Lamborghini's retro-inspired Countach hybrid has already sold out

[scavengerspc]

Meet the "hippie greyhound"....

Is that Willie Nelson?

 

[scavengerspc]

These Vettes were 375 hp, and apparently worth singing about:

Damn right they were. Not from the 70s though. But those cars are from the awesome years before the 70s.

 

[Avro Arrow]

FWIW, I'm from, "back then". And now, "Tales from the Crypt".
Catalytic converters, (and emissions testing), became mandatory nationwide in 1975. However, those lucky few with 1974 vehicles, (and prior years), were spared the ignominy, of having an emissions sensor probe stuck up their tailpipe

And speaking of being "probed", in 1974, a Pontiac 350 2 bbl was rated @270 bhp. That very same block in 1975, managed to eek out 155 bhp! Lucky me, I got the '75, and it was a f**king slug. When you combine 155 hp with a 3.08 rear ratio in a 2 ton automobile, (which was supposed to increase fuel economy), You came up with something that wouldn't leave a red light, without a push from the car behind.

Ah yes, the Pontiac 350 which used a Fram PH25 like the Oldsmobile 307 instead of the PH30 for the Chevy small-block.

They Have Different Octane Ratings
The most common avgas is 100 octane, which is a measure of the fuel's ability to resist premature detonation or "knock." Avgas is also available at other octanes such as 87 and 130, but they are rare today. At the pump, you'll find gas ranging from 87 to 93 octane for automotive use.Apr 27, 2020

The problem with AVGAS is that it's leaded. I'd hate to see what that does to a Lamborghini 5.7L V8.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Meet the "hippie greyhound"....

Is that Willie Nelson?

I think her name is Kabula.

 

[captaincranky]

Meet the "hippie greyhound"....

Is that Willie Nelson?

I'm here trying to picture Muttlie with pigtails..

 

[captaincranky]

The problem with AVGAS is that it's leaded. I'd hate to see what that does to a Lamborghini 5.7L V8.

All ya gotta do,is put a straight pipe where the converter should be. Of course the poor car's computer and sensors would be going insane.

I'll grant you it would have been so much easier in the old days, just fill 'er up with high test, and tap the nitrous into the Stingray's injector box.

That being said, I think hairspray propellant in the 60's & 70's did more damage to the environment than leaded gas. Remember all those 6 inch high teased hairdos?

 

[Avro Arrow]

Damn right they were. Not from the 70s though. But those cars are from the awesome years before the 70s.

Hey now, the sixties went unrivalled music and car-wise until the nineties, it's true. However, there were still some awesome cars in the early 70s, there just weren't any from Ford or GM:

1972 Charger

1973 Javelin AMX:

 

[Avro Arrow]

All ya gotta do,is put a straight pipe where the converter should be. Of course the poor car's computer and sensors would be going insane.

It's also bad for the hardened valve seats IIRC.

I'll grant you it would have been so much easier in the old days, just fill 'er up with high test, and tap the nitrous into the Stingray's injector box.

I bet you'd love this picture:

That being said, I think hairspray propellant in the 60's & 70's did more damage to the environment than leaded gas. Remember all those 6 inch high teased hairdos?

Not really, I was born too late for that. However, I do remember the teased up hair and punk looks from the 80s.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm here trying to picture Muttlie with pigtails..

 

[scavengerspc]

Hey now, the sixties went unrivalled music and car-wise until the nineties, it's true. However, there were still some awesome cars in the early 70s, there just weren't any from Ford or GM:

1972 Charger

1973 Javelin AMX:

I wish I could double up a thumbs up! I had a 10 years old but perfect condition 73 AMX when I started college. It had a 401 and an A727 automatic.

But dont forget the Firebird\TranAm 455 SD.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I wish I could double up a thumbs up! I had a 10 years old but perfect condition 73 AMX when I started college. It had a 401 and an A727 automatic.

But dont forget the Firebird\TranAm 455 SD.

That's very true but IIRC, it was only one year that GM made it (1973 I think). To be honest, GM's treatment of Pontiac over the years has been abysmal. I mean, they took the 1964 Pontiac Banshee concept car:

and gave it to Chevrolet who sold it as the Corvette Stingray II (aka C3):

Not many people are aware of this but when I saw the 1964 Banshee for the first time, I thought "That's a Stingray II, not a Pontiac!". Looking at them like this makes it obvious as hell.

 

[captaincranky]

That's very true but IIRC, it was only one year that GM made it (1973 I think). To be honest, GM's treatment of Pontiac over the years has been abysmal. I mean, they took the 1964 Pontiac Banshee concept car:

I think you're reading too much into that. Chevrolet was likely set up to do fiberglass, Pontiac likely wasn't.

