HEY, GOOD-LOOKING; 1984 Lamborghini Countach.

Byline: STEVE KASH

In italy's Piedmont region, where Lamborghinis are made, "Countach'' is a wolflike gasp of appreciation by a man gazing upon a beautiful woman. In the early 1980s, Hollywood seized on the car's "bad boy'' label. A Countach scene opened the popular movie Cannonball Run, based on a true story about a high-speed, illegal transcontinental U.S. road race and starring Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise and Lamborghini babe Adrienne Barbeau, whose black Countach zipped past a police car and outran it during a chase as credits appeared on-screen.

The Countach's debut in 1971 had caused a sensation. Styled by Marcello Gandini of Bertone, its sharp-angled body and svelte roof curve influenced the looks of performance cars for years. Its lightweight tubular spaceframe gave the Countach exceptional torsion strength. To accommodate a 24-valve, 375-hp V12, the "cabin-forward'' passenger compartment was outfitted with a handsome leather interior. Built low to the ground and extra wide at 78.5 inches for cornering stability, a Countach needed vertical scissor-door openings for parking in a normal space.

Production began in 1974. During the next 16 years, according to Lamborghini experts, approximately 1500 Countaches were produced in several versions.

A 1984 look-alike of the Cannonball Run Countach is owned by Warren Miller of Topeka, Kansas. Miller's 5000S is one of 190 believed to have been manufactured from 1982 to 1984. At the time, Lamborghini was ...