Bankrupt Billionaire’s Lamborghini Countach Burns Down to a Crisp

Authorities are still working to determine what caused the fire but, according to eyewitness accounts, at least Stunt wasn’t in the vehicle when it happened, The Sun says. It’s a good thing he wasn’t, because the car shouldn’t even have been on the road: its registration expired in March 2016.

When it wasn’t renewed, a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) was declared. That meant that no one could take the Countach, estimated at around $500,000, on a public road.

The British publication says the blazing car was found abandoned on the side of a road in village of Kingswood, Surrey, U.K. That it belonged to Stunt could immediately be verified by the customized plates, “1 57UNT.”

However, eyewitness Michael Segal, 76, told the media that Stunt was nowhere the scene of the accident. “The man claiming to be the owner was a black man with dyed green hair. James Stunt wasn't here,” he is quoted as saying.

Stunt is yet to comment on the fire, which comes one week after the bankruptcy ruling and after the judge admonished him for failing to liquidate assets to pay off his creditors. He is believed to have amassed debts of several millions pounds.

Stunt was famously married to Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone between 2011 and 2017, and once boasted of having over 200 cars in his collection. His wine collection alone is estimated at well over £400,000.

While there’s no denying Stunt was once very well off, it is believed that the Countach that burned down was quite possible a kit car Countach replica he bought sometime in 1992, and not an original Lamborghini. Not that it matters anymore, given the fire.