Testarossa vs ...

[Oulan]

Testarossa Koenig

[stlouis92]

   

    Countach QV vs Ferrari Testarossa

   

   

• "The fastest road-going sports car has to be a Ferrari":  this is what Ferrari boss Giovanni Razelli ever said. In that side of Group  B limited production super expensive, Maranello already had a GTO. In this  side of production supercar, it launched Testarossa in 1985 as a Countach-beater
• Targeting directly at the  Countach, Testarossa was undoubtedly the greatest arch-rival to Countach.  Its 4942 c.c. 48-valve 12 cylinders boxer engine was Ferrari's response  to Countach QV's 5167 c.c. 48-valve V12. Although the prancing horse had  "only" 390 hp on tap, versus Countach's claimed 455 hp, its drag coefficient  of 0.36 was better than Countach's 0.42. Both cars were mid-engined, heavyweight  and very wide, also priced at the same level.
• Road tests found the Countach  was more accelerative - from standstill to 60 mph it was 0.4 sec quicker  - due to more power and 400 lbs less weight. Testarossa won back at top  speed - 181 mph was easily achieveable by most magazines, and the best  record I know was 184 mph. However, how did these two supercars compare  in a real face-to-face contest? CAR magazine did such a test in April 1986,  which is summarised and reproduced in below.    Comparison - by CAR magazine" Did the Countach's heavy controls  constitute a big problem in long term or long distance use ? Had the obvious  effort Ferrari had put into simplifying their car's controls damaged its  character ? Did Lamborghini's poor driving position interfere with one's  enjoyment of it ? Did it really drink petrol to the extent it seemed to  ? And which of the pair was quickest in tough conditions like Castle Combe's  ? We had two days to find out ....
• " The Ferrari Testarossa  is a wholly smoother, more modern, more aerodynamic machine than the Lambo.  It shows immediately in the drag factors : the Ferrari's is reasonable  at 0.36, the Lambo's is an almost unmentionable 0.42 (without the wing,  which must make it a lot worse). What strikes you as soon as you see the  Countach and Testarossa in company is the greater size of the Maranello  car. It is nearly a foot longer at 177in, 2.0in longer in wheelbase at  100.4in, nearly 400 lb heavier, more than 2.0in higher, similar in front  track but nearly two inches wider in rear track. It is a big, big car ....
• "  The Ferrari gives 16 mpg in places where you will get only 12 mpg for the  Lambo .... " The Testarossa is such  a civilised car. It has a fairly soft ride which we felt was let down at  times by extremes of surface roar and bump-thump....you could hope for  stiffer damping - and in the corners you are surprisingly aware of the  car's body roll. But the pay-off is a level of comfort to your progress  that won't be found in other exotic cars ....
• " The steering is less direct  than the Lambo's but provides a decent turning circle, which combined with  the excellent visibility (about the best there is in a mid-engined car),  gives the Testarossa a real town capability. The brakes are light to use,  too, but overservoed ....
• " The gearchange isn't exactly  foolproof. It moves fluently about its open gate with the characteristic  "ker-snap" of other machines which use the same system .... The clutch  matches the rest of the car's efforts ; it is light but a trifle woolly  ....
• " Inside, the Testarossa  is a leather lover's paradise .... the leather bucket seats are comfortable  and supportive, and their power adjustment combines well with the tilt-adjust  steering column, to give a wide variety of driving positions. The car suits  people of far above average height and there is plenty of legroom, too  ....
• " The Lamborghini is the  more spectacular looking car of the two - we have the reactions of the  crowds who surrounded it every time it stopped, to go by. Invariably there  would be a clump of half a dozen people gathered around the Lambo, discussing  its outlandish lines. The Ferrari, in this company, rated hardly a glance  ....
• " Inside, the dominating  thing about the Countach is a lack of headroom and visibility. If you're  more than about 5ft 10in, you have to slouch in the seat, bum forward,  knees high, head retracted into the shoulders as far as is comfortable  .... Shiny black leather was the main trimming material of the car and  it just looked cheap, despite its undoubtedly hideous cost.
• " This, to be fair, is hardly  the point of the Countach's excellence. The point of the Countach is the  way it goes when driven at top speed, maximum effort, full noise. At Castle  Combe, we found the Lamborghini's conclusive point of superiority.
• " Both cars did well. The  Countach felt instantly at home, its heavy steering, gearchange and pedals  efforts - and its compact driving position - suited the extreme loads of  hard driving. But what told most was its superb capability over high speed  bumps and its marvellous handling balance. It turned best, it stayed flat  under serious provocation, it braked without dive and it steered quickly  and with precision. It behaved as many of the people who take pure track  cars there would one day like their machinery to behave.
• " All around was noise, of  course .... the Lamborghini Countach is quicker, better handling, better  braked, and nicer to drive .... After that, the Testarossa felt like a  Ford Fiesta. Efforts required were light, it made less noise. It offered  a nice, upright driving position and seemed almost airy in comparison with  the Lamborghini. It rode better, too, but its steering didn't have the  ***, it understeered more. Its seats lacked the proper degree of lateral  support for maximum effort corners, and its brakes felt a little spongy  after very much work. Its areas of clear superiority were its gearchange,  not nearly as heavy as the Lambo's and twice as slick, and its engine throttle  response. That by a whisker.
• " But such a confrontation  requires a decision, and it's quite easy to make.
  The Ferrari is probably the best car of the two,  but the Lamborghini is undoubtedly the Greatest

