Will this Aston fetch £1.5m?

Bonhams expects this rather incomplete 1960 example to fetch as much as £1.8 million when it comes up for auction in London on 19^th February.

With its shortened wheelbase, lightweight body and hi-po, twin-spark straight-six boasting around 300PS (220kW), the GT was the ultimate road/race iteration of the DB4, rebodied Zagato version aside. With a 150mph top speed and 0-60 in 6.1 seconds it was among the fastest production road cars of its day and a success on the track – never more so than today where it’s a regular in historic racing at Goodwood and elsewhere. But not this particular one.

This DB4 GT has been off the road for almost 40 years. It was bought in 1966 by the late engineer and pilot David Picking. He enjoyed it until 1983 when he began its restoration. The pictures show how far he got with that. Bonhams is now selling the car as a “part restoration” giving the next owner the chance to finish the job.

When new in 1960, the Snow Shadow grey with red leather example was sold to Syd Greene. That’s a name to test any motorsport fan’s Formula 1 knowledge.

Who was Greene? He was the owner of Gilby Engineering who in the mid 1950s fed his enthusiasm for the sport by entering his own F1 team, first with a Maserati 250F for Roy Salvadori to drive and then, ambitiously, building his own Gilby grand prix car for Syd’s son Keith to compete with. The Gilby Engineering GP team competed in 12 grands prix and scored no points.

If the next owner of this DB4 GT gets it back to how it looked when Syd Greene used it as his road car, then, doors or no doors, it could be a smart buy. Only 75 DB4 GTs were ever built and while they do not approach the values of the Zagato models, they still regularly appear around the £3-3.5m mark. Now, where to get a pair of lightweight aluminium DB4 doors…

Images courtesy of Bonhams.