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Legendary Aston Martin at auction

22 October, 2015

Ask me, if money is no object, what car I’d most like to own and you’ll always get the same answer — Aston Martin’s gorgeous, and incredibly rare, DB4GT Zagato. With only 19 examples ever built, these special cars are, undoubtedly, the priciest and most coveted road-going Aston ever built — a breathtaking combination of the iconic DB4 kitted out with Zagato’s beautiful and lightweight aluminium bodywork.

Quite simply, opportunities to obtain one of these spectacular Astons are virtually non-existent — until now! Yes, one of these DB4GT Zagato will be on the block at RM Sotheby’s Driven by Disruption sale, scheduled to take place on December 10 at Sotheby’s New York. This rare Aston will be joined by a carefully curated selection of some 30 pioneering motor cars.

The DB4GT Zagato featured — chassis number DB4GT/0186/R — is the only example delivered new to Australia, having been completed in 1961. Purchased by businessman Laurie O’Neil, the car was raced extensively during the 1962 season and enjoyed numerous victories and podium successes in the hands of Doug Whitehead, including victory in the South Pacific GT Championship and fourth overall in the Sports Car Championship on the same day. The car remained in Australia for the next 30 years before returning to the UK in 1993. Since then, the car has been fully restored to concours standard and has scored numerous awards at events such as the Louis Vuitton Concours, Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach.

Alas, I have to report that, much as I’d like to, I doubt that I’ll be bidding on this amazing Aston Martin — even if I cracked open the piggy bank I doubt if I’d be able to scrape up enough to afford this blue-chip beauty.

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

11 September, 2024

Many years ago — in June 1995 to be more precise — I was being wowed with yet another terrific tale from Geoff Manning who had worked spanners on all types of racing cars. We were chatting at Bruce McLaren Intermediate school on the 25th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary Kiwi for whom the school was named. Geoff, who had been part of Ford’s Le Mans programme in the ’60s, and also Graham Hill’s chief mechanic — clearly realising that he had me in the palm of his hand — offered a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten: “If you want the really good stories, talk to the mechanics.”
Without doubt the top mechanics, those involved in the highest echelons of motor racing, have stories galore — after all, they had relationships with their drivers so intimate that, to quote Geoff all those years ago, “Mechanics know what really happened.”

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”