Man managed to track down his granddad's lost Lamborghini Countach and got emotional recounting the story
- The late founder of Chick-fil-A Truett Cathy had a prized Lamborghini Countach
- When it had been sold and resold, his grandson decided to track it down
- His story is an emotional one
Published on Sep 14, 2024 at 12:00 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Sep 13, 2024 at 6:24 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
The late founder of Chick-fil-A Truett Cathy was a renowned car enthusiast whose grandson fell in love with his prized Lamborghini Countach – now he’s spoken out on how he tracked it down.
Cathy started the restaurant business in 1946. However, he didn’t start collecting cars until he was in his seventies.
He went all in, purchasing roughly 300 cars at auction in the 19 or 20 years before his death.
However, there was one car that stood out to his grandson.
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The 1983 Lamborghini Countach
In 1999, while vacationing in Florida, Truett met the Root family, responsible for developing and patenting the famous Coca-Cola bottle in 1915.
Truett bought a dozen of the cars from the Root family – including a 1983 Lamborghini Countach finished in a unique spec shade of Blue Acapulco for $50,000.
While the rest of his car collection was kept in specially built hangars, Truett parked the Lamborghini Countach in front of his restaurant for everyone to see it – it was ten years passed until he moved it again.
Seth was able to drive the Lamborghini Countach only once to the local Starbucks, nine miles down the road, and back.
A heavy clutch and gear shifter made it tricky to drive – it’s said Truett drove it at 56km/h (35mph) to his office.
Eventually, it was put into storage.
Turns out cars can make for family-bonding experiences as this son surprised his dad with the exact 1968 Pontiac GTO that he sold 20 years ago.
Lost and found
Seth’s grandfather passed away in 2014 leaving his 300-strong car collection.
The Lamborghini Countach was put on sale at a charity auction for $300,000 in 2016.
It was bought by three men for $275,000 due to an issue with its clutch.
It was then repainted and sold in London to an Italian automotive enthusiast, spending four years in Southern Italy.
This is where the trail went cold for Seth so he asked Countach expert and founder of Curated, John Temerian, to help him.
He came across it in a shop in Italy and tried to buy it – but the owner turned down John’s offer.
John eventually purchased it for one million dollars at an auction a couple of years ago
It was shipped to Atlanta on a 747 cargo plane and curated in Miami before Seth bought him from him.
Seth gets emotional describing the financial struggle to get the funds together.
He eventually made payments for the Lamborghini over a year.
His grandfather’s 1990 Lamborghini Countach had only 17,000km (11,500m) on the clock.
He fixed the clutch for $36, put on new tires, and is currently enjoying every moment behind the steering wheel and displaying it to car shows.
His grandfather’s Lamborghini will be at the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, for four months this fall.
This isn’t the only special Lamborghini Countach discovery after a man was said to be ‘stoked after a million-dollar barn find.
This man, on the other hand, built a DIY Lamborghini Countach using a Toyota V12.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