As far as "abysmal treatment" goes, you can take any Camaro body panel and bolt it directly to the same year, (or three) Firebird..

If my 350 was any indication, Pontiac should have been GMC's engine supplier.

A friend had a '63 goat, with the 389. It crapped out about 5K, and you know how fast you can spin a Chevy small block. Dead stock it ran about 13.4.

And to be fair, Pontiac was always given a lot of styling latitude. Which is probably why Firebirds always look so great when they're parked next to a "double wide".

SNL used to rip on "Trans Ams" in trailer parks all the time.

 

[captaincranky]

 

[scavengerspc]

That's very true but IIRC, it was only one year that GM made it (1973 I think). To be honest, GM's treatment of Pontiac over the years has been abysmal. I mean, they took the 1964 Pontiac Banshee concept car:

and gave it to Chevrolet who sold it as the Corvette Stingray II (aka C3):

Not many people are aware of this but when I saw the 1964 Banshee for the first time, I thought "That's a Stingray II, not a Pontiac!". Looking at them like this makes it obvious as hell.

I had no idea the Stingray started at Pontiac. I would love to see a front view of the Banshee to see how they incorporated the split grill.

 

[captaincranky]

@scavengerspc FWIW, that SNL video is hysterical. It really augments the effect if you think of them as Trump supporters.
(That's as close as I could get, using the search terms, "SNL", "Trans Am","white trash", and "trailer park").

 

[captaincranky]

I think you two are making too much of the concept Banshee's similarity to the Stingray. All four cars were pretty much cut from the same cloth., Camaro and Firebird's concessions were, metal bodies, and back seats.

Besides, pretty much all of GM 's lines jumped on that bandwagon to one extent or another:

 

[wiyosaya]

I think you two are making too much of the concept Banshee's similarity to the Stingray. All four cars were pretty much cut from the same cloth., Camaro and Firebird's concessions were, metal bodies, and back seats.

Besides, pretty much all of GM 's lines jumped on that bandwagon to one extent or another:

Aerodynamics.

 

[scavengerspc]

I think you two are making too much of the concept Banshee's similarity to the Stingray. All four cars were pretty much cut from the same cloth., Camaro and Firebird's concessions were, metal bodies, and back seats.

Besides, pretty much all of GM 's lines jumped on that bandwagon to one extent or another:

Do you like the old Toronado's? I have a 67 I'm completely redoing. I'm hoping before mid-fall, but I probably won't be done and ready to paint until the end of the year.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think you're reading too much into that. Chevrolet was likely set up to do fiberglass, Pontiac likely wasn't.

Well, they were set up enough that DeLorean managed to make the Banshee with a fibreglass body. IIRC, the Fiero had a plastic body as well.

As far as "abysmal treatment" goes, you can take any Camaro body panel and bolt it directly to the same year, (or three) Firebird..

Pontiac was supposed to be GM's "performance" marque. What chance did they have of living up to that image when the most high-performance car in GM's lineup was a Chevrolet? What chance did they have when GM decided that EVERY Pontiac would just be a re-badged and more expensive version of a Chevrolet, including the Firebird?

Pontiac was perhaps their most innovative division and worked their butts off trying to be unique with cars like the the Banshee and Fiero. GM's decision to cancel the Fiero in 1988 when it finally became good was one of the dumbest moves that I've ever seen a car company make (and GM has made a crap-tonne of dumb moves). GM condemned Pontiac by reducing them to nothing more than fancier-looking and more expensive Chevrolets. When you're supposed to be the performance marque of GM but Chevrolet has a cheaper but equally effective version of EVERY car you have, including your marquee car (Firebird), you're doomed from the start.

You said it yourself about the Camaro. If GM had done their job correctly (not a chance from some of the most incompetent executives ever to assemble in on corporation), there would have been NO CAMARO and NO CORVETTE. There would have been instead the Firebird, the Banshee and the Fiero.

If my 350 was any indication, Pontiac should have been GMC's engine supplier.

Exactly, because their whole raison-d'être was performance. The way GM was operating, it should have just re-named itself Chevrolet and be done with it.

A friend had a '63 goat, with the 389. It crapped out about 5K, and you know how fast you can spin a Chevy small block. Dead stock it ran about 13.4.

I didn't realise that the 389 was all that popular. In Canada, GTOs all came with the 421 IIRC. Mind you, back then, GM made models specifically for the Canadian market like the Pontiac Beaumont and Acadian.

And to be fair, Pontiac was always given a lot of styling latitude. Which is probably why Firebirds always look so great when they're parked next to a "double wide".

