We all know the legendary Lamborghini Countach is an amazing car, utterly futuristic back in the days when this V12 flagship was unveiled in the late Seventies, and various evolutions remained in production in Sant’Agata until 1990, and while the original Seventies narrow-body, periscope version LP400 has been a seven-figure car to acquire lately, the later evolutions like the LP400 S, the LP500 S and more specifically the Quattrovalvole and the 25th Anniversary edition haven remained well below the million dollar mark, things have changed considerably with the auction of a 1989 Countach 25th Anniversary in white-on-white.
But this one, chassis ZA9CA05A0KLA12722 is a bit special, while the Countach Quattrovalvole and the subsequent 25th Anniversary edition are among the highest production versions of the Lamborghini Countach with well over 600 units, this specific 25th Anniversary is a movie star. Yes, you are reading this right, this is one of two white Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary that have been used in the 2013 Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street, this happens to be one of only 12 units delivered in US specifications finished in Bianco Polo over a Bianco leather interior, note this isn’t a pearl metallic white but a very nice, solid white.
I guess you’ve already seen the ‘other’ Countach which was recently listed at auction in Dubai, that was the crash-damaged one, still in the original wreck from the movie, with a low estimate of $1,500,000, the final bid on that car was a staggering $1,350,000 … but that resulted in a ‘no sale’, so when this pristine unit which was used in the movie for some moving shots and close-up work got listed with an estimate between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 by renowned RM Sotheby’s for their New York auction on December 8 we were all very interested in seeing what this one would bring, and if it would sell in the end.
If you look at these photos of chassis KLA12722 you’ll notice it looks almost identical to chassis KLA12692 before the latter was crashed for the movie, but that was not exactly the case back in 2013 when The Wolf of Wall Street was recorded, more importantly the steering wheel is different, this car, chassis KLA12722 had a custom two-tone white and black steering wheel cover fitted by the previous owner, a detail that could be seen in a scene where Leonardo di Caprio gets out of the car after arriving at his home, the car that got crashed had the original, all-black steering wheel.
Something else was different between the two screen-used cars, while both cars were originally delivered to the United States of America with the special front bumper and the large rear wing, both had been removed by the previous owner, instead this car featured the smaller Euro-style front bumper and no rear wing, even the fixing holes on the luggage cover were filled on the car at the time of filming, and while they didn’t bother with the front bumper (the difference can be seen in some scenes), they did put the rear deck lid with the spoiler on this car for some shots, but it was removed before the car was returned to the owner when filming was completed.
But since then, chassis KLA12722 has been returned to original factory specs from 1989, so the large US-version of the front bumper was installed again, and an original rear wing has been fitted to make it an almost exact replica of the crash-damaged Countach from the movie, and personally, I think it would be an amazing sight to have both cars side by side in your garage, this perfect-looking version next to the one that has been completely ruined for the movie, comparing both side-by-side would be a magnificent feat.
But as it turns out, that would be a $3,000,000 expense, the crashed car didn’t sell at $1,350,000 and this undamaged unit sold for a staggering $1,655,000, setting an absolute record for a 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary, especially considering there were about 675 units made in the late Eighties and the average price earlier this year was just around the $500,000 mark, this movie-star Countach is over triple that amount, I guess the fact that Leonardo di Caprio actually drove this car in the movie makes all the difference.
