Italeri Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole

The Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined, V12 sports car produced by Italian car manufacturer Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high-performance sports cars. It also popularized the “cab forward” design concept, which pushes the passenger compartment forward to accommodate a larger rear-mounted engine.

The Countach was styled by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio, the same designer, and studio that designed the Miura. Gandini was then a young, inexperienced designer — not very experienced in the practical, ergonomic aspects of automobile design, but at the same time unhindered by them. Gandini again produced another striking design. The Countach shape was wide and low (1.07 meters or 42.1 inches), but not very long (only 4.1 meters or 163 inches). Its angular and wedge-shaped body was made almost entirely of flat, trapezoidal panels.

In 2004, American car magazine Sports Car International named the car number three on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s and listed at number ten on their list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

Engine:
The rear wheels were driven by a traditional Lamborghini V12 engine mounted longitudinally with a mid-engined configuration. This contrasted with the Miura with its centrally mounted, transversely-installed engine.[6] For better weight distribution, the engine is pointed “backward”; the output shaft is at the front, and the gearbox is in front of the engine, the driveshaft running back through the engine’s sump to a differential at the rear. Although originally planned as a 5 L (310 cu in) powerplant, the first production cars used the Lamborghini Miura’s 4-liter engine. Later advances increased the displacement to 4754 ccs and then (in the “Quattrovalvole” model) 5167 cc with four valves per cylinder.

All Lamborghini Countaches were equipped with six Weber carburetors until the arrival of the 5000QV model, at which time the car became available in America, and used Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection. The European models, however, continued to use the carburetors (producing more power than fuel-injected cars) until the arrival of the Lamborghini Diablo, which replaced the Countach.

The Kit:

KIT HIGHLIGHTS

• Highly detailed plastic pieces molded in white, gray, black,
  and clear
• Detailed interior and engine
• Waterslide decals
• Illustrated instructions
• Scale: 1/24
• Length: 7.08″ (180mm)
• Skill level: 5
• Parts: 145
• Italeri No 3683
• Street Price: $29.99

Here it is!

This is the new previously released in the 80’s Italeri 1/24 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole kit # 3683. Back in the day many of us had plastered in our room a nice poster of Farrah Fawcett [RIP] and a Lamborghini.

Those were the days for everything. It was the 80’s darn it! Cannonball Run anyone?

I don’t recall if this model kit was sold under the Testors badge or if I did build mine from Italeri. If this kit was sold by Testors, please chime in and refresh my memory. I remember well that Testors gain lots of popularity back in the 80’s in Puerto Rico thanks to a small chain store called GT’s Toys which had a great resemblance to KB Toys. Their small section of models was like a paradise for us model kit builders compared to the very thin limited stock that local drug stores had.

The hardest part on this kit was/is mating the body shell to the chassis because of the wide body parts on the fenders area.

Other than that, this kit is very easy to build. The chassis is very well represented for a kit this old. The engine is well addressed and with all the model building experience we have gained over the years, I promise you that with some TLC, this engine can be turned into a spectacular miniature of the famous Quattrovalvole. The main body was painted with KRYLON ”Short Cuts” spray from Michaels Stores and the interiors were painted with Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow from my local hobby shop. It also has some minor accents in the interior of XF-1 Flat Black.

To my eyes, the rims look rightfully plated, so I decided not to mess with them. The small decal sheet included with the kit is of very good quality The tires have a very realistic thread pattern and considering the age of this tooling, there were no mold lines to deal with in my sample.

This kit was completed several weeks ago and was in our draft queue. Unfortunately, I spilled some glue on the windshield and had to wait for a replacement. My wait was like any other customer would. Kudos to Hobbico for dealing with replacement parts in a timely fashion.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

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While this kit is not a more modern Aoshima, I promise you that for $29.00 USD (MSRP) you will get a very good and enjoyable model kit to build. The box art is very nice, I think I’m going to frame mine 😉

ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY RECOMMENDED!

My sincere thanks to my dear friends at Hobbico for this production sample.

PS,
Here it rests now in a protective case from Hobby Lobby.