Pope Francis Was Gifted a Custom Lamborghini and Auctioned It off for Charity at $1.2 Million
The Pope is best known for riding around in a bulletproof popemobile, which provides him protection while allowing him to wave to and interact with catholic believers everywhere he goes. However, he’s had other cars over the years, including a luxury sports car in the form of the Lamborghini Huracan. That said, unlike other celebrities, his ownership of said Lamborghini was short-lived, and he ended up selling it and then donating the proceeds to charity.
How the pontiff came to own the Lamborghini Huracan
Unlike many owners of the Lamborghini Huracan, who visit dealerships and get the exotic car for over $200,000, the Pope’s version of the vehicle was a gift from the automaker. In addition to gifting Pope Francis the luxury car, the vehicle manufacturer put it through its Ad Personam customization program.
According to Lamborghini, this program is only available for the Huracan and Aventador models allowing buyers a more personalized vehicle. This resulted in a Bianco Monocerus paint job, the manufacturer’s fancy wording for bright white, coupled with Giallo Triberio gold stripes to match the pontiff’s attire and the Vatican flag.
Other details included diamond-finished 20-inch wheels and Pope Francis’ signature on the car’s hood. Since the car was auctioned in early 2018, it likely had a 5.2L V10 engine. Also, while this model year Huracan was available in both rear-wheel and all-wheel drive, the pope’s version was the former.
The Lamborghini Huracan’s auction and sale price
As mentioned above, Pope Francis didn’t keep the car and instead auctioned it off for charity. He enlisted the help of RM Sotheby’s, a classic car auction house based in Ontario, Canada. Examples of other vehicles sold by the auctioneer include a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB by Scaglietti for €2,142,500 and a 2018 RUF CTR3 ClubSport for €1,107,500, and more.
This would translate to about $2,258,988 for the Ferrari 275 GTB and $1,167,715 for the ClubSport in today’s currency. As for the Pope’s Huracan, RM Sotheby’s sold it for €809,375 and a buyer’s fee, which Driving, an online publication, tallied to about $1.2 million in Canadian dollars, and roughly $861,000 in American dollars.
Francis then donated the funds to four charities, with 70% going to the pontifical foundation “Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre” or Aid to the Church in Need. According to Lamborghini, this organization looked to rebuild Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, focusing on places of worship, housing, and public structures.
About 10% went to the Pope John XXIII Community, which is devoted to women victims of trade and prostitution. The rest was shared by Groupe International Chirurgiens Amis de la Main (GICAM), the Pope Francis House Project, and Friends of Central Africa.
Other cars that Pope Francis owns and drives
Notably, the Lamborghini Huracan isn’t the only car that Pope Francis has had in recent years. There’s also a Renault 4 that reflected his frugal nature in encouraging church officials to avoid limousines. Like the Huracan, the Renault 4 was also a gift and one the Pope took to driving around the Vatican himself.
The World noted that the 1984 Renault car was gifted to him by Father Renzo Zocca to thank him for his efforts in creating a church for the poor. Zocca had been a parish priest for Saval in Verona. The 20-year-old car, by the time it was gifted to the Pope, had been driven 190,000 miles according to the odometer.
Typical of cars produced in the 1980s it had a manual transmission. Nevertheless, for such an old car, it seemed remarkably well-maintained and featured a spotless white coat of paint. According to BBC News, the pontiff even mentioned that he used to drive the same car back in his native Argentina. Currently, this Renault 4 is on display in the Vatican Museums.
