My old Lambo photos from the 90s
Discussion
Bob the Cop said:
The Van Der Steen advert most likely appeared in CAR magazine late 1972 or early 1973. I was working at V D S at that time.
The Mazda in the advert was registered in August 1972. In June 1973 the Van Der Steen name was used to advertise Lamborghini but that part of the company had split and operated from 58 Southwark Bridge Road, S E 1. As per the attached advert.
A few months later Van Der Steen no longer had Lamborghini and the GB concession moved including myself to 5-6 Yarmouth Place Brick Street. W 1.
There were two main motoring magazines at that time, MOTOR and CAR. Due to an unfortunate incident with an Espada loaned to MOTOR magazine Lamborghini decided to no longer advertise in MOTOR magazine.
The Countach in the advert went on to be the crash test car and this same photo was used in Van Der Steens brochure for the October 1972 London motor show.
The advert below appeared in the August 1973 CAR magazine that featured a Countach road test. I could be wrong but my thoughts are that your advert appeared in CAR magazine. Hope that helps.
Thank you very much for the extensive information! I hope to track down the magazine in question and add it to my ever growing list of 1971-74 magazines showing the Countach prototype: https://timpelen.com/mags/mags.aspThe Mazda in the advert was registered in August 1972. In June 1973 the Van Der Steen name was used to advertise Lamborghini but that part of the company had split and operated from 58 Southwark Bridge Road, S E 1. As per the attached advert.
A few months later Van Der Steen no longer had Lamborghini and the GB concession moved including myself to 5-6 Yarmouth Place Brick Street. W 1.
There were two main motoring magazines at that time, MOTOR and CAR. Due to an unfortunate incident with an Espada loaned to MOTOR magazine Lamborghini decided to no longer advertise in MOTOR magazine.
The Countach in the advert went on to be the crash test car and this same photo was used in Van Der Steens brochure for the October 1972 London motor show.
The advert below appeared in the August 1973 CAR magazine that featured a Countach road test. I could be wrong but my thoughts are that your advert appeared in CAR magazine. Hope that helps.
POORCARDEALER said:
Does anyone remember a Black Countach which carried the number plate HOT XXX or similar....I bought a Bentley off a chap in london who said he owned it and it was supercharged, this would have been 15 years ago or more and the chap was in the antiques business
HOT 53X?POORCARDEALER said:
Does anyone remember a Black Countach which carried the number plate HOT XXX or similar....I bought a Bentley off a chap in london who said he owned it and it was supercharged, this would have been 15 years ago or more and the chap was in the antiques business
Remember the car,it was a Anniversary model, think he lived somewhere near Chiswick but not sure ,remember reading a article on it in the club magazine, black was one of the few colours that suited the Anniversary .
projectgt said:
Without wanting to derail the thread, does anyone have photos of the premises that Portman had in Windsor?
As a youngster, I used to go to a bar in Windsor that was formally the premises of Portman. It would be fantastic to see a photo of what it looked like during its brief Portman time.
I think the venue is an office these days.
Did anyone manage to find a photo of the Windsor dealership?As a youngster, I used to go to a bar in Windsor that was formally the premises of Portman. It would be fantastic to see a photo of what it looked like during its brief Portman time.
I think the venue is an office these days.
Joe lived in Mill Timber, just outside Aberdeen. I had the pleasure of collecting his car for servicing. I flew into Dyce airport and got a taxi to Joe's.
A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
Bob the Cop said:
Joe lived in Mill Timber, just outside Aberdeen. I had the pleasure of collecting his car for servicing. I flew into Dyce airport and got a taxi to Joe's.
A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
Do you remember him having a Miura? A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
No, I do not recall Joe having a Miura.
He may have got hold of one in 1974 but with the petrol shortage caused by the Arab/Israeli war everyone was getting out of gas guzzlers and there was a scramble to aquire Minis. We took 3 minis up to Aberdeen on the overnight sleeper train around this time. One of them was for Joe.
He may have got hold of one in 1974 but with the petrol shortage caused by the Arab/Israeli war everyone was getting out of gas guzzlers and there was a scramble to aquire Minis. We took 3 minis up to Aberdeen on the overnight sleeper train around this time. One of them was for Joe.
Bob the Cop said:
Joe lived in Mill Timber, just outside Aberdeen. I had the pleasure of collecting his car for servicing. I flew into Dyce airport and got a taxi to Joe's.
