The "Nicholas Cage" Diablo VT

What gives with this orange salvage '99 Diablo VT that has been on eBay off and on for a long time? Story? Either the forum search didn't spit anything back at me or I'm going to need some training on the search function.

 

*link*

Maybe he had more than one, but I thought he had a 6.0?

As an aside, my friend just bought his clean Lotus Espirit.

 

As an aside, my friend just bought his clean Lotus Espirit.

 

Thats hot!

the paint on the front of the car does not look factory either.. i would say this car has had more damage than what is shown right now..

 

I suppose the price has always been on the steep side for a salvage titled car. I guess he's holding out for a sucker, but this seems like a really long time to be holding out since it's been up there for what must be several years now. Even if all else was reported as good working order aside from what is visible in the pics, I'm half-wondering if the car has been left to rot from the inside out like any car would given this much time. I was just curious if anyone knew the back story to the car or any tidbits on its care history.

The interior CF also looks to be odd v. the other Alpine Editions I have seen. May just be the pics.

I know what the special MOMO edition Roadsters were all about, but this thing has a MOMO shifter and that makes it a MOMO special edition? Was there such a designation for this year?

 

That front end definitely looks out of whack and there must be toothpicks holding the vanes in place as they are crooked as hell.

He mentions $10k to make it pretty again, but even if I was dense enough to believe that, I'm saying that under the hood would be another $30k if it's sat there for this long.

I owned his 97 VT Roadster, I bought it in May 99 from him thru Symbolic. It was Yellow w/yellow piping. I sold it to a guy in Phoenix in 03 or 04.

He mentions $10k to make it pretty again, but even if I was dense enough to believe that, I'm saying that under the hood would be another $30k if it's sat there for this long.

 

Didnt he say, if you think you can fix this car for 10k this is NOT the car for you. ,earning will cost more?

No he did not. He said the following, which is exactly what Singleseat referenced:

 

"If you can not repair this car for Under $10k Parts and labor you have NO Business buying this car. I don't want any messages on the pricing of the Lamborghini parts. "

No he did not. He said the following, which is exactly what Singleseat referenced:

 

"If you can not repair this car for Under $10k Parts and labor you have NO Business buying this car. I don't want any messages on the pricing of the Lamborghini parts. "

 

 

I read that as a warning by the seller that it won't be a cheap fix.

 

He's saying that IF you're an individual who has access to parts and can do your own labor costing only your own time, and you figure you can get the job done for 10 grand, go for it. But if you aren't this person, the fix will cost you a fortune; don't buy the car.

I guess I can see it either way. Conversational style writing opens the door to confusion in these kinds of ads which doesn't help the seller.

 

In any case, the list of people who can do that amount of work by themselves along with obtaining heavily discounted or NLA parts is a pretty short one, which also points to why the car hasn't sold in a looong time. It seems like this is the kind of thing that will only bring top dollar once the car is considered well inside of "classic car" territory.

Agreed. His asking price of $89K puts the value equation of a fix at $10K or less, so semantics aside if someone puts $50K into this thing they will be looking at the world in an inverted position for a while.

I thought the momo editions were all red over yellow or yellow over red.