Attention all collectors!
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
Diablo VT Roadster on offer, an example whose lines are illuminated to great effect by the soft Southwest sunset.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.
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 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 interior’s 1990s-era aesthetic is dressed predominantly in black to complement the Titanium Silver exterior.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.
Game-changing all-wheel drive, called Viscous Traction , 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.
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