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1982 LHD Countach LP500 S

Chassis Number CLA12477 is this Italian market Giallo Fly car with Nero Leather interior, currently believed to be residing in Spain, previously USA .

Other Information: This example of Countach 5000S (LHD) in Giallo Fly with Nero leather was destined for the Italian market.
It is the sixth example out of the approximately 321 LP5000S that were built, and this one was the first one to carry the “5000S” Logo, the first 5 simply had “5S”.


1982:
Italy
This Countach was destined to be one of the 3 Pace cars in the 1982 Monaco GP. It is important to note that during the Monaco GP this car did not have a wing, that is because the wing made it difficult to see the siren so Lamborghini decided not to put a wing on these example during Monaco GP.

USA
In July of that same year Hector Rebaque, a Mexican Indy Car and F1 driver bought this Countach for approximately 70,000USD. On July 27th this Countach was loaded onto a cargo ship and it began its journey towards the USA.

While the Countach travelled to the US Hector Rebaque entered negotiations with the racing team Forsythe Racing to compete in the Indy Car World Series of that same year. Forsythe Racing agreed to take car of the racing car, the mechanics team and all the equipment while Hector Rebaque agreed to pay 600,000 USD.
Its because of this 600,000 USD that Hector decided to give Forsythe Racing ownership of the Countach even before the car had arrived to the US, to pay part of those 600,000 USD.

When the car arrived to the US Forsythe Racing was the one that officially imported it and picked it up from the port.

1985
In 1985 because of problems in the payment of those 600,000 USD the matter was taken to court, thanks to Sentence No. 84-1381 judged by the Appellate Court of Illinois I can confirm the history and owners of this car while it was in the US.

1990-1996
Gerald Forstythe, owner of Forsythe Racing and of the Champ Car World Series was the only owner of this car while it was in the US. He had two Countach LP5000S examples, this one and a grey one, in the nineties he decided to sell both of them.

Joe Sackey, of Joe Sackey classics, a known specialist in classic Ferraris and Lamborghinis confirmed that both these units were offered to him by Mike Sheehan of European Auto Sales & Restoration in Costa Mesa, CA USA although the cars finally weren’t sold this way.

Thanks to Joe Sackey we also know that:
- According to Lamborghini documents CLA12477 came out the factory without a wing, the wing was added later, very possibly after the Monaco GP before Lamborghini sold the car to Hector but there is also the possibility that Gerald Forsythe added the wing after he took ownership of the car. What is certain it that when Gerald sold the car years later it had a wing installed.

- Forsythe for business and tax reasons stored the cars in Mexico City, that’s why CLA12477 eluded all US regulations (USA DOT &EPA) and it was maintained 100% original from factory.

1997
Because the car was not road legal in the US it was basically impossible to sell it in the US, that is why in 1997 it was given to Brooks Classic car Auctioneers who in their London auction in 1997 sold the car.

1997-2005 approx
I believe the car was auctioned off in the UK once.

2005 (approx) - Currently
The car was purchased by Torre Loizaga, a mainly Rolls Royce collection in the Basque Country (North of Spain) in 2022 when the owners found out of its pace car history they replicated the original Pace Car vynils and put a siren on the car. .

Information on this car was sourced from Nicolás Gómez / Raymond Stofer.

and also here http://www.countach.ch/History/PaceCar/index.html

The data on this specific vehicle was last updated 17-Jul-2022.

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Page Design Last modified: 2nd December 2023