Lamborghini Countach: Equal parts exhilarating and exhausting | Why I Drive #25

Victor Holtorf was born with an engineer's mind. And growing up on a ranch in eastern Colorado afforded him ample opportunity to tinker with various machinery and pickup trucks. Once he reached driving age, Holtorf's incurable urge to take things apart and understand them spread to his cars. While his earlier car tastes revolved around American muscle, Victor eventually found himself buying and working on vintage foreign classics. He would eventually land himself the highest horsepower version of the famed Lamborghini Countach, the LP5000 Quattrovalvole, featuring six downdraft Weber caburetors and four valves per cylinder. “I love carburetors,” says Holtorf. “I know fuel injection is better for a lot of reasons, but with a carburetor you have instant throttle response. There's not even a fraction of a second delay when you push the throttle and something happens. Plus, you can hear [the carburetors], and sometimes you smell the gasoline when you really get on the gas hard and all the pumps are shooting the gas in. It's a sensory feast.” Hagerty is your definitive source for all things classic: compelling stories about cool cars and the people who love them; the latest on collector car values and market trends; and all the eye candy, roaring engines and nostalgia you can handle. So strap down, settle in and cruise with us a while. We’re glad you’re here.