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Wrecked Countach from Wolf of Wall Street fetches $2 million at auction

Countach with gold-plated insides comes up for sale. Appals and intrigues in equal measure

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November 2023: Sorry, how much?

An example of the iconic Countach has sold at auction for a cool $2 million in Australian dollars – comfortably shading the previous best auction result of AU$1.17 million, set in January 2023.

The twist here, though, is that the new record holder is the deliberately and properly wrecked Countach that starred in the modern classic, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street.

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If you've seen the film, you'll recall the scene.

If you haven't, this is no great spoiler: Leonardo DiCaprio's character, stockbroker Jordan Belfort, speeds off in his Countach after sucking down a metric ton of illicit party tricks and proceeds to drive it into everything he can and probably can't see.

To be fair, even in its wrecked state, this very authentic – not a mock-up – Countach 25th Anniversary would make one hell of a centrepiece in a grand foyer somewhere.

As for its price, well, I imagine its connection to the film, its legendary director and popular cast would've helped push it to that new record figure.

The other of the two Countachs used in the film – an undamaged example – will also go to auction in December, so it'll be interesting to see what number it achieves...

By the way, does anybody know how much that gold-plated Countach sold for, back in 2017? Struggling to find a result! (Scroll down 👇)

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2017: Lamborghini Countach for sale with gold-plated interior

RM Sotheby’s Villa Erba auction is the very acme of refined good taste.

The 19th century mansion, set on the shore of Italy’s Lake Como, plays host to some of the most elegant classic cars once a year, where immaculately groomed guests can pick at unpronounceable finger food, guffaw conspicuously and wear red trousers without fear of public ridicule.

It’s also where this 1987 Lamborghini Countach QV is being sold. At first it looks the authentic Jay-Z deal.

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Lamborghini Countach QV gold plated interior
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“Cocaine seats, all white like I got the whole thing bleached,” as Mr Z might say if he hadn’t been rapping about a Rolls Royce Corniche instead.

And then you look inside and recoil with horror as you realise that the dashboard, steering column and gated gearshift has been plated in 14-carat gold.

It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that the Countach has often attracted a certain clientele. Rod Stewart owned one. Mike Tyson was a customer as was Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon. Then there’s Prince Jefri of Brunei, a man with a superyacht called Tits and twin tenders on the back called Nipple 1 and Nipple 2. These are not men encumbered with an excess of refined taste.

Lamborghini Countach QV gold plated interior
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Countachs are cars that you had on your bedroom wall as a kid, when you thought that you could live solely on a diet of foam banana lollies and that you’d be rendered irresistible to the opposite sex if you actually owned a functional lightsaber.

There are exceptions, but Countachs are usually bought by people who haven’t progressed far beyond this worldview.

It’s hard to understand quite where the motivation to gold plate the Lambo’s cabin came from though. With typical understatement, RM Sotheby’s simply claim that the car’s Dutch owner sent it to Lamborghini Polo Storico for a bare metal restoration that included the gold work inside. Dutch. Gold. It could really only be one person.

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