May 2016 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

We’re back with more from May, but as has been the case recently, we backtrack, this time to March for results from Coys’ Spring Classics sale in London. A previously-featured Delin Voiturette sold for $93,610. The top sale was this 1984 Lamborghini Countach 5000 S for $368,200.

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

The one-off supercar, the Aspira F620, went for $126,110. Complete results can be found here. Moving on, we end up at Bonhams Aston Martin Works sale, where our featured Lagonda wagon failed to sell. What did sell, and for the most money, was this 1963 Aston Martin DB4 Series 5 Vantage Convertible for $1,470,701.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Our other two feature cars both sold with the V600 Vantage bringing an impressive $654,859 and the Project Vantage Concept Car $127,825. Click here for full results.

Mecum’s annual trek to Indy had a lot of cars cross the block. None were sold for more than this 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster for $1,100,000.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

The Stoddard-Dayton we featured didn’t sell – neither did the Devon GTX or a previously-featured Locomobile. The Corvette Z06 brought $210,000 and the Buick GS Convertible went for $185,000. Click here for more results.

On to Silverstone Auctions’ Classic Race Aarhus Auction where our featured Reo Royale failed to sell. The top sale was this this 2010 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR Recreation that brought about $363,500. Click here for more results.

Photo - Silverstone Auctions

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

And finally (into June), results from Historics at Brooklands’ June sale where this 1991 Ferrari Testarossa was the top sale at $226,140.

Photo - Historics at Brooklands

Photo – Historics at Brooklands

A previously-featured Victor Electric brought $54,145. Our other two feature cars both sold, with the Elva bringing $124,215 and the Lea-Francis $47,775. Click here for further results.

Lagonda Wagon

1986 Aston Martin Lagonda Series 3 Shooting Brake

Offered by Bonhams | Newport Pagnell, U.K. | May 21, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Lagonda was (and is again) a marque of automobile that has long been associated with Aston Martin since it acquired the brand in 1947. But in the mid-1970s, Aston Martin introduced a sedan model named Lagonda. This famously-boxy body style was launched in 1976 as the Series 2 Lagonda.

The Series 2 was built between 1976 and 1985, the Series 3 was for 1986 and 1987 only, and the Series 4 lasted from 1987 through 1990. All three of the final series look essentially the same. The Series 3 different from the Series 2 mostly in that it had fuel injection. Only 75 Series 3 cars were built.

It is powered by a 280 horsepower 5.3-liter V-8. All Lagondas were produced as sedans, but there was an aftermarket “Shooting Brake” wagon built by Roos Engineering of Frauenkappelen, Switzerland. The conversion actually took place in the mid-1990s and was very expensive. This is a unique and highly identifiable car. It should bring between $290,000-$360,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Aston Martin Concept Car

1998 Aston Martin Project Vantage Concept Car

Offered by Bonhams | Newport Pagnell, England | May 21, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Does this look like an Aston Martin Vanquish to you? Well it’s not. The Vanquish didn’t go on sale until 2001 and this concept car is from 1998. It debuted at the 1998 North American International Auto Show in January of that year. It was designed by Ian Callum.

But this wasn’t just some fanciful pie-in-the-sky concept car. No, Aston Martin made sure it was a fully functional driver. It is powered by a 6.0-liter V-12 making 450 horsepower – which is essentially the engine that ended up in the Vanquish. It is the first Aston Martin built with a paddle shift gearbox.

This car is being sold by Aston Martin. It is not eligible to be registered for the road, but can be shown at events. Aston has only shown it once since the auto show. It’s a one-off, fully-functional concept car coming straight from the factory. It should bring between $130,000-$160,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $127,825.

Vantage V600

2000 Aston Martin Vantage V600 Le Mans Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Newport Pagnell, England | May 21, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Here is a massively powerful Aston Martin that was never sold in America. Aston had a spotty export record through most of the 1990s, until Ford bought them and started shipping the DB7 stateside. They never bothered with this, as it was very low production.

