Aston Martin has made some highly desirable sports
and racing cars over its hundred-plus years of history. Singling out just one
as the most important is no idle praise, but that's just what RM Sotheby's
calls the one you see here.
This 1956 DBR1 is the first of just five made and
remains in the most original condition. And it's going up for auction in just a
couple of months during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.
Aston's rival to the likes of the Mercedes 300 SLR
and Ferrari 250 GTO, the DBR1 – a sister car to this one – went on to win the
24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959. This one has a considerable racing pedigree all
its own, though, having won the Nürburgring 1000 KM that same year with Sir
Stirling Moss at the wheel, helping the team seal the World Sportscar
Championship – the first British outfit to do so. Carroll Shelby drove it too,
as did Jack Brabham and Roy Salvadori, to name just a few.
It was then retired by the Works team and sold to
the first in an illustrious string of private owners. It was decorated as the
Most Elegant Sports Car at Pebble Beach in 2001 before being acquired by its
current owner, who is now putting it up for sale.
This will mark the first time that a DBR1 will be
offered for auction in public, with RM Sotheby's expecting it to top US$ 20
million when the gavel drops in August. That would make it not only the most
valuable Aston Martin ever sold at auction, but the most valuable British car
of any marque.
If that's not enough, DBR1/1 will be joined by a
1935 Aston Martin Ulster Competition Sports valued at upwards of US$ 2.5 million,
a '59 DB4GT valued at about US$ 7 million, and a modern DBR9 racer estimated to
fetch as much as US$ 375k.
