Photo: RM Sotheby's
After the superb Jaguar D-Type XKD 501 changed hands for $21.78 million in 2016, the record for the most expensive British car ever sold has been broken by an Aston Martin this weekend at Monterey. Without further beating around the bush, DBR1 chassis #1 went up for auction for a hulking $22.6 million.
RM Sotheby’s sold the British race car, and the winning bid shouldn’t come as a surprise considering experts refer to DBR1/1 as being “the most important Aston Martin ever produced.” The first of five examples built for racing, chassis number 1 is fitted with a reproduction inline-six built by R.S. Williams.
The original Aston Martin engine, referred to as RB6 and displacing 3.0 liters, was included in the sale along with triple 45DCO carburetors. All in all, probably the most important attribute of DBR1/1 is the overall win at the Nurburgring 1000km in 1959 and its outings in the World Sportscar Championship. Carroll Shelby, Stirling Moss, Roy Salvador, and Reg Parnell are only a few of the legends that got in the driver’s seat of the iconic racecar.
According to on-site reports, the bidding on DBR1/1 was wild, and it all lasted for less than seven minutes. Reportedly, two bidders were duking it out between themselves when a private collector called dibs on the car over the phone, making the open-top racing car his own. It goes without saying, then, that being a wealthy classic car collector isn’t all rosy when there’s an even more ambitious and spendthrift collector interested in that same vehicle.
Before this weekend’s bidding, the car spent time with the same owner from 2009. In 2013, Sir Stirling Moss got in the car during the automaker’s centenary celebrations at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Also at the Monterey sale organized by RM Sotheby’s, the auction house found new owners for a highly original DB4 GT ($6.765 million) and a DBR9 racecar ($616,000).
The original Aston Martin engine, referred to as RB6 and displacing 3.0 liters, was included in the sale along with triple 45DCO carburetors. All in all, probably the most important attribute of DBR1/1 is the overall win at the Nurburgring 1000km in 1959 and its outings in the World Sportscar Championship. Carroll Shelby, Stirling Moss, Roy Salvador, and Reg Parnell are only a few of the legends that got in the driver’s seat of the iconic racecar.
According to on-site reports, the bidding on DBR1/1 was wild, and it all lasted for less than seven minutes. Reportedly, two bidders were duking it out between themselves when a private collector called dibs on the car over the phone, making the open-top racing car his own. It goes without saying, then, that being a wealthy classic car collector isn’t all rosy when there’s an even more ambitious and spendthrift collector interested in that same vehicle.
Before this weekend’s bidding, the car spent time with the same owner from 2009. In 2013, Sir Stirling Moss got in the car during the automaker’s centenary celebrations at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Also at the Monterey sale organized by RM Sotheby’s, the auction house found new owners for a highly original DB4 GT ($6.765 million) and a DBR9 racecar ($616,000).
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