Top modif tamiya tamtech-gear countach

Top modif tamiya tamtech-gear countach

When Lamborghini first showed the Countach to the public at the 1971 Geneva show, it was a groundbreaking car, both in terms of body design and technical solutions. Contrary to its predecessor, the Miura, which had the engine transversely mounted, the Countach’s forward cab design allowed the engine to be mounted longitudinally, thus the “LP500″ designation, an abbreviation for “Longitudinale Posteriore” and also indicating the 5 litre engine of the first prototype. When the Countach was later put into production, it however got the 4 litre engine carried over from the Miura, making for the “LP400″ designation of the first generation Countach.

When Tamiya decided to make an RC-model of the Countach, the LP500S that Lamborghini built specially for formula 1 driver Walter Wolf, was chosen. With its large rear wing, Bravo concept car wheel design and large wheelarches, it looks far more dramatic and powerful than the LP400, although many will agree with me that the pure design of the LP400 is favorable. Tamiya included decals with the kit to replicate either Walter Wolf’s second Countach, a red car, or his third Countach, a medium royal blue car. Also, a set of white pinstripes were included on the decal sheet, which in fact weren’t used on any of Walter Wolf’s cars, but instead on a Countach named LP500R, a black car with white interior. Tamiya depicted the LP500R correctly on the boxart, without Walter Wolf stickers, but combined the stickers in the catalog pictures. So this is probably how most owners of the model decorated their models.

So, when I got the TamTech-Gear Countach, I dug out a set of stickers for the old Tamiya Countach model, with the intention of replicating the LP500R in its Tamiya “boxart” look. The TamTech-Gear Countach is however a later model, and as a matter of fact, the stickers included are for the later LP5000S (yes, five thousand) and not the LP500S. Also, the body has a later type of “square” front wheel arches, later type of mirrors and the later roof, without the beautiful recess of the early Countach. This basically means that the TamTech-Gear Countach can neither be correctly built as a Walter Wolf Countach, nor as an LP500R. However, as a tribute to the old Tamiya Countach, I decided to replicate the LP500R as far as possible without major surgery, using the white pinstripes and replacing the mirrors with mirrors from the Tamtech-Gear Porsche 934. The white pinstripes admittedly look very “’70′s” and outdated, but they compliment the shape of the body very well and are such an important part of Tamiya’s RC-history, that I think they look “right” anyway.

Almost 40 years after its first debut, the Countach still looks very futuristic, so I made the pictures together with a 1/12 scale figure of Ayanami Rei from the Fräulein Revoltech series. Also pictured together with the TamTech-Gear Countach is an poorly built, beaten and battered Tamiya Countach CS that I aquired some time ago for 20 Euro with the intention of restoring it. With the frequent releases of fantastic new items from Tamiya which I can’t resist building, it might take a while before the old one gets restored though!