Having been a follower of your web site for a number of years, I thought I would take an opportunity to share with you some of my toys and a little history.

I live Northern California and have been into kit cars and dune buggies for many years and just recently had an opportunity to own/drive my dream car.

I was fortunate to find a rather well built Countach replica for sale at a very reasonable price in a nearby town. The Red Countach in the photos is built on a lengthened late model Fireo chassis with a fully adjustable coil-over shocks and aftermarket tubular front suspension. The engine is a 327 cubic inch Chevy connected to a 4 speed transmission. The pictures of this car do not do it justice, you would not believe the attention this car gets whenever it is out. I cannot think of a single trip out with the car that someone didn’t either want to have their picture taken with it or took a picture from their cell phone camera while I was stopped at a light or stop sign.

The car is horribly unpractical to drive on a regular basis and has blind spots that will drive you nuts. The car is so wide that you have to have a custom built platform from which to do even routine maintenance on the motor. Even cleaning the inside of the front windshield is a major task because the windshield is so raked back. I am not a little person by no means and not as flexible as I was when I was younger so getting in/out of this car is by no means an easy task either. For all the draw backs to this car, I would not have traded the experience of owning one for anything. The feeling you get from driving a car like this more satisfying than any inconvenience.

When I first got the car I told my wife I was going to have to loose some weight so I looked good getting in/out of the car. She pretty quickly reminded me that all I needed to look was married. Although she never drove the car and didn’t really want to, she enjoyed it too, mostly because when I drove it, it put me in a very good mood.

Unfortunately a planned future move forced me to have to sell the car which I did to a person back east. I have heard that the car is again for sale now at more than twice the price, I was asking for it. Hopefully it will find a good home someday. I look forward to owning another one when the time is right.

I will be working my Laser 917 which I have modified with a custom tubular frame, automatic transmission and stroked small block 350 Chevy. Not wanting to have to deal with a gantry, like you would need to work on the space shuttle, I am in the process of converting the car to open cockpit with a tilt back end for easy cockpit and motor access.

For right now my wife and I are just enjoying our street legal dune buggy for around town.

Tony

If you’re interested, write Sonny at sonnyblanders@yahoo.com. He’s asinking $1,500 or best offer, and is located in Stockton, California. The last two pictures are of completed Super Ts (photos from the Dune Buggy Archive and The Samba).

On the other hand, there were a couple guys selling used buggy parts (and lots of other “one man’s junk, another man’s treasure” deals), but for the life of me I can’t imagine why someone would by a trashed buggy body missing most of its parts when there are so many complete but poorly finished ones on the road to restore?

Maybe I’m spoiled having lived in Mexico all of last year…. Loads of sandrails and buggies in La Paz (on the Baja) where I lived, and in fact there was a yellow Mini-T style buggy that I always saw around town and at the beach driven by some expat.