A rare chance to own an Aston Martin DB5 in a completely unrestored state is coming up soon.
An extensively used right-hand-drive 1963 Aston Martin DB5 will go under the hammer at the RM Sotheby's London auction on Nov. 4. Under all the patina is a Dubonnet silver exterior with an interior combining fawn Connolly leather and a white cloth headliner.
The car bears chassis number 1316/R, but its engine isn't original. The car also requires plenty of restoration work. As a result, the estimate is between 300,000 and 350,000 British pounds ($365,000 and $426,000), which is relatively low in the world of DB5s. A matching-numbers DB5 headed to the same London auction has an estimate of up to 575,000 British pounds ($700,000).
Chassis no. 1316/R was originally delivered to automotive lock manufacturer C.E. Marshall in the U.K., and is thought to have been used by one of the executives there. Its known history only starts in 1971, when it was acquired by Patrick Davey, who noted at the time that the original engine had been replaced.
1963 Aston Martin DB5 bearing chassis no. 1316/R - Photo credit: RM Sotheby's
He regularly drove the car right up to the 1990s and finally sold it via auction in 2011, where the car was sold in a non-running condition and with an odometer reading of 75,011 miles. The winning bidder, and also the current seller, was a collector from Kuwait, and they have only put three miles on the odometer since then, according to the listing.
DB5s come with a 4.0-liter inline-6 that makes 282 hp, or enough to see a top speed of 150 mph. That top speed made the DB5 one of the fastest four-seaters of its time.
The DB5 celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Production only ran for two years, during which time a mere 887 coupes, 123 convertibles, and 12 shooting brakes were built. Even by the standards of the day, the numbers were tiny, especially considering total U.K. car production in 1963 alone was more than 1.8 million units.
