1956 Aston Martin DBR1 sells for £17.5 MILLION – a record price for a British car (video)

A 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 – one of just five built – sells at R. M Sotheby’s Monterey sale for £17.5 million, a record-breaking auction price for a British car.

If you thought the price for the McLaren F1 of £12.5 million we reported on yesterday was a lot, it’s just been eclipsed by the sale of an Aston Martin DBR1 for a cool £17.5 million at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale.

When we revealed the first DBR1 was heading for auction this summer, we said it was expected to hit £16 million, but at £17.5 million it becomes the most expensive British-made car ever sold at auction.

So what’s so special about the DBR1, and this DBR1 in particular?

For a start, there were only five DBR1s built – between 1956 and 1958 – and this is the very first, built to take Le Mans wins (although this car actually didn’t) and is, if you like, Aston Martin’s equivalent of the Ferrari 250 GTO, although from a fair few years before Ferrari came up with their car.

This DBR1 debuted at the 1956 24 Hour of Le Mans (it didn’t finish) and went on to race many times in the hands of drivers like Caroll Shelby, Jack Brabham and Sir Stirling Moss (who won the Nurburgring 1000KM in it). 

RM said this is the most important car Aston Martin have ever made. It’s now the most expensive.

Aston Martin DBR1 – #1 of 5 – Video