Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV Replica

[Cooky]

A typical bunch of comments from a couch Countach wannabee

CEU... You're right there are a couple of dead giveaways the wheels, and hinged Lower Side windows. But Also To me a dead giveaway on a majority of Countach replicas is the Big oversized a-pillars About two inches wider on Each side between windshield and the door frame. Allowing only a modified or flat Windshield. Could not put a factory glass in this. Lukily this issue was resolved on our cars.
P.S. Could you tell me what brand and model number Is on your fog lights in the front bumper. I need to get a pair but I'm unsure what Will fit t he openings properly. Thanks

This is coming to you from the designer of that replica ...the Stinger. (KEN COOK IN THE UK)You were not in the Uk in 1987 when I designed that replica nor do you know what the market was there in the UK then, for replica versus real ones. FACT...you could buy a real used Countach for £50K so obviously you are not going to spend £20K as manufacturer making a car that you have to sell for £30K and which is only A REPLICA!! So harping on about the wheels and the fact that I chose to make an operable window that actually allowed you to stick your hand out, rather than all the expense of designing and making a window that like the original only wound down for 3 inches!!! The real Countach wheels cost too much. (Reason as above)
A pillars...I am an auto and marine engineer with 50 years experience in building boats and cars and I'm also a fiberglass expert from building boats and car bodies. Anyone with real experience would realise that the real car made fom steel doesn't need wider windscreen pillars because of the strength of steel pillars. But making those posts in F/G means you have to insert steel uprights into the posts, fiberglassed in to make the whole post real strong. Got It? Can't remmeber if the screen glass was flat or curved but really....does it matter?? The World over: forums like this can be full of people with big mouths and mnay opinions,who don't know that much.

[Cooky]

Iv'e posted a reply already to some of your nonsense remarks, but I now add to your remark about sagging hood/bonnet. With experience in mould making back to 1966 I can tell you that its impossible to tell any surface defects from such a photo. The hood was PERFECT and what you see is shadows. This is shown when you describe it as a black car when in fact it was a dark cherry red (Ferarri colour) Tut .tut. Ken Cook, designer and manufacturer of the Stinger 77 and still restoring classic Brit cars mostly Jags. When you want some bon-fide info on the Stinger,...come direct to me, lad and I will put you right.

[76mx]

Mr. Cook, I was aware that Prova added that extra width on the a-pillar and at first glance thought that was what I was looking at. Now I see that yours does the same thing but is different from the Prova. With your ability to speak with authority on the subject, maybe you can answer a question that has bothered me for some time. Why did your fellow Brits over at Prova go to so much trouble to redesign the windshield, in the process making the readily available and reasonably priced Countach windshield not an option, instead going to the trouble of a more difficult and scarce and elusive and expensive windshield? Was it the same issue? The required extra pillar width? This has been buggin me for years. Also, if you don't mind, what windshield is that in yours and the Prova?

[Cooky]

As I have already explained about the windscreen pillar widths I won't repeat myself save to say that what Prova did with theirs was obviously for the same reasons I made them thicker for the necessary strength. I decided to make my replica because the Pova was such a heap with too many faults in it to mention here. At that time (mid 80's) everyone was wild for that car and in the kit replica industry here and in the US, thought that this car was going to be the next highly successful kitcar that would take off as did the Cobra replicas.
I was then already manufacturer of a Cobra replica I called 'Viper'. I wanted a stable mate and I thought I could make a much better replica than Prova and so that is exactly what I did. I was doing my thing and others like Porva, Sienna etc were doin theirs. We did not collaborate.
To the windscreen itself. Obviously the distance between the pillars was going to be different to the real car
because of those thicker pillars. In the UK it is no big deal to have a screen made to fit anything. I went to a screen manufacturer and had one made to order. Not expensive. I guess Prova did the same. Quite why this business about windscreen and pillars excites you is beyond me. What you have to realise that when designing a reolica, it CANNOT be an exact one if you are going to keep costs down. It only has to at first glance LOOK like the original. Thye should really be called 'Lookalikes' and not replicas, but hey ho, that is what everyone calls them. For instance on my Cobra doors, thensides of them is quite different to the original as they were made in ally and I and others had to make ours in f/g and so they had to bemade quite differently on the insides. However on the outsides they looked the same. I made sevaral replica/lookalikes: Mini Mokes, Mini Countryman estates, Ferrari 250 GTO, & Aston Martin Volante. All 'looked just like the real thing but with subtle differences due to different materials used etc. Hope that gives you your answer and you can now spend the rest of your life real happy now you know the score, going to your maker warm in this now knowledge. Love to all. Cooky
PS I know the car market in the US quite well as I sold a few of my Cobras there AND I had a large British/Jap car biz on Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa Beach.L.A. in the 70's

