£9.6m Zagato becomes UK's most costly car
An Aston Martin classic has become a record-breaker for a UK-built car up for auction - with a sale price approaching £10 million.
The 1962 DB4GT Zagato went under the hammer for a cool 14.3 million dollars (£9.65 million) at RM Sotheby’s New York-based Driven by Disruption sale on December 10.
This eclipses the previous benchmark of 13.75 million dollars (£9.28 million) - set by a Surrey-built McLaren F1 (1998).
10 top facts about the Zagato
- Auctioneers billed it as having an “Italian suit” but an “English soul”
- Only 18 other tailor-made Zagato DB4GTs were ever made
- It boasts 3,670cc, 314hp and a six-cylinder engine
- It features a distinctively large rear windshield, helping to reduce the C-pillar
- Zagato’s coachwork helped to give the Aston a much more voluptuous, fluid and dynamic appearance. It shed almost 50kg and gained 12 horsepower to make it faster than its stable predecessors
- Australia-based businessman Laurie O’Neill was its first owner
- The car’s inaugural year saw Doug Whiteford pilot it to three overall wins, once at Calder and twice at Longford
- 1962 proved its first and last year in racing. O’Neill sold the car and it remained in Australia with just two more owners over the next two decades
- Aberdeen-based GK Speirs acquired the Aston in 1993 and brought it back to Britain. Benefiting from a mini-restoration, it entered Goodwood-based vintage racing shows in the late 1990s
- New owner Peter Read gave it a full restoration and it won numerous honours at concours events on both sides of the Atlantic
Where the big money goes at classic auctions…
To put the sale into context, the Zagato doesn’t even break the Ferrari stranglehold in the top five highest-priced auction cars for 2015.
Here’s the top 10:
1. Ferrari’s 1956-built 290MM: 28.05 million dollars (£18.93 million) - sold through RM Sotheby’s New York
2. Ferrari’s 1961-built 250GT California SWB Spyder: 18.64 million dollars (£12.58 million) - sold through Artcurial Paris
3. Ferrari’s 1964-built 250LM: 17.6 million dollars (£11.88 million) - sold through RM Sotheby’s California
4. Ferrari’s 1961-built 250GT California SWB Spyder: 16.83 million dollars (£11.39 million) - sold through Gooding California
5. Ferrari’s 1962-built 250GT Speciale SWB Berlinetta: 16.5 million dollars (£11.13 million) - sold through Gooding California
6. Aston Martin’s 1962-built DB4GT Zagato: 14.3 million dollars (£9.65 million) - sold through RM Sotheby’s New York
7. McLaren’s 1998-built F1 ‘LM-Specification’: 13.75 million dollars (£9.26 million) - sold through RM Sotheby’s California
8. Ferrari’s 1956-built 250GT Berlinetta Competizione Tour de France: 13.2 million dollars (£8.9 million) - sold through RM
Sotheby’s California
9. Jaguar’s 1953-built C Type Works Lightweight Sports: 13,200,000 dollars (£8.9 million) - sold through RM Sotheby’s California
10. Ferrari’s 1960-built 250GT SWB steel-shelled Berlinetta in RHD: £7.39 million – sold through H&H Cambridgeshire
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