Yeah they did but as we know in the real world, "GO" always beats "SHOW" and styling alone couldn't make Pontiac the performance marque when the Camaro and Corvette existed. GM was just plain stupid. If the Corvette had been moved over to Pontiac and re-named the Banshee (or just called the Pontiac Corvette), people would have bought them because they were still CORVETTES. They still had that breakneck performance that the Corvette was supposed to have and having an arrowhead instead of a bowtie on the grille wouldn't have changed that.

Chevrolet didn't need the Corvette or the Camaro. Chevy was already doing more than they were theoretically supposed to just by having both cars AND trucks. Chevy trucks should have been dropped in favour of GMC. To all of the bozos who say "I own a Silverado and would NEVER buy a Sierra!" I say "Oh, so you'd buy an F-Series, Ram or Tundra before you'd buy a Sierra?" to which of course they say "Well, no...." so again, GM is just plain dumb.

SNL used to rip on "Trans Ams" in trailer parks all the time.

Yep, and unfortunately for GM, that's where their glory days will remain, in the past. It's because there's no great idea on Earth that GM can't completely screw up. GM even had a phenomenal thing going early on with their Saturn division. Those first Saturns were amazing with their Lexus-level reliability and dent-proof body panels (which I still can't believe nobody else adopted). Of course, GM managed to screw that up to by stopping the manufacture of Saturns and just having Saturn selling re-badged Opels.

GM executives didn't realise that taking away what made a division unique and special was a death sentence. Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Isuzu and Saab all went to hell under GM ownership. Fortunately for them, Isuzu and Saab still exist outside of the automotive industry. Isuzu still makes heavy trucks in Japan and the parts of Saab that are still Swedish like Saab Aerospace, Saab Military Solutions, Scania Heavy Trucks and Kockums Marine are some of the most respected companies in their industries. The only difference between them was that GM never got its rotting claws into them completely.

There was a time when GM had every advantage imaginable in a capitalist marketplace. GM had the world in its hands as the largest automaker by a HUGE margin but because they had the most corrupt and incompetent management team that I've ever seen or heard about. GM was eventually passed by Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler and *gasp!* FORD!

There is no English word for a collapse of this magnitude. The closest is the German "Klausterfokken".

 

[wiyosaya]

I know this is supposed to be funny, but I don't think I would like driving a vehicle like this since it is likely to require wearing a haz-mat suit to survive driving it.

Not to mention, this vehicle would probably violate environmental laws.

I would rather keep driving my Prius which considers my, yours, and everyone else's health important.

Apologies for spoiling the party.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I had no idea the Stingray started at Pontiac. I would love to see a front view of the Banshee to see how they incorporated the split grill.

There ya go. It even looks like Chevrolet stole Pontiac's font because those letters that spell "Banshee" look like the same letters that say "Stingray" on the C3's fenders.

 

[wiyosaya]

Well, they were set up enough that DeLorean managed to make the Banshee with a fibreglass body. IIRC, the Fiero had a plastic body as well.

Pontiac was supposed to be GM's "performance" marque. What chance did they have of living up to that image when the most high-performance car in GM's lineup was a Chevrolet? What chance did they have when GM decided that EVERY Pontiac would just be a re-badged and more expensive version of a Chevrolet, including the Firebird?

Pontiac was perhaps their most innovative division and worked their butts off trying to be unique with cars like the the Banshee and Fiero. GM's decision to cancel the Fiero in 1988 when it finally became good was one of the dumbest moves that I've ever seen a car company make (and GM has made a crap-tonne of dumb moves). GM condemned Pontiac by reducing them to nothing more than fancier-looking and more expensive Chevrolets. When you're supposed to be the performance marque of GM but Chevrolet has a cheaper but equally effective version of EVERY car you have, including your marquee car (Firebird), you're doomed from the start.

You said it yourself about the Camaro. If GM had done their job correctly (not a chance from some of the most incompetent executives ever to assemble in on corporation), there would have been NO CAMARO and NO CORVETTE. There would have been instead the Firebird, the Banshee and the Fiero.

Exactly, because their whole raison-d'être was performance. The way GM was operating, it should have just re-named itself Chevrolet and be done with it.

I didn't realise that the 389 was all that popular. In Canada, GTOs all came with the 421 IIRC. Mind you, back then, GM made models specifically for the Canadian market like the Pontiac Beaumont and Acadian.

Yeah they did but as we know in the real world, "GO" always beats "SHOW" and styling alone couldn't make Pontiac the performance marque when the Camaro and Corvette existed. GM was just plain stupid. If the Corvette had been moved over to Pontiac and re-named the Banshee (or just called the Pontiac Corvette), people would have bought them because they were still CORVETTES. They still had that breakneck performance that the Corvette was supposed to have and having an arrowhead instead of a bowtie on the grille wouldn't have changed that.