   
 

    Continue ...

     

[Moune]

.

[stlouis92]

C'est LA voiture préparée par Sixxto-sport, qui était blanche avant.

J'aime bien les prises d'air sur le haut des hanches, mais c'est un peut rtop rond pour une voiture plutôt carrée normalement, et, à ce titre, les prises NACA de chez Koenig était plus "époque" à mon avis.

Je regrette que ça n'ait pas été mis d'origine, parce que l'endroit où la voiture prend son air frais n'est pas du tout bien placé (au dessus des pots !).

[fifi08]

moi j'aime pas du tout
je préfere la version d'origine et bien carré manu ..

[Tifosi]

moi j'aime pas du tout
je préfere la version d'origine et bien carré manu ..

+1, ça alourdi la ligne comme pas possible 

[multitruc]

comme quoi ca peut etre moche une Ferrari

[stlouis92]

Nan, c'est pas si moche que ça !



Moche, c'est ça :

[stlouis92]

Mais on s'égare !

Ici, c'est Testarossa versus XYZ !

[Tifosi]

tu parles !
 
tout ce que tu veux, c'est qu'on te dise qu'elles sont parfaitement complémentaire, pour que tu puisses imprimer la page et la montrer à Stacie 

[multitruc]

 

[stlouis92]

A Noël dernier, je m'étais acheté tout un énorme carton de magazines sur eBay aux US !
  Tout ce que j'avais trouvé avec les mots-clef Countach et/ou Testarossa, c'est simple.
Dont ce magazine en particulier ;-)

Et j'ai déjà fait mon taf d'intoxication, tu penses bien ! Mais toute aide est précieuse.

[Tifosi]

...Mais toute aide est précieuse.

c'est donc bien ce que je dis 

tu donnerais combien pour mon silence auprès de Stacie ? 

[stlouis92]

Pas de chance : Catherine m'a donné l'argument imparable qui tue de la mort de chez les d'jeunses.

Je mets la voiture au nom de Doran : elle pourra rien faire contre ce Kizami zuki foudroyant !

[Fred964c2]

bravo DORAN !!!
 
tiens testa vs countach.
et la gagnante est... ?
 

Countach vs Testarossa

[Fred964c2]

gros teasing ici...
 

Lamborghini Countach vs. Ferrari Testarossa, Performance Car magazine

[stlouis92]

Cool la premiere video !

[stlouis92]

L'article dont Franck avait posté des photos :

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/246013/showdown_countach_v_boxer.html


Showdown: Countach v Boxer                                                         Superclash                                                                            They were the definitive ‘Supercars   of the Seventies’. But which was the best of the best, Boxer or   Countach?                                                                   

