Rock star’s 1982 Lamborghini Countach LP5000S retired from fast life

This 1982 Lamborghini Countach LP5000S has spent most of its time since late 2001 in long-term storage near Los Angeles, California, but has recently emerged with a dealership named Driver Source, based in Houston, Texas. This one was a notable example of the famous poster car, even before it found its proper destiny as a garage toy for Carlos Cavazo, lead guitarist of LA glam metal band Quiet Riot.

This is said to be the first 4.8-litre Countach production car. It was exhibited on Lamborghini’s stand at the 1982 Geneva Motor Show and appeared on the pages of the LP5000S brochure. After the show, the car was bought by one Aaron Rosen, who shipped it to Germany before exporting it over to the United States. He in turn sold it via a dealer to Cavazo, who spotted it on Robertson Boulevard near Beverly Hills while driving past one day in 1985.

Cavazo, seemingly a true petrolhead and a restrained and sensible individual by rockstar standards, enjoyed the car regularly over the next 16 years but claimed to have put his foot down only once, in the spirit of enquiry – finding that 150mph came up very quickly. In an interview from 2021, Cavazo stated that once marriage and children came along, he no longer had ‘what it took’ to keep the car on the road, and so arranged a deal with a fellow customer of Franco Barbuscia’s exotic car showroom, Franco’s European Sports Cars, in Van Nuys. The new owner appears to have embarked on some restoration, with the car shown engineless and partly dismantled in a YouTube video from that time, but Barbuscia’s death later the same year seems to have caused the work to stall.

The Countach was reassembled and is now offered in ‘as found’ condition, still showing the 66,198km it had accrued when Cavazo sent it to Barbuscia’s workshop 22 years ago. The BMW-based fuel injection system that Cavazo was obliged to fit for California’s emissions regulations remains on the car, which undoubtedly requires more restoration but appears a sound, undamaged basis.

First 5000S, an important car. Rock-star red hide lasted well. Caught napping since 2001.