It’s a car collector’s wet dream: two legendary 1950s Aston Martins, both finished in iconic British racing green, are being offered for sale this season. The first is the ultra-rare 1954 DB3S (above) which played a starring role in Checkpoint, one of the most famous motor racing films of the Fifties, centered on the Mille Miglia. Today it’s arguably the most original surviving production DB3S and a world-class four-wheeled work of art. In ’53, the first year of works competition, the DB3S won every race it entered except the Le Mans 24 Hours.
London’s Post Vintage has not quoted a price for the car but if you have to ask…. Meanwhile at Bonhams’ Aston Martin auction in Newport Pagnell on May 22 the starring lot is sure to be the famed VMF 65 – the ex-Works 1950 Aston Martin DB2 Team Car raced by such legendary drivers as Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and Roy Salvadori. Built to race in that year’s Le Mans, it never made it to the track having suffered an accident en route, but went on to claim many more victories. It carries an estimate of £380,000 - £440,000, or topping out at almost $700,000 for those keeping score at home.
David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, son of Princess Margaret and Earl Snowdon and better known as Viscount Linley, is that rare bird – a Royal who works for a living. Having set up in trade some years ago as a bespoke furniture maker he has now branched out into all sorts of clever little cabinets, humidors and other handsome geegaws executed with first-rate craftsmanship and an admirable elegant restraint. Of course being a blue blooded English gentleman he knows a thing or two about proper recreational requirements, as evidenced by one of his latest creations, the Linley Shooting Companion case in the fine portable bar tradition.
This essential bit of kit for any sporting gent who does not aim to go without the requisites of spirits and smokes for the duration of the hunt is priced at about $5,600. It is constructed of oiled walnut with saddle leather handles and an inlaid engravable, hallmarked sterling silver plaque. The case contains two lead crystal decanters with sterling silver plaques laid onto square rosewood stoppers, a cigar cutter and a walnut box to hold eight Corona No. 5’s. A removable walnut rack walnut holds eight pewter tumblers, numbered 1 to 8 to reference shooting pegs. Throw it in the back of the Range Rover and Bob’s your uncle.
© Copyright 2010 Duncan Quinn. All Rights Reserved.
It was a hallmark of the international sporting set in the grand old days that a gentleman always brought along a handsome pair of field glasses in a fitted leather case when attending race meetings, horse shows, steeplechases and the like. Ditto while on safari, conducting military campaigns and observing regattas. Often they were of solid brass and wrapped in saddle leather, a worthy accessory to the morning coat, silk topper, or club blazer. Now the famed French house of Hermès has revived the habit with a stylish new set of binoculars. Wrapped in Hermès’ signature saddle leather, with a handstitched leather carrying strap, they’re priced at about $2,500.
Though it’s not an official collaboration, to our trained eye the binoculars themselves appear to be Leica’s compact, super-sharp Ultravid model from their sports optics collection (Hermès owns a stake in the famed German camera-maker). Whether attending cricket at Lords, polo at Windsor, Wimbledon, the regattas at Henley and Cowes, or especially Royal Ascot, these are essential kit. Remember the words of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Hedworth Meux (1856 – 1929) on Ascot: “The best horses in the world and the prettiest women are seen on the Royal Heath. We racing men go to see the horses, non-racing men such as Lord Curzon go to look at the women.” We of course do both.
© Copyright 2010 Duncan Quinn. All Rights Reserved.
Pawel Litwinski / Gooding & Co.
Time to kick your car collection into high gear for the New Year – on January 23 Gooding & Company is offering some exceptionally pedigreed European motors at its annual Scottsdale Auction. Aesthetics-wise our pick of the lot is the 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 Cabriolet (above), expected to fetch over $2.2 Million, one of only 40 Series 1 Pininfarina Cabriolets ever built. Upon its completion, the car was immediately shipped to the United States to be proudly displayed on Ferrari’s New York Auto Show stand, and the sale marks the first time one of these babies has crossed the auction block in many a year.
Considered by connoisseurs to be among the most beautiful Ferraris ever made, it’s sure to make a strong showing. Equally alluring is a highly coveted 1956 Jaguar D-Type Sports Racer, painted cream with blue racing stripes, expected to fetch above $3.5 million. This particular model is known for a victory at the Pomona Six-Hour Enduro race in 1959, the D-Type’s last big win in the USA. There’s also a stunning 1959 Costin Lister Jaguar Sports Racer on offer if your budget’s more in the $1.5 million range.
© Copyright 2010 Duncan Quinn. All Rights Reserved.
A rare ballot box made from a human skeleton used by Yale’s famed secret society Skull and Bones is going on the auction block during Christie’s Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver & Chinese Export sale in New York on Jan. 22. Just the thing to decorate your digs while sporting one of DQ’s gangster chic ties, it would make one hell of a cufflink box. Offered by an unnamed European art collector and estimated at $10,000 - $20,000, it comes with a book containing the names of about 50 Skull & Bones members, including President William Howard Taft, along with their photographs.
