Car of the Week: This 1999 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster Could Raise the Roof at Auction
With the return of the Arizona Concours d’Elegance to the Scottsdale Civic Center on January 22, the Grand Canyon State becomes a car lover’s paradise as the new year unfolds. There, those with an itch to acquire a collector car can attend a host of auctions, including the RM Sotheby’s sale featuring plenty of exceptional European and American iron.
The auction venue is a bit of a homecoming too, with RM Sotheby’s returning to the historic, Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa on Thursday, January 26. The storied site, against a backdrop of the tranquil desert landscape, sets an elegant stage for auction lots like the silver 1999 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster on offer, an example whose lines are illuminated to great effect by the soft Southwest sunset.
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Old Lamborghinis are much like ex-US presidents; the good ones quietly retreat from center stage, affording their successors opportunity to bask in the limelight of public attention. The Diablo, made from 1990 until 2001, is one such Lamborghini. Its decade-plus run produced 2,284 examples, each with its own character. Now gaining the attention of collectors, these wedge-shaped missiles are appreciated—and appreciating—as one the marque’s last true analog supercars, though some would argue that the Raging Bull’s analog swan song was the Diablo’s successor, the brutish Murciélago. That model was the final Lamborghini powered by an engine directly descended from Giotto Bizzarrini’s prototype V-12 from 1963.
In its day, the Diablo was a superstar supercar, and a fascinating evolution of Lamborghini’s vision through the eyes and hand of the most talented automotive stylist of his—or perhaps any—age. Working for coachbuilder Bertone (where the cars’ bodies were also manufactured) Marcello Gandini catapulted Lamborghini to stardom in 1966 with his design for the Miura. In 1971, when demand for the Miura SV was still red hot, Gandini’s Countach prototype shook the car world again, followed by the first production model in 1974.
The Countach had a long run, but by 1990 it was time for the Diablo, another Gandini design that expressed state-of-the art technology as the 20th century came to a close. Lamborghini was owned by Chrysler during that period, and the latter’s management “improved” Gandini’s design, but the original concept was sufficiently strong as to maintain its integrity despite the meddling. Meanwhile, the model’s underpinnings were unimpeachable: a 5.7-liter V-12 engine, longitudinally mounted, and an all-important 202 mph top end that made it one of the fastest cars of its age.
Game-changing all-wheel drive, called Viscous Traction (hence, the VT in Diablo’s name), came in 1993, and in 1995, the Diablo VT Roadster became the poster car for teenagers’ bedroom walls around the world. The variant featured a carbon-fiber Targa-style top that cleverly stowed above the engine lid when removed.
Lamborghini’s future was ensured when it was acquired by Volkswagen in 1998. The Diablo was subtly restyled for the 1999 model year, its retractable headlights replaced by fixed units from the Nissan 300ZX. It produced 529 hp through variable valve timing, while an anti-lock brake system was incorporated with larger Brembo discs.
Finished in rare Titanium Silver with black leather upholstery, the specific Diablo VT Roadster on offer is likely one of less than 200 examples of the model variant built—only a few dozen of which were made for the North American market. Equipped with a rear spoiler and 18-inch chromed OZ Racing alloy wheels from the factory, it shows only 18,716 miles on the odometer and is offered with its factory tool roll, leather wallets and attachés and an assortment of ownership books and service invoices. While an estimate of as high as $475,000 is hardly insignificant, it is instructive to recall when Miura values were similar, suggesting that this Diablo VT Roadster might well be a wise investment for a savvy collector.
Click here to see more photos of the 1999 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster offered by RM Sotheby’s.
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