Bonhams

The 18th annual Aston Martin Sale, held at Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell and hosted by international auction house Bonhams, achieved over £5 Million last weekend. One of the surprise stars of the show was a 1996 Aston Martin V8 Sportsman Estate Car, one of only three created, originally converted to its shooting brake format at Aston Martin Works. The rather unique and bespoke Aston Martin sold for an incredible £337,500.

The 18th annual Aston Martin Sale will be held by International auction house Bonhams on Saturday,  May 13, 2017. The sale will take place at the spiritual home of Aston Martin’s heritage, Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell, where many of this year’s lots were originally built.   The 2017 sale is a celebration of old and new Aston Martins, with cars ranging from 1953 through to 2016.

The expected star of the show at the forthcoming Bonham’s Aston Martin auction is a 1953 Aston Martin DB3S, raced by Sir Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Peter Collins, Roy Salvadori and Reg Parnell. With an estimate of £6-7 million, the ex-works race car is expected to attract the attention of classic car collectors across the globe. “Few cars that have appeared in film can also boast an association with so many great names from the heyday of British sports car racing, but this Aston Martin DB3S does just that,” said Tim Schofield, Bonhams UK Head Motoring. “Drivers who raced it include such legends as Peter Collins, Roy Salvadori, and Sir Stirling Moss, competing at world-class level in such gruelling races as the Mille Miglia, the Spa Grand Prix and the Nürburgring 1,000kms.”

A one-of-a-kind Land Rover Defender sold for a record £400,000 at a prestigious charity auction at Bonhams tonight, from which all proceeds are being donated to Land Rover’s humanitarian and conservation partners. This is the thought to be the most valuable production Land Rover ever to be sold at auction. The unique vehicle, the two-millionth of the iconic Series Land Rover and Defender models manufactured at Land Rover’s Solihull plant since 1948, was sold to a bidder from Qatar. The vehicle was built in May 2015 by an all-star cast of brand ambassadors and people from Land Rover’s history including Bear Grylls, Virginia McKenna OBE and Stephen and Nick Wilks, sons of the founders of Land Rover. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to Land Rover’s humanitarian and conservation partners: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red […]

A two-day Series Land Rover and Defender heritage exhibition will be on display at Bonhams London from 15-16 December ahead of the prestigious charity auction of the Defender 2,000,000. The exhibition will celebrate 67 years of UK production and chart the Defender’s journey to becoming a global automotive icon. Prospective bidders and the general public are invited to preview the Defender 2,000,000 throughout the specially curated exhibition, which celebrates almost seven decades of Land Rover production at the Solihull manufacturing facility in the UK. With a ‘hall of fame’ depicting the Land Rover playing a supporting role to Hollywood heroes such as Steve McQueen and Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond 007 and Sir Winston Churchill and British nobility including Her Majesty The Queen, the exhibition will illustrate the journey of an icon that has travelled the world, […]

More than 380 pioneering veteran cars dating back to very the dawn of motoring enjoyed unseasonably mild conditions to take part in this year’s Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. As tradition dictates, the 119th Anniversary Run set out from Hyde Park at day break and headed 60-miles south through a misty London and onto a sunny Sussex seafront. For only the third time in more than half a century, this year’s route took the intrepid participants – all driving pioneering cars from the pre-1905 era ­– past Buckingham Palace and down The Mall before heading past Big Ben and over Westminster Bridge. The capital’s early morning mist added to the period Victorian atmosphere. The first few cars began to arrive on Maderia Drive shortly after 10am – the 1903 Berliet driven by John Bentley just pipping the 1904 […]

The organisers of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run are pleased to announce that Auction house Bonhams – a long time supporter of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, sponsor for 11 years and the event’s title sponsor since 2014 – has   further extended its backing of the world’s longest running motoring event. The renewed partnership will see Bonhams continue as title sponsor and auction house partner until 2019. The agreement encompasses a number of significant elements during the lead up to the Run. The company will continue to sponsor the Veteran Car Zone at the free-to-view Regent Street Motor Show, held in London’s famous shopping street on the day before the Run. And as well as sponsoring the Run, the company will carry on providing welcome participant’s hospitality at the finish line in Brighton. In addition, Bonhams […]

As many as half a million spectators will line the route of the Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run this November, when the longest running motoring event in the world sets off on its annual adventure from London to Brighton (Sunday 1 November). Like the hardy teams piloting their amazing horseless carriages from the capital to the coast, the spectators brave whatever the weather conjures up to salute motoring’s pioneers: every car taking part was built before 1905. Best of all, every vantage point along the 60-mile route offers completely free viewing allowing everyone to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of more than 400 veterans as they ‘put-put’ their way to Brighton. Although the Run follows more or less the same route as last year, there have been a few changes to make it even better for participants […]

With British-made classic cars continuing to hold their own at auction, Bonhams is offering for sale a unique collection of Bentley, Aston Martin, Frazer Nash and Invicta vehicles. The fleet was assembled by Lancashire-based businessman Gordon Willey. British cars are sometimes effectively beating more highly estimated cars at auction. With Ferraris hitting records, buyers have been selective in recent sales at several houses. Willey’s multi-million-pound collection includes seven Bentleys such as a 1929 4½-Litre Tourer estimated at £400,000-£500,000. There are also pre-war cars such as a 1938 Frazer-Nash BMW 328 Roadster, once owned by British dance-band leader Billy Cotton and estimated at £550,000-£650,000 ($101,000). The lots also include Willey’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Sports Saloon, estimated at £400,000-£500,000, and delivered new to the Nizam of Nabunda. There is also an ex-Nigel Dawes 1934 Invicta 4½-Litre ‘S’ Type Low Chassis Tourer, […]

The sixtieth E-Type to leave Jaguar’s production line in 1961 went back to Somerset to surprise its previous owner on his 83rd birthday after undergoing a full ‘nut and bolt’ restoration at leading restorers Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth (CMC). When former Royal Naval Commander Bob Reed put his pride and joy, a rare Jaguar E-Type into auction little did he expect that it would sell for £109,000 or that it would be purchased by someone who would spend substantially more than the purchase price to bring it back to its former glory. Bob bought the car in February 1965 and owned it for more than 45 years, raced it and only decided to sell it because he couldn’t afford to restore it and didn’t want to see it deteriorate further.

In its 60th anniversary year Aston Martin Works played host to another hugely busy Bonhams Aston Martin Sale on Saturday, 9 May 2015, with £10.3m worth of rare and prized sports cars changing hands. The historic home of the great British luxury brand was the venue for the 16th annual Bonhams Aston Martin Sale, which saw around 50 classic Aston Martins sold. The annual sale is recognised as a globally-significant occasion for Aston Martin collectors and enthusiasts around the world. The 2015 event was the biggest to date, setting a sales total of £10,280,275 and witnessing a fascinating and diverse collection of Aston Martin-related automobilia go under the hammer in several hours of exciting and highly-charged bidding. Highlights of the day included the 1962 DB4 Series IV Vantage Convertible – originally the property of Sir Peter Ustinov – which sold […]