MOTORING NEWS - An ultra-rare Aston Martin is now the most expensive British car ever sold at auction, fetching R161-million.
By current exchange rates, in 1962 the DB4/GT Zagato would have cost R93 202. It was recently sold for R161,44-million at RM Sotheby's "Driven by Disruption" event in New York.
This price marks a new record for a British car at auction even if it fell slightly short of the R171-million expected. This distinction was held till now by a McLaren F1 that went for R149,94-million earlier this year.
The DB4/GT was built to allow Aston Martin to take on Ferrari in the World Sports Car Championship. With its Italian rival having a competitive edge, Aston sent its car to Carrozzeria Zagato, with the instruction to maximise its performance.
It was given a sleek new body shape and its weight was reduced by 50kg and an additional 8,9kW was found from the 3,7-litre straight-six engine, taking the total to a more than respectable 234kW.
The interior, including the seats and door, is wrapped in green leather, but is more spartan than some other cars of this era. The thin, wood-rimmed steering wheel is another period feature, hiding behind which is an instrument binnacle containing the speedometer and rev counter, plus gauges for fuel level and oil pressure.
Click here for a photo gallery.
Sadly the demand for the car was below expectations and Aston Martin built six fewer than initially planned. The racing model also did not perform as well as hoped.
With its four speed manual gearbox and 325Nm of torque, the 1 225kg Zagato could accelerate from 0 to 97km in 6,1 seconds, and had a top speed of 246km.
The car in question is number 14 of only 19 DB4/GTs created by Zagato. It was originally delivered to Australia, where it competed in various motor sport events. Its first owner, Laurie O'Neill from New South Wales, is reported to have also owned various Ferrari and Porsche racing cars, as well as grand prix cars.
After competing successfully, chassis DB4GT/0186/R was sold to Colin Hyams, who displayed it at the 1965 Melbourne motor show. Three years later it was sold again, to Alex Copland, who left it in storage for the next 20 years.
In 1993 it was brought to the UK and lightly restored. Since then, it has been shown at some of the world's biggest car shows, winning an armful of trophies. The highlights might be its Best in Class finish at Villa d'Este at Pebble Beach in the US in 2007 and overall win at the Louis Vuitton Concours d'Elegance at the Hurlingham Club in London in 2002.
In some respects the DB4/GT Zagato is the British equivalent of the Ferrari 250 GTO, although not all automotive historians would agree.
Any component that wasn't strictly required, was removed to reduce the weight, but the interior still looks pretty stylish.
Zagato is still one of the most highly respected coach builders in Italy, so Aston Martin was confident in its brief to create an official, limited edition run of Zagato Aston Martin DB4/GTs. The work was entrusted to the chief stylist at Zagato, Ercole Spada. He made the already sporting DB4/GT even lighter. While Aston had reduced the weight by 85kg, in creating the Zagato version, Spada was able to eliminate another 45kg.
The weight reduction was achieved by re-bodying the DB4/GT in aluminium and replacing much of the glass with Perspex. Any other component that wasn't strictly required, was removed - hence the somewhat basic nature of the interior.
In order to further improve performance, Spada specified that the all-aluminium,
3 670cc, twin-spark, DOHC, straight-6 have new pistons fitted, which increased the compression ratio to 9,7:1. This tweaked engine produced 234kW with a top speed of 246km. These figures were staggering for the era - and even today the DB4/GT Zagato could cheerfully keep pace with most modern sports cars.
This tweaked engine produced 234kW with a top speed of 246km.
Aston Martin and Zagato had agreed to build 25 cars. Sadly the demand for the car was below expectations and they built six fewer than initially planned. Ironically, the demand for the Zagato Aston was so high in the years after the model left production that the two companies have collaborated twice to build more. The new generations of the DB4/GT Zagato are known as the Sanction II and Sanction III cars.
The Sanction II units were built by Aston Martin using unused original chassis numbers and the Sanction III cars were built using wrecked but original DB4s. Aston Martin collaborated with the company as recently as 2016.
ARTICLE: ANICA KRÜGER, MOTORING EDITOR
'We bring you the latest motoring news'
