Bankrupt Billionaire's Lamborghini Countach Discovered Roadside After Burning To A Crisp
A Lamborghini Countach owned by bankrupt British businessman James Stunt was found burnt to a crisp on the side of the road last week. The car is one of dozens owned by the troubled gold trader that are all part of a court-ordered asset freeze. Stunt has been in the news recently due to his inability to pay what amounts to an enormous amount of debt. 17.5 million. He pledged to sell many of his possessions, including paintings by Monet, Chagall, and Pissarro, but the courts still found that he couldn鈥檛 guarantee repayment of his commitments. The 37-year-old first made headlines in 2011, when he married Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone. They divorced in 2017 after having three children. A witness said the person claiming to own the car was a black man with dyed green hair, and that Stunt was not there. 1 million for rare early models, but some people are calling foul on Stunt鈥檚 open-top Countach. Some believe it could be a kit car, rather than a legit Countach with a good cabriolet conversion. Despite offering to sell his artwork and wine, Stunt鈥檚 car collection was ruled untouchable by the courts, at least for now. He was ordered not to sell or otherwise diminish their value until proceedings have completed. We鈥檙e guessing the Countach鈥檚 value, regardless of if it鈥檚 real, may have taken a hit.
Sitting at a keyboard and 'pressing' for the right words leaves the door 'open' to increased frustration and writer's block. Speak as if you are conversing with a friend and do not write to impress but to be understood! Settle down and start composing only after thoughts start to flow freely through your mind. Do not concern yourself with spelling or grammar at this point but instead focus only on recording your thoughts. By doing this you will find the writing process flows much more smoothly and rapidly. Remember when you wanted to take the time to correct your spelling and check your grammar, well now is your chance. Proofread what you have composed and get rid of needless words or phrases. Check to see if it sounds right and when you are satisfied, hit the spell check tab, make any corrections necessary, and congratulate yourself on a job well done! Learning to improve your writing abilities starts with making a conscious effort to not overly complicate what you are trying to do. Simply put, the writing process should involve nothing more than you sharing a conversation with others. Allowing your thoughts to flow freely as you record them in an uninterrupted fashion is what you want to achieve and how to develop more effective writing skills. The 5 suggestions offered above serve to help simplify your approach while avoiding writer's block which normally results the longer your progress continues to be delayed. Remember composing anything is not really all that difficult unless you allow your own mind to make it that way. Just say what you want and write what you say!
Up until 1972, the Porsche 911 (in its various guises) came with a dogleg transmission, where first gear sat on its own at the bottom-left of the shift gate. The unusual layout was due to the original five-speed 901/1 unit also being utilised in the 904/906 race cars, where first gear wouldn鈥檛 be used once on the move. Until the arrival of the Porsche 911T in 1968, the 911 exclusively used a five-speed gearbox. However, the entry level 鈥楾鈥?used a four-speed 901/03 shifter, while the 911L and 911S shared the five-speed 901/50 gearbox. During that time, the 915 would see several revisions. Starting life as the 915/03, it would exit the scene with 915/72 stamped into its casing. In four-speed form, the gearbox also saw action in the Porsche 911 Turbo, although in this application is gained the 930 nomenclature. Succeeding the 915 was the job of the even more famous G50/00 gearbox (where reverse moved to the left-and-up of first).
The five-speed unit was a revelation, although it would see action on the Porsche 930 until 1989, when in G50/50 guise it was finally deemed strong enough for the Turbo鈥檚 torque output. With the arrival of the Porsche 964 Carrera 4 in 1989, the G50 was revised to cope with the four-wheel drive system, resulting in the G64/00 gearbox. A year later, the 964 Carrera 2 would debut with the G50/03 five-speed, featuring a slicker, shorter shift action. The G50鈥檚 success saw it hardly reworked during the 964 era, with Cup and RS versions gaining the G50/10 unit and 911 Turbos fitted with the strengthened G50/52 shifter, all featuring five forward gears. A six-speed gearbox was first seen on the Porsche 993 Carrera, where the venerable G50 was fettled to fit an extra ratio: the G50/21. The G64 labelling survived for Carrera 4 variants as well as the newly four-wheel drive 993 Turbo. Into the Porsche 996 era, six ratios remained the norm, however a new gearbox was required to fit the water-cooled M96 engine, with all manual shifters starting with the G96 denomination. A similar naming trend was seen during the Porsche 997鈥檚 tenure, with both Gen1 and Gen2 versions fitted with the G97 strain of manual gearboxes. This was eventually ended with the current 991 generation as a seven-speed manual, utilising the PDK鈥檚 casing, was introduced with the codename MT11.
I believe I ended last month鈥檚 part of this story with our 901 being firmly ensconced at the PCNA Restoration Facility in Reno Nevada. As time passed by it seemed like the call from the Porsche in Reno telling us our 901 was ready to pick up would never come, but after months of body and paint work the phone finally rang. Our late friend Don Kravig again volunteered to head north to Reno with Lori and I to pick it up and bring it home. The trip up was again lots of fun, but nothing compared to finally seeing the 901 in person. Having not seen this car fresh off the assembly line in Germany back in 1964 I really can鈥檛 compare it then to how it looked in Reno, but if anything the 901 may have even been too perfect. Over the years in PCA we鈥檇 been to hundreds of Concours, and seen many beautifully restored Porsches, but the 901 was simply breathtaking. It may just have been pride of ownership, but my main concern immediately switched to how we could possibly finish all the remaining restoration steps without doing any damage to our beautiful Porsche.