This car is part of a line of cars that started in 1989 with the Virage coupe. The Vantage was introduced in 1993 and built in very limited numbers through 2000. Almost all were coupes (all but nine that is). The base Vantage came with 550 horsepower. The V600 was powered by the same 5.3-liter supercharged V-8 but instead of 550, it made a monstrous 604 horsepower. Top speed was reported to be 200 mph. It’s a legitimate supercar.

Only 40 Le Mans versions of the Vantage were built and it could be had in base or V600 form. Thirty of them were to V600 specification. This is one of the most powerful and intense cars Aston Martin has ever built and, as an example of this generation Vantage, is one of the last hand-built Newport Pagnell Astons before Ford’s economies of scale production took over. It should sell for between $470,000-$610,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $654,859.

Aston Martin One-77

2011 Aston Martin One-77 Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Monaco | May 13, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Aston Martin One-77 is the most extreme road car the company has ever built – and one of the rarest: as its name implies, it is one of just 77 built. It was introduced in 2008 and went on sale the next year. All cars were complete by the end of 2012.

Every car is unique, but all are powered by the same 750 horsepower 7.3-liter V-12 – making it the most powerful naturally-aspirated car when it was introduced. Top speed is a ridiculous 220 mph. The company never even officially let journalists drive it.

This is car #25 and it was delivered new to Switzerland, where it has barely been used, having covered just about 850km since new. This is the first One-77, I believe, to hit the open auction market. With an original price tag of over $1.5 million, the car is now expected to bring between $2,000,000-$2,600,000. That’s quite the appreciation in just five years. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams in Monaco.

Update: Not sold.

Aston Martin DB10

2014 Aston Martin DB10

Offered by Christie’s | London, U.K. | February 18, 2016

Photo - Christie's

Photo – Christie’s

Christie’s used to be in the car game, but got out of it shortly after a debacle around an Auto Union race car. So this car is technically being sold as part of an Entertainment Memorabilia sale. Either way, this is an awesome opportunity. Why? Because this particular model of Aston Martin has never been offered to the public before.

The DB10 was the car created for the James Bond movie Spectre. Why didn’t Aston Martin just build it instead of slightly redesigning the DB9? Who knows. The car is officially a concept car – but 10 were built. Eight of those were featured in the movie (probably destroyed to some degree or hacked apart to be a camera car) and two were retained for marketing purposes. This is one of those two cars.

It is powered by a 4.7-liter V8 from the V8 Vantage making 420 horsepower. You aren’t likely to get a chance to buy one of these again. Maybe some day, but it won’t be this special of an occasion. You’ll be the only person with one right now. But it won’t come cheap: the pre-sale estimate is between $1,425,000-$2,140,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold about $3,500,000.

Aston Martin Virage

2012 Aston Martin Virage

Offered by Mecum | Austin, Texas | December 11-12, 2015

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

The original Aston Martin Virage was introduced for the 1989 model year. It was a boxy thing that was produced in very limited numbers up through the 2000 model year. For most of that time, the car was unavailable in the U.S. But Aston revived the name in 2011 for a new model.

You might be thinking “that looks just like the DB9/Vantage/DBS/every other Aston currently on sale” – and you’re right. In fact, this car was supposed to slot in between the DB9 and the DBS. It is powered by a 6.0-liter V-12 making 490 horsepower.

But in the end, it didn’t work. It blurred the lines between the other models and Aston Martin killed it off after only 18 months on sale – which makes this one of the rarest modern Aston Martin production cars, with just over 1,000 units produced in two model years of production. This car has an automatic transmission and about 7,000 miles. Everyone will assume they know what it is, but hardly anyone will be right. So if you want something interesting, here you go. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum in Austin.

Update: Sold $97,500.

Aston Martin Lagonda

1974 Aston Martin Lagonda 7.0-Litre

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 6, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

This is one of the rarest Aston Martins ever built. It’s rarer than the it-won’t-be-sold-to-the-public Bond-only special DB10 that the company built for the new Spectre film. They built 10 of those. They only built eight of these (including the 1969 Prototype that features different styling).

