Most valuable British classic
Aston Martin DBR1 fetches £17.6m after Monterey bidding war
A pristine 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 has smashed the record for most valuable British classic ever sold at auction, after fetching $22.5 million (£17.6m).
The original estimate ($20m/£15.6m) was soon left far behind when two buyers became embroiled in a bidding war over the phone at RM Sotheby’s event at Monterey Car Week in California on 19 August.
It’s not the first time an Aston Martin has broken the auction record for a British classic. In December 2015 a DB4 GT, also sold by RM Sotheby’s, went under the hammer £9.45m at its sale in New York.
The new record was set just a day after a 1995 McLaren F1 sold for $15.6m (£12.1m) at Bonham’s Quail Lodge Pebble Beach auction.
The ultra-rare DBR1 was the first of only five made and is bursting with racing pedigree, having won the 1959 Nürburgring 1000km. It has been driven by Roy Salvadori, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and Carroll Shelby.
We asked Gord Duff, RM Sotheby’s global head of auctions, if the DBR1 would have achieved such a price in the UK, or whether the strength of the American market was the reason behind the record-breaking figure. He says: ‘Our 2017 Monterey auction results spoke of the overall confidence of the market. We saw strong prices on rare historic cars of exceptional quality, while certain areas of the modern performance market continued to trend upwards.’