1956 Aston Martin DBR1 – the first ever built – should fetch £16 million
A 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 – the first of only five built – is up for auction at RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction in August, and is expected to fetch £16 million – or more.
Aston Martin built only five DBR1s – the Aston equivalent of the Ferrari 250 GTO and Mercedes 300 SLR – and none have ever come up for sale publicly – until now.
But now the very first Aston Martin DBR1/1 is heading for auction at RM Sotheby’s Monterey Sale in August, and such is the anticipation it’s expected to go for something in excess of £16 million.
This DBR1 debuted at the 1956 24 Hour of Le Mans and managed to run for 22 hours before the engine broke, but it went on to endure many more races in the hands of drivers like Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby and Jack Brabham, including a 1959 win at the Nurburgring 1000KM with Stirling Moss behind the wheel.
This DBR1 is said to be the most complete of the cars and comes fitted with a reproduction engine built by RS Williams, but also has its final works engine too.
RM Sotheby’s Barney Ruprecht said:
This is the most significant group of Astons to ever come to auction.
It is a true privilege to be entrusted with the sale of all four remarkable cars. From the Ulster—the pinnacle of pre-war competition—to the founding member of the DB4GT family, the ultimate Aston in the DBR1, all the way through to modern times with the DBR9, the group represents the complete lineage of Aston Martin competition history.
In addition to the DBR1, RM Sotheby’s will also be offering more Aston Martin goodies including a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster Competition Sports, a 1959 Aston Martin DB4GT and a 2006 Aston Martin DBR9.
The RM Sotheby’s Monterey Sale is on 18-19 August, and with RM declaring the DBR1 the most important Aston Martin of all time, it stands a good chance of breaking the all-time record for a British car, set by a 1955 Jaguar D-Type last year which fetched around £17 million (at today’s exchange rate).
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