Aston Martin DB5 (V Morfield/Bigstock.com)
£10.3m of classic cars have been sold at a recent Bonhams Aston Martin auction – the 16th of its kind – held at the Aston Martin Works.
Among the many great cars up for auction was Peter Ustinov's 1962 DB4 Vantage Convertible. Its excellent condition along with its particular history pushed the final price to £1.5m.
However, not all of the cars were in such glorious nick. The worst of the lot was a 1958 DB Mark III, which had been found in a barn. However, all the corroded and dented panel work didn't stop this dark blue Aston fetching £104,540 by the final hammer.
The DB Mark III is perhaps best known for appearing in Ian Flemming's 1959 spy novel Goldfinger.
Another battered Aston appeared in the form of a 1962 DB4 Series III, which despite is shortcomings still went for £303,900.
But as might be expected those cars in the best condition fetched the highest sums. One of these was another DB4, metallic green, which netted the seller £494,300.
Continuing the Bond theme was a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 (similar to the one pictured), which appeared in the film version of Goldfinger (the novel featured the earlier Mark III model).
In terms of later Astons for up for auction, the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 was prominent. Just three of the 10 built survived, the probable reason that the one at Bonhams fetched £124,700.
The auction gave Aston the opportunity to show off its Lagonda Taraf, built primarily for the Middle Eastern chauffeur-driven car market. Just 200 of these cars were built under the recently resurrected luxury brand.