And the styling here is very 1970s Aston. It looks just like a stretched Aston Martin V8, which is essentially what it is. Riding on a longer wheelbase, the Lagonda used the same 5.3-liter V-8 making 320 horsepower. Except for two of them. This and one other car were upgraded to a 7.0-liter V-8 making 480 horsepower. It was tested up to 145 mph before they ran out of room on the test track.

Aston revived the Lagonda name in 1974 for their luxury sport sedan. The model was around for two years before being replaced by the long-running and very boxy Lagonda sedan that people are more familiar with. This car was extremely expensive when it went on sale – perhaps why so few were built.

This car was acquired by Aston Martin 2010 for use on their display stand when they launched a new car (a project which was later cancelled, sending this car to sit in storage since). Interestingly, it was also used on their show stand at the 1974 Earls Court Motor Show. It is being offered from the factory (for the second time) with an estimate of $610,000-$760,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $636,100.

DB4GT Zagato

1962 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | New York, New York | December 10, 2015

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

This is one of the Holy Grail Aston Martins. The DB4GT itself is a rare, highly sought-after machine – but those handful of Zagato versions are really where it’s at. The DB4 was produced by Aston Martin between 1958 and 1963. The DB4GT came out in late 1959. It was a lightweight, high-performance version of the standard 2+2 road car.

The engine in the GT (including this car) is a 314 horsepower 3.7-liter straight-six. That’s actually serious horsepower – even today. About 75 standard GTs were built. But this is one of only 19 Zagato cars.

The car is instantly recognizable with that grille as an Aston. But the soft, sloping rear end makes it obviously a work of Zagato. This is car #14 and it was shipped new to Australia where it led a life as an independent racer. It went back to the U.K. in the 1990s, was restored in 2002 and has been shown all over the world. What’s truly impressive: not one of the 19 DB4GT Zagatos has traded hands in more than 10 years. This truly is a car that rarely comes up for sale. RM compares it to the 250 GTO and they aren’t wrong. While it won’t bring $30+ million dollars, it will definitely bring multiple millions. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $14,300,000.

September 2015 Auction Highlights

Classic car auctions are multiplying like gremlins. September is full of sales, so let’s get right to it, starting with Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn, Indiana sale where this 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 Dragonsnake was the top sale at $1,300,000.

Photo - Worldwide Auctioneers

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

Our featured Jewell sold for $29,700 and complete results can be found here. Auctions America also held a sale in Auburn this month. Their top sale was our featured Duesenberg Murphy Convertible Coupe for $1,402,500. The other Duesenberg failed to sell. We’ll call this 1930 Cord L-29 Convertible Phaeton Sedan most interesting (or at least “prettiest”) for $137,500.

Photo - Auctions America

Photo – Auctions America

Our featured Intermeccanica sold for $159,500 and a previously-featured Buddy Stewart Pickup sold for $20,350. Click here for full results.

RM’s London sale featured this 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione ‘Tour de France’ which sold for $7,330,400.

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Our feature cars all sold, with the Bugatti EB110 leading the way at $965,888. The Cisitalia was no slouch either, selling for $224,224. And the Ferves Ranger was apparently worth its weight in gold at $44,845. Click here for full results.

Bonhams Goodwood Revival sale was this month, and this 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Convertible was the top seller at $1,702,210. Our featured Porsche 908 failed to sell.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Our other two feature cars both sold. The HRG-Maserati exceeded its estimate, bringing $132,027 and the Scarab F1 car went for $1,053,808. Full results can be found here. And finally, we’ll cover Brightwells’ September sale. We didn’t feature anything from here, but the top seller was this beautiful 1962 Jaguar E-Type Series I 3.8 Coupe for $164,505. Click here for full results.

Photo - Brightwells

Photo – Brightwells