Text: Keith   Adams / Photos: Matthew Howell

December 2009

Ferrari   512BBi v Lamborghini Countach LP400

Gandini had grown   in confidence, celebrating the Countach’s mid-engined layout with a   cab-forward design like no other [/t][/t][/t][/t][/t] [/t]I'd   be lying if I told you I’d slept well the night before. For as long as I   can remember, I’ve had something of an irrational weakness for the   Lamborghini Countach – and here I was about to spend the day in the   company of one, along with its fiercest of ’70s rivals, the Ferrari   Boxer. Fed on a diet of carefully crafted prose from the likes of Blain,   Setright, Cropley and Nichols throughout my childhood, it was hard not   to be convinced by proxy that the unmistakable Countach was something   very special indeed. But my biggest worry was that the passage of time   would have dulled its impact. I needn’t have worried. As the   early morning mists were burned away by the autumnal sun, I set eyes on   it for the first time. The car in question, an early LP400 Periscopo   finished in burnt orange, looks fabulous. Low, squat, wide-haunched, fat   tyred and implausibly wedgy. With its scissor doors open, the Countach   appears as removed from the traffic around it as it might have done back   in the 1970s. The Ferrari 512BBi alongside practically goes unnoticed. Imagine   the impact the Counctach must have made at the Geneva Motor Show in   1971, when the original bright yellow 5-litre prototype was shown for   the very first time. Another flight of fancy? Of course. Bertone’s   Marcello Gandini had grown in confidence as a stylist since penning the   Miura. He’d obviously gone for shock and awe with the Countach,   celebrating its mid-engined layout with a cab-forward design like no   other. In reality, Lamborghini needed it like a hole in the head,   especially as the Miura was at the height of its Ferrari-humbling   powers.  No matter, the Sant’Agata factory announced that it   would be building customer versions. Considering how radical the   original looked, the retail proposition hadn’t been too compromised.   Sure, it had sprouted box-like air intakes aft of the side windows and a   pair of NACA ducts on its flanks but, other than that, the Countach   retained its concept car looks. Under the skin there had been   considerable development work to make it production-ready. The prototype   had already abandoned the Miura’s transverse engine layout, but other   challenges included incorporating those cooling system upgrades, the   loss of its digital instrumentation, making the transmission reliable,   and abandoning the big-bore Bizzarrini V12. In 1974 the   production Countach went on sale, and immediately found itself thrown   into the centre of a storm. In the wake of the 1973 energy crisis,   demand for [size=100% ! important][color=darkgreen ! important]supercars[/color][/size]   evaporated, with many industry pundits forecasting the death of the   motor industry. Italy’s industrial relations were shattered too, and as a   consequence of unstable and ineffectual government regular strikes   crippled production at Sant’Agata. After the overwhelmingly   favourable climate that the Miura had thrived in, it was a stark   reversal of fortunes for Lamborghini. The company ended up lurching from   crisis to crisis throughout the strife-torn ’70s, the only constant   through it all being the Countach’s continued production, albeit   sporadic. With all that going on in the foreground, the Countach’s   obvious strengths as the ultimate supercar continued to shine through.   And it’s easy to see why: its credentials were impeccable. Although   no independent road tester could ever get close to matching it,   Lamborghini boldly claimed that the Countach’s maximum speed was 195mph.   Given that its closest rival, the Ferrari 365GT4BB, was all done at   188mph (again optimistic), that made it supposedly the fastest   production car in the world. In reality, neither the Boxer nor the   Countach would go much beyond 170mph, but that didn’t matter one iota.       Because controversy was what the Countach was all about. Its   all-aluminium engine pushed out 375bhp, it had six downdraught   twin-choke Weber carburettors, four camshafts, twin fuel pumps and two   tanks that needed feeding with five-star. Under the skin, it was   special, too, featuring a multi-tubular spaceframe beneath an aluminium,   steel and glassfibre body.       But what of the Boxer, the car that the Countach so comprehensively   overshadowed during the ’70s? Some say that the big Ferrari was a   latecomer to the supercar party but, with the Daytona being such a   success with mile-munching playboys, who’s to say that it needed to   produce an answer to the Miura with any degree of haste? Certainly, when   it arrived in 1973, the 365GT4 Berlinetta Boxer was a massive departure   – not only for Ferrari (the mid-engined Dino’s V6 was transversely   mounted) but also compared with the opposition. The BB’s   Pininfarina styling was a masterclass of beauty and subtlety, and it   housed its unusual engine/transmission package quite elegantly. Echoing   Ferrari’s dominant Formula One cars of the mid-’70s, it had a flat-12   engine (hence the name), which was slung atop a five-speed gearbox.   Given the packaging constraints that layout imposed, it was a marvellous   effort. The Boxer’s body/chassis unit was similar in concept to   the Countach’s: a square-tube perimeter frame, strengthened by sheet   steel, was clad in alloy and glass-fibre. Alike underneath, but what   about on the road? The first thing that strikes me about the   Countach is its size. When new it was lambasted for its sheer width, but   now, mixing with modern traffic, the Countach seems perfectly sized.   