Hollywood is a land of smoke and mirrors. In any given movie, directors will rely on fake cars, fake sets, and fake actors to a scene shot on time and on budget. Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, doesn’t have to compromise, and he was able to wreck a genuine Lamborghini Countach when he shot “The Wolf of Wall Street in 2012.”
That poor, beleaguered car is now up for sale at Bonhams Auctions.
Yes, it’s the hero car from the best stock market film of the last three decades. It was destroyed to film a sequence in which Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) attempted to drive his Lamborghini home under the influence of Lemmons 714, the so-called “holy grail of Quaaludes.”
DiCaprio acted his pants off, portraying a heavily intoxicated Belfort as he crawled to the vehicle and fought his way through the scissor doors. As Belfort weaved his way home, the Lamborghini hit multiple parked cars, a street sign, and a letterbox, ending up in the sorry state it’s in today.
The Countach itself was the real deal, allegedly chosen for the film because a replica didn’t crumple the right way when crashed. By virtue of his legendary status as a director, Scorsese was able to secure a genuine 25th Anniversary Countach in the appropriate shade of cocaine white. Just 658 examples were built, with the so-called “Hero Car” being a 1989 model. After filming the driving sequence, Scorsese deemed that the car still looked too intact, so further damage was inflicted with another car and a flatbed truck, creating the appropriate visual result.
The car has been preserved in its wrecked condition ever since. Now that it’s up for sale, Bonhams expects the Countach to sell for somewhere between $1.5 and $2 million USD. That’s a stiff figure, given that multiple examples of the 25th Anniversary model have sold for well under $1 million this year, according to market tracking site Classic.com. The vehicle’s movie career thus appears to be adding a lot of value in the auctioneer’s eyes, even given the car’s state of disrepair. The listing doesn’t state whether the car is still in running, driving, condition, but one suspects the car hasn’t been turned over in quite some time. The Autopian has reached out to Bonhams regarding this point.
Purists who appreciate the original, more restrained Countach might enjoy seeing one beaten to a pulp, as seen here. Fans of 1980s excess and too many vents, however, will have shed a tear on hearing what happened to this example.
The question that needs to be asked is whether Scorsese did the right thing. On the one hand, there’s something to be said for wrecking a real car to get the best possible shot. Modern films so often palm us off with cheap computer graphics instead of practical effects. In the original “Gone in Sixty Seconds,” H.B. Halicki launched a real Mustang off a real ramp and smashed it to pieces in the process. The modern remake saw a digitally-generated Mustang soar like Superman in a scene with all the authenticity of a cheesesteak in Mozambique. Scorsese didn’t palm us off with cheap tricks. He sacked up the cash for a real Lamborghini, and beat it to hell to make the movie.
On the other hand, the Countach is a rare car, and a highly desirable one at that. The 25th Anniversary model may not be the most beloved, or the most valuable, but it’s still a scarce and precious thing. If the movie had the budget to wreck a real Lambo, surely it could have spent similar money to build a decent replica that looks right when it’s crashed? Those with an eye towards history and conservation would agree that would have been the proper way forward.
In any case, whoever buys the Countach has to decide whether they want to restore it, or keep it as is. Fundamentally, it’s the only Countach to receive Scorsese’s blessing—and the battering of his hired goons. Plus, DiCaprio’s butt has sat in that seat. On balance, that means it’s probably going to be kept this way forever.
Perfection? Never driven one, but from all I know these cars are not good at being cars. This is a much better use for it.
This is now art. It’s fine when it happens once, but once someone else does something similar, then I am out.
This mess is kinda like the wrecked car DARE, MADD or some such organization used to dump in my high school’s quad a couple of weeks before prom….if I had gone to a uber wealthy HS that is.
So….if somebody buys it and restores it, it’ll just be another 25th anniversary car, and not worth what they paid for it, right?
Where is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Automobiles)?
Or, Automotive Humane, with their “No original vehicles where harmed”® end-credit certification?
I demand answers and retribution.
This show must not go on.
I brought my own torch. Anybody got a light?
Is that the sequel or…? 🙂
Movies destroying real cars is common. IIRC, the Corvette destroyed in ConAir was real since it was easier and cheaper than doing a fake car or CGI.
good to see your work over here Lewin. looking forward to your voice joining the descending spiral of madness here! but really, welcome!
Thanks Ryan! Very eager to dive deep into the nitty gritty weird topics.
