Rod Stewart's Lamborghini Diablo Is Up For Auction In Australia From $1

There are celebrity cars, and then there is a V12 Lamborghini that went from a rock star’s driveway to the garage of the man who made a fortune photographing rock stars.

A 1998 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster previously owned by Rod Stewart is now live on Lloyds Auctions, offered by Darryn Lyons, the Geelong-born paparazzi boss, former Geelong mayor and owner of Australia’s most famous mohawk. Bidding opened at $1 and closes on Saturday, October 31.

Lyons bought the car from a specialist dealer in England, who told him Stewart had only just dropped it off. Before any money changed hands, a former racing driver turned salesman took him for a flat-out run through the Oxfordshire countryside, which Lyons has since described as one of the most frightening experiences of his life.

He bought it anyway.

The Diablo VT Roadster is the open-top version of the last Lamborghini developed before Audi took over, with a 5.7-litre V12 behind the seats, all-wheel drive and a carbon roof panel that lifts off and sits on top of the engine cover. It is loud, wide, difficult to see out of and exactly what a kid in the nineties had on his bedroom wall.

That last part is the bit Lyons keeps coming back to.

“It’s been one of the biggest thrills of my life. As a small boy, I dreamed of one day owning and driving a car like this, so when it goes, there will absolutely be a tear,” Lyons said. “It has given me a huge amount of fun over the years, and, in my view, it remains one of the greatest cars ever built.”

He says he has knocked back buyers for years. “Several people have offered to buy it over the years, but it was never for sale,” Lyons said. “This is the first time I’ve decided it should go with the rest of the collection.”

Stewart has form with Sant’Agata’s finest, having owned Miuras and Countachs through the seventies and eighties, so a Diablo with his name in the history file is very much on brand. Analogue V12 Lamborghinis have also been climbing for years, helped along by a growing sense that the modern supercar has lost the one thing that made it special, and celebrity provenance rarely hurts.

Lloyds chief operations officer Lee Hames expects interest from well beyond Australia, saying the car has “celebrity ownership” and “Darryn Lyons’ own history attached to it”.

The Diablo is one of the headline lots in The Living Estate of Mr. Darryn Lyons Collection, a seven-part auction series covering vehicles, luxury watches, designer fashion, antiques, wine, fine art and memorabilia. Lloyds says every item in the collection starts from $1, with the seven auctions closing between Wednesday, October 28 and Saturday, October 31.

Watch people should have a proper look through the catalogue, because a man who spent decades chasing celebrities around London and LA was never going to wear a Casio. Celebrity watch sales have been pulling serious money lately, with Tom Brady’s $1.36 million F.P. Journe the most recent reminder.

Bidding is open now at Lloyds Auctions.

Nobody expects it to stay at a dollar for long.