Donald Trump’s Old Lamborghini Diablo Just Sold For $1.1m

We don’t really do politics at Car Throttle, unless they work directly into cars, which is what has happened here. We’re sure everyone has an, err, opinion about Donald Trump’s US presidency, but his connection to a Lamborghini Diablo has just led to it setting a new auction record.

This 1997 Diablo VT Roadster, was ordered new by the businessman-turned-politician and was owned by him until 2002. If you need a refresher, VT stands for Viscous Traction, which at the time was Lambo-speak for four-wheel-drive. It features a 5.7-litre version of Lamborghini’s long-lived V12, making 492bhp and hooked up (as all Diablos were) to a five-speed manual with a lovely open-gate shift. Top speed is 202mph, and 62mph comes up in around 4 seconds. According to the (admittedly non-official) Lamborghini Registry, 466 VT Roadsters were built between 1996 and 2000.

What makes this example particularly unusual is that it’s the only 1997 Diablo of any kind to be finished in Blu Le Mans, a colour that wasn’t officially offered that year. According to Barrett-Jackson, who auctioned the car at their recent sale in Scottsdale, Arizona, Trump had a “special relationship” with Lamborghini at the time after they’d supplied him with Diablos for use in promoting his various brands.

That allowed him to special-order the car in this colour, and it also came with a ‘Donald Trump 1997 Diablo’ plaque on the doors. The car, which had had two more owners after Trump, had covered 15,431 miles. Being a pre-facelift model, it also has the excellent pop-up headlights.

Clearly, that plaque and the name attached to it are worth something to someone, because the Trumpborghini fetched an almighty $1.1 million (approximately £867,000 at current exchange rates) when it went under the hammer on 28 January, shattering auction records for this type of car.

That’s way over the usual going rate for a VT Roadster. Last year, RM Sotheby’s auctioned a 19k-mile facelifted example for around £360k.

Meanwhile, in 2022, another 1997 US car, also on around 19,000 miles (and ordered new, incidentally, by Nicolas Cage) went for approximately £264k. Even allowing for the unique spec and a general price increase since then, that’s an absolutely huge amount for a car with a connection to one of the most divisive US presidents ever. But that’s just politics.