races (didn't get to sit in it) and they're fucking works of art: http://www.kitcars.com/classifieds/addetails.asp?classified_... (they were active from '91 to around '97 or so; a shame because they also had a rippin' Lola T70 and a Porsche 917 that were also stupid accurate). There are finished versions of said-same available for not too much money, comparatively speaking: http://www.carpictures.com/McLaren/-M6-GT-by-Active-Power-Ca... http://www.mclaren69.com/coupe.html Along those lines, the one I keep toying with is a Factory Five GTM: http://www.factoryfive.com/table/ffrkits/GTM/GTMkit.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofafHe5tlI (The GT Malan is just a GTM built by Alan Fuckhead) ...and then I realize that for the money of a finished GTM, my dad bought a fucking airplane and then I think maybe that's too much to spend on a car. http://www.airmodsflightcenter.com/forsale/N6984V#/sites/air...