I’m not buying that they couldn’t make a replica look properly wrecked with the cost of buying one of these.
Yeah. Especially when you hear Craig Liebermann talk about how they did F&F 1 & 2 on such shoestring budgets.
Fibreglass does not bend like sheet metal. Does anyone make a steel-bodied, fake Countach?
I doubt the movie cache increases the value of the car. Despite an original car the accidents are clearly fake and hitting it a few times with a hammer just makes it stupid. As a genxer who made mistakes in life that seque is so fake. Scorsese should have hired a stunt driver or a demolition derby driver set up a course and say go for it. And quite frankly no doorman at a fancy club, falling down stairs and crawling? In the day a quality club would escort you set you in your car.
I’ll be *very* interested to see how close they get to their prediction.
There is probably an Espada somewhere in need of an engine.
How’d they get Leonardo DiCaprio to get inside something that was older than 25? That’s the real mystery here.
…
Edit – #COTY nomination retracted, since Maymar got there first.
(This is why comments should be sorted from oldest to newest BY DEFAULT.)
This is also an old joke in general, I saw somebody on Reddit say it a few days ago, lol.
Oldest to newest by default, and next/previous buttons at the top and bottom.
Would be fun to get it drive-able and then cruise it as is. Would be a good Monterey Car Week ride.
That’s actually… Kinda beautiful
It would be funnier if it were being sold thru Copart instead of Bonhams.
Ugh, this is a tough one, even as a fan of a proper cocaine spec, ridiculously vented and bewinged Countach. My instinct is preserve it, of course. Bad, evil, wrong don’t smashy pretty car for movie. Buuuut, I’m betting the vast majority of those examples still exist, let’s call it 600 to account for the handful that surely were written off due to drugs and alcohol. There’s a good chance my cheapest car of the herd is more rare than that thanks to massive attrition. So is it really *that* rare? Ehhhhh…
It’s certainly got an interesting history now, I’ll be interested to see if that’s reflected in dollar values
No amount of mental gymnastics is gonna make this okay to me.
Sure, Countaches are relatively rare, but there’s a pretty substantial percentage of them still on the road/showroom floor. Over a long enough time line, the Countache will become more common than the Fiero in Countache body kit.
When we get down to actual scarcity, then we can have this discussion honestly.
That’s an interesting point.
The thing that always strikes me about those conversions is how many are started vs. the tiny fraction that are ever finished
Gone in 60 Seconds actually had a stunt driver jump a mustang off a ramp into a pile of cardboard boxes; obviously not the soaring shot in the movie, but there was practical footage mixed with green screen footage of Cage inside the car.
As for the Lambo, “You know what? This will decimate all, after, you put about fifteen grand in it or more. If we have to, overnight parts from Japan.”
On a tangent, another movie that talks about modifying Lamborghinis is Rain Man.
You’re referring to the wrong Gone in 60 Seconds. The one referenced in the original article was the original and all of the stunts shown were very real, no green screen. In fact HB Halicki was seriously injured during one stunt when the car smashed into a light pole but he kept driving.
I haven’t seen it for donkeys’ years, but the things that stick in my mind are a scene where Eleanor lands a big jump in slow motion and her roof wobbles like jelly, and the contrast between the best-in-class car action and low-budget-porn-movie-class acting.
You summarized it pretty well.
FWIW, the real Jordan Belfort actually wrecked an R129 SL while high on ludes, but Scorsese felt that didn’t look impressive enough
Absolutely would not have been the same effect, for sure
Maybe I will bid on it during an unsanctioned intermission pee break.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/killers-of-the-flower-moon-intermission-movie-theaters-1235629492/
pomposity of the privileged.
This is disgusting.
They got DiCaprio in something celebrating its 25th anniversary?
#COTD
I feel like the new “Hollywood” David Tracy will disapprove of this joke… right after someone explains it to him.
COTD. We’re done here.
If it weren’t for this movie, this vehicle would’ve sat in some rich guy’s garage, never to see the light of day beyond an auction platform every few years.
That’s very likely this cars future also.
It might wind up on long-term loan to a tourist attraction somewhere, like a casino or a winery
It would be very weird to display a car wrecked by someone under the influence at a place that sells alcoholic beverages.
Most bars hated qualudes though, no love lost there. Customers would have one beer, go drop a lude in the bathroom, and be falling over intoxicated and the bar would be busted for “over serving”. Things were easier with cocaine
Of course they were. You could serve the same customer to their limit several times a night.