This weekend the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi has been the scene of a race in which we have again been attentive to the developments of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz.
But we were not going to stop looking sideways at the auction prepared by Bonhams at the same circuit, which promised to give us something to talk about.
This time, what the auction house has brought to Abu Dhabi is the very same Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary that Leonardo DiCaprio drove in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. As you can see, the car is not in the idyllic condition in which cars are often put up for bid, but is literally totaled. What really mattered was its history, the fact that it was a starring part in a film directed by Scorsese and starring DiCaprio. But no one wanted it.
A real car
Apparently, director Martin Scorsese didn’t want to resort to a replica (as is done in many films) because he disliked the idea of someone recognizing the car as a fake in some scenes, which detracted from the authenticity of the film. So he ordered a real car to be smashed up…. A heresy for many, since of the final edition of the Countach only 658 units were built for the whole world.
It is an American-spec unit finished in Polo White with white interior, and for 3 minutes and 11 seconds it stars in a memorable scene in which DiCaprio barely manages to get into the car and drives it crashing into everything in front of him, without being aware of it because he is under the influence of drugs.
Damaged on purpose
What many moviegoers may not know is that the car barely came away with superficial damage from the hits it takes on camera, so Scorsese had a car rammed into the Lambo off-camera and then hit it with a flatbed truck to inflict even more damage.
And it is thus, with his exterior completely crushed, that Belfort (the character played by DiCaprio) finally contemplates it after being arrested in his house, still under the effects of drugs.
There was another model
By the way, there was another Lamborghini Countach for the filming of the movie, but in this case it was not bought, but rented and the premise was to return it intact. This second Lamborghini is only on screen for 16 seconds and in reality it was not exactly the same as the one chosen to be crashed. In fact, it lacked a spoiler, so in the scenes in which it appears they had to put the one on the crashed car, and then return it. And neither were the front bumper (this second car had it with European specifications) nor the steering wheel, which instead of being only white was black and white. But these two small differences didn’t seem to make any difference to Scorsese.
That the car is a 1989 unit or that it has only 11,300 km on its marker is the least of it. As expected, the important thing to have had moviegoers with more ‘economic muscle’ on alert was that the car could be understood as an attractive investment. At Bonhams, in fact, they estimated that the car would sell for between 1.38 and 1.83 million euros. But perhaps they didn’t count on the fact that collectors also like to drive their cars from time to time, and this one is incapable of rolling in its current condition.
Details included
In reality, it will have had bids, but so small that they have not reached the ‘reserve’, which is the minimum price below which the seller (in this case the production company of the film) does not accept the sale and goes home with the car. By the way, whoever bought it was also going to get a chair and jacket from the director, a cap signed by Scorsese and DiCaprio, two sweatshirts from the production team and two DVDs of the film. All of which will go back to the United States.