The driving position is low and reclined, and driving behind the taller   Boxer the view is dominated by that car’s transmission casing and   exhaust pipes. It’s a wonder how taller owners manage, as it‘s all a bit   of a squeeze. Despite that, the panoramic view of grand-scale   countryside is as perfect as it gets. There’s no time to admire   the Alcantara and leather interior though, because the open road beckons   and I don’t want to wait. Meeting a hero, and all that. Starting   the Countach is straightforward. Prime the carbs with the throttle,   turn the starter, let it cough into life... two, four, six, twelve, then   blip the throttle to clear its throat. Like the Miura, it’s racecar   music controlled by the right foot. Sadly, the Countach likes to   intimidate – all three pedals are heavy, and a quick check of the    mirror tells you very little. Whatever, it’s time to go.  Given   the Lamborghini’s legendary reputation, it’s tempting to immediately   nail the throttle and see how fast the Countach will go but, as crisp   and responsive as this one sounds, it’s best to learn its little foibles   before really going for it. With its tall gearing and cammy   power delivery, driving smoothly is difficult to begin with. But beyond   3000rpm that’s all forgiven and there’s genuine shove. Once the 5000rpm   barrier is breached, the soundtrack that overlays the yowl of the V12   with the whine of the transmission becomes operatic, while acceleration   ramps up to almost savage proportions. The Countach is still every inch a   pure-bred, full-fat supercar. The steering is alive but less frantic than the Miura’s, and when you  dive into the corners the Countach feels planted in a reassuringly  no-roll kind of way. And for me that’s a blessed relief because it’s  confirmation that the stream of superlatives in Countach drive stories  during the ’70s was completely justified.     As the miles roll by, confidence in the Countach increases to the point  where its inherent speed becomes almost a natural state of affairs, and  only when we catch other cars does its ground-covering ability become  obvious. It’s also increasingly difficult to contemplate handing back  the keys to its enthusiastic owner.     And there’s one final surprise on this memorable day in the North  Yorkshire Moors: it might have been an uncompromisingly sporting car  back then, but one aspect of the Countach’s chassis set-up that  impresses is the compliant ride – factory test driver Bob Wallace  obviously felt little need to develop the suspension set-up at the  Nuerburgring…     Unsurprisingly, after the Countach the Boxer feels altogether more  civilised. And so it should. Inside, it’s more commodious and  luxuriously trimmed, while the driving position is less compromised.  Our Michelin TRX-shod 1982 Ferrari 512BBi was more contemporary with  the Countach LP500S, and proof positive that fuel injection and  low-profile tyres really were massive leaps forward in automotive  development.     Once fired up, the Ferrari’s flat-12 sounds delightful. The throttle is  light and responsive, and there’s little in the way of flywheel effect,  so blipping it to release that music becomes a bit of a naughty  pleasure.   It’s mighty tractable underway, too. Low-down torque is ample, throttle  response is clean and acceleration feels every bit as strong as the  Countach’s, but without the multi-faceted power delivery. In many ways  it lacks the drama of its Sant’Agata rival, a fact borne out by the  lack of attention it gets.     But it’s a joyous-sounding beast. At low revs it’s subdued but, as the  speed picks up, it emits a spine-tingling scream, especially towards  its 6500rpm red line. For once, Lamborghini doesn’t have it all its own  way in the musical stakes.     The Boxer is poised, too, and although there’s been much criticism from  seasoned testers about its snap-oversteer and too-high centre of  gravity, on dry moorland roads it’s grippy and helped along by  communicative steering. The open-gated gearchange and clutch are heavy,  but not wearingly so – they just add to the well-engineered feel.     I might not have slept too well the night before, but that certainly  wasn’t the case afterwards. Both the Boxer and Countach are physical  cars to drive, but I’d come away having touched greatness. For me the  Countach was the star of the pair, just as I’d hoped, but considering  its reputation for ungainly handling the Boxer runs it surprisingly  close on these challenging roads. And I’m delighted about that, too.     Thanks to Stephen Ward, Les Arrowsmith and Mark Baxtrem.

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[stlouis92]

Un commentaire avisé :
     Wrong comparison..               It is sad that you compare the 512BBi to the LP400. If you want to   compare a Ferrari Boxer to the LP400 it should have been the 365 GT4/BB.   This car is much mor raw/wilder than the injected 512BBi and also the   365 GT4/BB is produced in the same time as the LP400. So please do not   make these compares when you do not put up the right cars against each   other. Otherwise a nice article. 
 
Best regards from Denmark      
     By abo78 on 4 August, 2010, 12:39pm     

[DAYTONA73]

Un connaisseur que ce Danois !!  (la 365 BB prend aussi 1000tr de plus que ces BBi au caractère aseptisé.)

[Armen]

Yes, plus pure et sauvage comme il le dit si bien

[stlouis92]

Faudrait que je trouve ça :

[Oulan]

[stlouis92]

DXO je t'adore... Les JPEGs sont trop contrastées du fait de la perte de gamut (sRGB, vs AdobeRGB pour mes TIFFs 32 bits).
Armen. si tu veux les TIFFs, dis-moi.

[Georges]