Chevrolet didn't need the Corvette or the Camaro. Chevy was already doing more than they were theoretically supposed to just by having both cars AND trucks. Chevy trucks should have been dropped in favour of GMC. To all of the bozos who say "I own a Silverado and would NEVER buy a Sierra!" I say "Oh, so you'd buy an F-Series, Ram or Tundra before you'd buy a Sierra?" to which of course they say "Well, no...." so again, GM is just plain dumb.

Yep, and unfortunately for GM, that's where their glory days will remain, in the past. It's because there's no great idea on Earth that GM can't completely screw up. GM even had a phenomenal thing going early on with their Saturn division. Those first Saturns were amazing with their Lexus-level reliability and dent-proof body panels (which I still can't believe nobody else adopted). Of course, GM managed to screw that up to by stopping the manufacture of Saturns and just having Saturn selling re-badged Opels.

GM executives didn't realise that taking away what made a division unique and special was a death sentence. Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Isuzu and Saab all went to hell under GM ownership. Fortunately for them, Isuzu and Saab still exist outside of the automotive industry. Isuzu still makes heavy trucks in Japan and the parts of Saab that are still Swedish like Saab Aerospace, Saab Military Solutions, Scania Heavy Trucks and Kockums Marine are some of the most respected companies in their industries. The only difference between them was that GM never got its rotting claws into them completely.

There was a time when GM had every advantage imaginable in a capitalist marketplace. GM had the world in its hands as the largest automaker by a HUGE margin but because they had the most corrupt and incompetent management team that I've ever seen or heard about. GM was eventually passed by Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler and *gasp!* FORD!

There is no English word for a collapse of this magnitude. The closest is the German "Klausterfokken".

I've never been a "performance" car person in the sense of getting max horsepower out of an ICE, but I would say that your post exemplifies why I went with Japanese cars for the only two new cars I have ever bought. My first was an 94' Acura Integra LX (yeah, I know, the poor man's Corvette, but performance, though it was arguably good, was not the reason I bought it), and my current 06' Prius. I am seriously contemplating a Prius Prime purchase next year - that is - if the prices do not go through the roof with the production cutback. My neighbor has a Prime - she says she went 2K miles without visiting a gas station. With my daily commute, I should be able to do something similar. (Arguably, Primes are loaded with lots of tech.)

The main reason I bought the Integra was because it had exceptionally high reliability ratings from Consumer Reports - and it proved to be so for me. I got rid of it, after some 120K miles, when I bought the Prius.

I have to say, though, that a friend of mine had an EVO. I thought that was impressive how far Mitsubishi went to squeeze every horse out of that engine. I rode in it once, and to me, being inexperienced in such things it sounded like it had a jet engine under the hood.

 

[scavengerspc]

There ya go. It even looks like Chevrolet stole Pontiac's font because those letters that spell "Banshee" look like the same letters that say "Stingray" on the C3's fenders.

Now I wish I hadn't asked. Cant lie man, I don't care for that at all.
It looks like an old Opel GT with a hair lip.

 

[scavengerspc]

I am seriously contemplating a Prius Prime purchase next year

I think you were the one that first told me about that car, and I read up on it soon after. I have always been America first in my choice of new cars, but that thing is amazing. 640-mile range? WHAT THE HELL! Seeing it has a 25-mile battery only range, I could easily see making 2000 miles without needing a gas station if her daily routine is fairly short.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I think you two are making too much of the concept Banshee's similarity to the Stingray. All four cars were pretty much cut from the same cloth., Camaro and Firebird's concessions were, metal bodies, and back seats.

Besides, pretty much all of GM 's lines jumped on that bandwagon to one extent or another:

I must disagree. The Banshee was a one-off concept car that was supposed to be sold by Pontiac four years BEFORE the Stingray II was released. GM just gave its darling Chevrolet whatever it wanted (as it always did) and screwed one of the other division (as it always did).

The Camaro was created because Chevrolet was jealous of Pontiac's LeMans GTO because the GTO made the muscle car market popular. The GTO completely eclipsed the "SS" Chevy models. For some reason, GM decided that they couldn't have that so Chevy was given the Camaro with Pontiac only being an afterthought as they got the Firebird 5 months later.

What should have happened is that GM should have said to Chevy "You already have the Corvette along with the Chevelle SS, Malibu SS and Nova SS, isn't that enough?!" or they should have made only the Firebird and let Pontiac do whatever they wanted with it. I guarantee you that Pontiac would have made the Firebird far better than the Camaro/Firebird twins were. We're talking about a division that wanted to make a mid-engine car similar to the DeTomaso Pantera but were blocked from making the Fiero into something that was actually GOOD.

GM = Garbage Management