A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
Not a short trip! How long did it take you to get down to London. Guess it's around 500 odd miles! So all in, +1000 miles on the car just for a service!A really nice man. He had an 8 track stereo player fitted in the car with plenty of Johny Mathis tapes.
The drive from Mill Timber to London was a pleasure in this car, I tried to avoid the motorways as they were in 1973 and recall a pleasant drive across the Yorkshire Moors, stopping off in Leeds to visit the Lamborghini dealer there.
Once the work on the car was completed Joe would either fly down, collect the car and drive it back to Aberdeen or I would have the terrible task of driving it back. Happy memories.
Yes it was about 550 miles. I had the whole day to drive the car down to London. As long as the car was in the workshops the next morning I could take my time coming down from Scotland. This was not a 9 to 5 job so I would often get to London when everybody else had gone home.
Believe it or not there was less traffic on the roads in 1973. No speed cameras and any traffic police were more interested in getting a look at a Lamborghini.
The customers were given a choice for the car to be driven or trucked for a service. Most customers had not used their cars much and were grateful for the car to be driven and any problems identified could be put right by the workshops.
This was the age when I would collect a new Lamborghini from the factory for the customer and drive it back to the Uk.. By the time the car arrived in London it was ready for the first service, the car had been "run in" and any identified problems corrected before the customer received the car. The customer could use the full power of the car without having to worry and they got a free first service !
I have mentioned it here before, my best time from the factory to Calais was 12 hours, adhering to the running in speeds of the car. The only motorway was from Macon to Paris where I often had a competition with the Gendarmerie in their Citroen SM. I wonder how long that journey would take now. Has anybody done it recently?
Believe it or not there was less traffic on the roads in 1973. No speed cameras and any traffic police were more interested in getting a look at a Lamborghini.
The customers were given a choice for the car to be driven or trucked for a service. Most customers had not used their cars much and were grateful for the car to be driven and any problems identified could be put right by the workshops.
This was the age when I would collect a new Lamborghini from the factory for the customer and drive it back to the Uk.. By the time the car arrived in London it was ready for the first service, the car had been "run in" and any identified problems corrected before the customer received the car. The customer could use the full power of the car without having to worry and they got a free first service !
I have mentioned it here before, my best time from the factory to Calais was 12 hours, adhering to the running in speeds of the car. The only motorway was from Macon to Paris where I often had a competition with the Gendarmerie in their Citroen SM. I wonder how long that journey would take now. Has anybody done it recently?
I must admit that I was on a mission to get the car to the UK.
As per usual the car was not ready when I arrived at the factory so I did not get away until the evening.
From the factory up to Milan the traffic was light and the same from Milan to Aosta. Through the Tunnel and across to Nantua, Borg en Bresse and on to the motorway to Paris. I had the advantage of it being summertime so dark at 10pm and light by 4am.
My only stop was for fuel and the toilet, my bladder could go a lot longer then unlike now where advancing years means toilet stops are more frequent !!
This was the age of no cameras or speed limit worries across France. Now the villages across France have low speed limits which the police use to gain revenue. I expect that the route I took would take a lot longer now
Your 10 hours from Como was good, especially if it was done during the day and involved stops for provisions.
As per usual the car was not ready when I arrived at the factory so I did not get away until the evening.
From the factory up to Milan the traffic was light and the same from Milan to Aosta. Through the Tunnel and across to Nantua, Borg en Bresse and on to the motorway to Paris. I had the advantage of it being summertime so dark at 10pm and light by 4am.
My only stop was for fuel and the toilet, my bladder could go a lot longer then unlike now where advancing years means toilet stops are more frequent !!
This was the age of no cameras or speed limit worries across France. Now the villages across France have low speed limits which the police use to gain revenue. I expect that the route I took would take a lot longer now
Your 10 hours from Como was good, especially if it was done during the day and involved stops for provisions.
RicksAlfas said:
Found these at home. It was a Supercar day at Castle Combe in either 1988 or 1989.
Apologies for the quick and dirty scans but thought they might be of interest.
I must have been lurking about in the background somewhere, doesn't seem that long ago really,Apologies for the quick and dirty scans but thought they might be of interest.
I know,all us old gits say that . But there is 5 photo's of my old Countach there but before i owned it.
Yes MP's low body car still looks fantastic today as it did then .
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