Images: Exotic Car News illustrations of a Diablo VT Roadster. They do not show the car offered by Lloyds.
A Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster that Rod Stewart once owned, according to the auction house selling it, is open for bidding in Australia. Stewart is not the seller. The silver 1998 car is Lot 10 in Lloyds Auctions’ sale of the collection of Darryn Lyons, the Australian photographer-turned-businessman better known as “Mr Paparazzi.”
Bidding is scheduled to close October 31 in Australia, subject to extensions. The car arrives with two famous names attached. What those names are worth is a harder question than a catalog headline suggests.
- Car: 1998 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, silver, right-hand drive
- Drivetrain: 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V12, manual gearbox, all-wheel drive
- Listed with: 22,874 km (about 14,213 miles)
- Sale: Lloyds Auctions, Lot 10, The Living Estate of Mr Darryn Lyons
- Bidding closes: October 31, 2026, in Australia, subject to extensions
- Location: Thomastown, Victoria; listed as sold unregistered
- Source: Lloyds’ lot listing. ECN has not inspected the car.
From Stewart to “Mr Paparazzi”
The Stewart connection comes from Lloyds. In an October 8 release, the auction house says Lyons bought the Lamborghini through a specialist dealer in England, where he was told Stewart had just dropped the car off.
Lyons’ account, relayed by Lloyds, includes a test drive through the Oxfordshire countryside with a former racing driver turned salesman at the wheel. He has called it one of the most frightening experiences of his life. He bought the car anyway.
Lyons built the London picture agency Big Pictures, which sold celebrity photographs to newspapers, and later served as mayor of his hometown, Geelong. A Lamborghini that went from a rock star to a man who made his living photographing famous people is a tidy piece of 1990s celebrity culture. Nothing in Lloyds’ material says the two men dealt with each other directly; the account puts a dealer in the middle.
Lyons says he turned down offers for the car over the years. “There will absolutely be a tear” when it goes, he said in the release. Lloyds calls the sale a “living estate,” which simply means the owner is alive and selling.
The Stewart link is plausible on its face. RM Sotheby’s has catalogued a 1977 Countach LP400 that Stewart bought new while touring Australia and kept for 25 years, so his history with Lamborghini is on the record. That is a different car. For this Diablo, the public evidence so far is the auction house’s statement.
The car would matter without either name
Take the names away and this is still a Diablo VT Roadster: a 5.7-liter V12 mounted behind the seats, a manual gearbox with an open metal gate, and a roof panel that lifts off and stows on top of the engine cover.
VT stands for Viscous Traction. The car drives its rear wheels most of the time. When they begin to slip, a viscous coupling sends some of the engine’s torque to the front. In a wide, mid-engined car with this much engine, that made the Diablo less intimidating without making it tame.
The appeal today is how much of the work the driver does: three pedals, a lever to guide through a metal gate, and a V12 that breathes without turbochargers. It is a combination Lamborghini no longer builds.
Lloyds lists this example as right-hand drive with 22,874 km, about 14,213 miles, and says service records, an owner’s manual and a logbook come with it. The listing contains apparent inconsistencies in its transmission and body-style descriptions; bidders should confirm those details with Lloyds.
A famous owner adds a story. A premium needs proof.
Three things get blurred in celebrity car sales: attention, provenance and price.
Attention is already here. A Rod Stewart headline reaches people who would never search for a Diablo, much as Michael Jordan’s Ferrari 550 Maranello did when it came to auction last month.
Provenance is a paper question. It means documents that tie a named owner to a specific chassis, in this case VIN ZA9RE31A0WLA12974: a registration record, an invoice, period correspondence. The listing says paperwork is included. It does not say that the paperwork names Stewart, and ECN has not reviewed it. That gap is why collector-car documentation carries so much weight.
Price is harder still. A hammer price reflects condition, originality, mileage, service history, specification and who happened to be bidding that day. One sale cannot separate out the part that belongs to a name. Even for Stewart’s Countach, the RM Sotheby’s catalog leans on a chassis number, a Lamborghini Polo Storico restoration and a return to factory specification alongside its first owner.
There is a fair argument that the name barely matters. Diablo buyers tend to look at specification, service history and condition first. The celebrity chapter may widen the audience without moving the winning bid.
What happens next
The lot is due to close on October 31 in Australia. The listing shows an 8.8 percent buyer’s premium on top of the hammer price.
The result will say something about demand for a right-hand-drive VT Roadster with this mileage and this story. It will not, on its own, put a number on Rod Stewart. For that, the next owner will want what any Diablo buyer should want: the documents, the service file and a careful look at the car.
