Of all the cars I put my eyes on during Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, the one I kept circling back to was not the eight-figure McLaren or the one-off Pagani. It was a black Lamborghini, because this particular Murcielago Roadster used to belong to Nicolas Cage, and because it has the one feature that turns collectors feral right now. A gated manual gearbox. It sold for $651,875, and I would argue it was one of the smartest buys of the night. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. The Cage connection Nicolas Cage is, to put it gently, a legendary spender, and at his peak his garage was the stuff of enthusiast folklore. He has owned Ferraris, a Lamborghini Miura, and famously eclectic machinery, much of it dispersed over the years. So a Murcielago Roadster with Cage history carries exactly the sort of story the market loves right now, a genuine celebrity provenance attached to a car people already want. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. Celebrity ownership is a strange multiplier. On the wrong car it means nothing. On the right one, with the right name and the right paperwork, it adds a layer of narrative you cannot manufacture. This was the right one. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. The gearbox is the actual headline Here is what makes gearheads lose their minds, and it has nothing to do with Hollywood. The vast majority of Murcielagos left the factory with Lamborghini’s single-clutch automated e-gear system. A relatively tiny number were ordered with the open-gate six-speed manual, that glorious chromed metal lever clicking through a visible gate, and those are the ones collectors now chase hard. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. We have spent the last few years watching the manual supercar quietly become the blue chip of the modern market. As dual-clutch gearboxes took over and then electric motors arrived, the gated manual became a symbol of a lost era of driving, the one where the car needed you. A V12 Lamborghini Roadster, roof off, three pedals, rowing your own gears, is about as pure as the 2000s got. Add a famous former owner and you have a car that checks the two boxes the market cares about most in 2025. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. Why I think it was a bargain Standing next to it, I did the math out loud to a colleague. Ordinary e-gear Murcielagos are approachable money. Manual ones command a serious premium and climb every year. Factor in the Cage provenance and roadster bodywork, and $651,875 starts to look less like a lot of money and more like a sensible entry point into a car that is only going one direction. Image Credits: RM Sotheby's, accessible at link. If you want the broader lesson from this sale, it is simple. The cars that are appreciating fastest are the ones that ask something of the driver, and the ones with a story. This Lamborghini had both. I would have bid, if I had an extra $650,000 lying around and a much more understanding bank. By the way, if you want celebrity provenance with even more horsepower, the same sale had a 1990 Ferrari F40 originally ordered by Formula 1 champion Alain Prost, which sold for $3,886,250. Two very different famous owners, one very clear message about what a name on the logbook is worth.
