There are some cars sold at auction that will never be driven because they’re immediately put on display. There are others, like the Lamborghini Countach from The Wolf of Wall Street, that aren’t driven because they just can’t be.
The wrecked supercar, which is one of the many casualties of Jordan Belfort’s excess in the controversial blockbuster, will be sold by Bonham’s later this month in Abu Dhabi. The car may be undriveable, but we can’t imagine that will stop someone from meeting the auction house’s seven-figure estimate.
Even if you haven’t watched Martin Scorsese’s takedown of Wall Street greed during the 1980s and ‘90s, chances are you are familiar with its all-white Countach. The supercar shares the screen with Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the disgraced real-life financier in the movie and its infamous Quaaludes scene. During the sequence, the actor’s inebriated character struggles to get into the Lambo and drive it home from a country club, taking a number of outrageous pratfalls in the process. The car shows up again later in the film, but at that time it’s completely totaled.
The wrecked Lamborghini Countach from “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Bonhams
The Countach that will go up for auction is the “hero car” used to film most of its scenes in the movie, according to the auction house. It’s a 25th-anniversary model, which was considered the most refined version of the vehicle, built in 1989. The supercar is finished in Bianco Polo over a Bianco leather interior and has a 5.2-liter V-12 sitting in the engine bay. It managed to survive most of filming in relatively good shape, so Scorsese ordered the production crew to use a flatbed truck to inflict more damage before its final appearance on screen.
Despite being in such terrible shape, Bonham’s expects The Wolf of Wall Street Countach, which it calls “a time capsule of the era’s extravagant debauchery,” to sell before between $1.5 million and $2 million during its On the Grid auction event on November 25 before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. If that seems like an awful lot to spend for a car you can’t drive, the film’s backup Countach will be sold by Sotheby’s two weeks later in New York. That car, which is functional, is also expected to sell for between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Click here for more pictures of the wrecked Lamborghini Countach from The Wolf of Wall Street.
Bonhams