Even though I have an extensive history with Ferraris, the Lamborghini Countach is single-handedly responsible for getting me addicted to exotic cars. Back in the day, Alpine car stereos had a poster that featured a picture of a Countach on it (how many of you remember that?), and that was it – I was hooked! It was the wildest looking machine I, and much of the world, had ever laid eyes on. If you were to see one on the road today, it would still draw a massive amount of attention, so imagine what it was like back in the late ’70s into the ’80s.

I wasn’t much into Formula 1 racing at the time, so any link to the racing series did not matter at the time. It was all about the looks, and the level of exoticism. The most comparable car to the Countach back in the day was Ferrari’s 512 Berlinetta Boxer, which was a very cool car in its own right, but really was nowhere close to the Countach in how exotic it looked.

There was a local exotic car dealership in the town I grew up in. One day, I was riding my bicycle by there, and saw them pulling out a black Countach, so naturally, I had to stop to check out what was going on. I had never heard one running, or had seen one in motion, so it was like drawing bees to honey! Once inside, I saw the reason why they were pulling it out, and it was for none other than Pete Rose!

A few years later, once I had my license, I regularly visited exotic car dealerships to take pictures, and hopefully get some brochures. I went to one such dealership that had a Lamborghini Countach parked in the showroom. The salesman saw me salivating over it, and was nice enough to unlock it for me, where I was able to get a picture of me inside of it. I was very much on cloud 9! I couldn’t believe I actually got to sit inside of one.

Fast forward to my career selling Ferraris. We had a good customer of ours whom I ended up becoming good friends with. He was a younger guy, and had bought many Ferraris from me over the years. He had always had a desire to own a Lamborghini, so one day, went ahead and bought a Diablo 6.0, in yellow. Like that car wasn’t flashy enough – throw yellow paint on it, and you essentially have a rolling road block. I don’t think a car could get any more attention than that! Nonetheless, it was the 1st Lamborghini I ever got to drive. Once I got past the level of exoticism it possessed, I could really experience how the car drove. You sat very low to the ground, arms stretched out, and nearly impossible to see out of the sides and rear. It had good power, but it really was a chore to drive. Operating the clutch and gear shift lever required very deliberate action – no smooth and easy here. His brother had owned a couple of Gallardos, both with manual transmissions. First, he had a coupe, and then the convertible. I drove them both. After driving all 3 of these Lamborghinis, I was left with a similar impression, and that was that they all felt like Italian muscle cars. They gave nowhere near the feel you get from a Ferrari.

I still say this to this day – Lamborghinis are for people who don’t know any better. They are for people who want to make the visual statement, where the driving experience is really secondary. They are for people who don’t have the patience to sit on the lengthy waiting lists that always accompanies the newest mid-engine V8 Ferrari (I’ve seen wait times going out 3 years!) Luckily, for those buying Lamborghinis, the general public does not know any better either. A Lamborghini is still as flashy as any Ferrari, and gives of the same level of exoticism, if not more. To the general public, Ferraris and Lamborghinis are one in the same.