[cutlass442]

Cooky you are the maker of the kit in post 66? Wow!

[Cooky]

To Cutlass: Well I never saw post 66 always thought that was a highway? Nuff of the jokin. After my last post
I looked at my scrapbook on those cars and it came across me that you Yank Lambo freaks may like some info on the short lived Lambo scene here in the UK as I think we in the UK may have got Lambo replicas off the ground before you guys caught on and companies started copying our copies!. Its all very incestuous the kit car world.
Having supplied the biz in Dallas with my moulds, I guess there must be quite a number now of Lambo replicas to be seen in the US of A, that came off those moulds. Also I sold around 10 to 12 bodies to a guy in San Fran. My chassis was the best part of the car yet both Yanks said they would make their own chassis, so I have no idea what they were based on re the front and rear suspension & brakes etc.
To anyone who wants, I can email copies of some of the write-ups and pics taken of the 4 cars I made plus a pic of the chassis. Then someone over there in our colony can have a record of the history of those replica Lambo's along with a record of your own US replicas. Someone should start a museum of Lambo replicas and invite the owners of the Italian factory over to open it. That would go down great and you may get a visit
from the Cosa Nostra!! You can e me on sailerboy63.at.yahoo.co.uk Toodleloo.

[76mx]

Mr. Cook, thank you for your answer. I will indeed spend the rest of my life real happy because of this. Also good to know about not being exact keeps the cost down. I had no idea how that worked.

[Countach wanna B]

Iv'e posted a reply already to some of your nonsense remarks, but I now add to your remark about sagging hood/bonnet. With experience in mould making back to 1966 I can tell you that its impossible to tell any surface defects from such a photo. The hood was PERFECT and what you see is shadows. This is shown when you describe it as a black car when in fact it was a dark cherry red (Ferarri colour) Tut .tut. Ken Cook, designer and manufacturer of the Stinger 77 and still restoring classic Brit cars mostly Jags. When you want some bon-fide info on the Stinger,...come direct to me, lad and I will put you right.

Hi Cooky. Hope you are well. If you look back a page or two I think you will see that the comments on the wavy hood we're not mine.My KMC Countach replica Body was built by John Easton And has steel reinforced roof and windshield frame with proper size A pillars to accept OEM style curve windshield.That curved oem style windshield is costly so I can see why some people use flat glass. I think the cars you built ( if the ones in previouse post photos) looks very good overall. I certainly would not have the skills to build that.
I applaud anyone on this site with the will to try and build there dream car. I Hope to get mine on the road one day? I guess a majority of people on this site are at some stage of a build process.I think all of us Who Are in The process of trying to build a Countach replica all have a passion For probably the most beautiful car ever built, rolling sculpture! Thanks for letting us know a bit more on the history of your cars.
Best wishes

[CountachExoticaUSA]

That's great that this thread has been alive and kickin' since I've been gone. Welcome to the forums Cooky.
Please note the use of the word "appears" which means may or may not be. I hope you are not offended by what amounts to a comparison between the different producers of the kits and our discussion on how we are going to make our own cars more accurate. Some features on a car may be desireable to one person and may not be to another person, ie beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Your model is one of the better ones out there.

Thank you for sharing some of your interesting history. I'm curious to know how your molds originated, as it seems to have some features from the Prova, and to which company in Dallas they were sold to. Feel free to send me a PM if its "highly classified" information.