The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the society’s meetings in the Tomb, the Skull and Bones building on the Yale campus. In addition to Taft, both presidents Bush, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, businessman and diplomat Averell Harriman, publisher Henry Luce and author William F. Buckley, Jr. were members or “bonesmen”. Quite the club.
© Copyright 2010 Duncan Quinn. All Rights Reserved.
Can it beat the SSC Ultimate Aero? That’s what everyone’s wondering about Porsche tuners 9ff’s new GT9-R, based on the 911 Turbo. With 1120 horsepower in a lightweight custom body it boasts a top speed in excess of 257 mph; the SSC Ultimate Aero is the current holder of the “World’s Fastest Production Car” title, having clocked an average top speed of 256.18 mph, beating the Koenigsegg CCR’s previous official record by 11.83 mph and demolishing the Bugatti Veyron’s unofficial record by 3.63 mph
Only 20 GT9-R’s will be made at an undisclosed price, and not all of them will be as powerful as the pretender to the speed record, which the SSC captured back in 2007 – a 750 hp and 987 hp version are also on offer - though of course that’s the one garnering all the attention. Torque clocks in at 1050 Nm which translates to a 0 - 62 mph time of 2.9 seconds. Aerodynamic features will be customizable as well as upgradable. You know, should you wish to try and break that record after all.
Avant-garde Monegasque yachtbuilder Wally is known for producing some of the world’s most brilliantly styled and engineered motor and sailing boats. Back in September we told you about the two new sailing superyachts they launched at the Monaco Yacht Show. When not engaged in revolutionizing the yachting world, Wally’s design geniuses work on their other passion, skiing. Wally’s range of high-tech skis, made using the same carbon fiber technology the company developed for its yachts, now includes six different models for a range of expert skiing styles and conditions.
Wally skis are 30% lighter than conventional skis and combine exceptional grip on ice with high performance on powder. Designed for speed of course they’re made to make deep carving turns as well, keeping everything smooth as silk even at maximum velocity. The carbon fiber is accompanied by cores of ash and birch wood, titanium accents and steel edging. The models in the range are the Original, Tradition, Magic, Freewally, Minipowder and Wallypowder. At 176 cm long, the new Wallypowder is one of the widest skis ever produced and the only full carbon ski specifically developed for off-piste runs. We’ll meet you back on the yacht for drinks.
Steve Petrovich
Thanks to James Bond 1960s Aston Martins are an automotive icon for the ages – not that the marque really needed any help from 007. Among collectors the extremely rare competition versions of the street legal swifties are highly prized, of course; one such model, a 1963 Aston Martin DB4 GT, one of only 75 built, will cross the auction block on Jan. 21 during RM Auctions’ Automobiles of Arizona event at the Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix, which this year features a special night of Britain’s best. The example on offer is the last DB4 GT built and sold by Aston’s Newport Pagnell Factory.
The competition variant of the DB4, the model was formally introduced in September 1959 at the London Motor Show the year Aston won the World Sportscar Championship title. It was based on the race winning prototype SP199/1, which won its first outing at Silverstone in May 1959 with the great Stirling Moss at the wheel and was one of the first cars away at Le Mans that June. The car underwent a complete restoration and handles beautifully even when topping out at 150 mph. Expected to fetch $950,000 – $1,000,000, we say it’s cheap at twice the price.
London-based TMB Art Metal, makers of “provenance” sculptures, cufflinks and other items fashioned from actual bits of automotive, aeronautic, locomotive and maritime icons, has come out with a new limited edition Spitfire Mk 1 sculpture stylish enough to adorn any gent’s library or office. Made in a limited edition of 24, the sculptures are crafted of aluminum originating from the Rolls-Royce Merlin Mk III engine fitted to X4276 KL-B, legendary RAF ace Al Deere’s personal Supermarine Spitfire for the latter part of the Battle of Britain and 1940, which crashed on 28th December of that year.
Numbers 1 to 12 will be mounted upon the twelve original pistons removed from X4276’s V12 Merlin and numbers 13 through to 24 upon the 12 beautifully engineered original engine conrods. All are supported by purposefully made bronze stalks with precision engineered ball and sockets which facilitate movement so the sculptures can be placed in various attitudes of ‘flight’. All sculptures are set upon a mahogany and burr walnut plinth and come with a certificate of authenticity signed by one of the original Supermarine test pilots. Now that’s what we call art.
Triumph and TAG Heuer have teamed up to pay homage to the great Steve McQueen with a one-off “Bonneville Heuer” motorbike painted in the King of Cool’s iconic racing colors. The moto’s orange and blue stripes echo the livery of the Porsche 917 he drove in the famous 1971 racing flick Le Mans. McQueen also wore TAG Heuer’s now-iconic square-faced Monaco watch in the movie, which TAG recently re-issued in celebration of the timepiece’s 40th anniversary.
McQueen rode and raced Triumph motorcycles in his off-duty hours, including the International Six Days Trials in Germany, as well as in movies such as 1963’s The Great Escape, and it remained his favorite maker. The Bonneville was born in 1959 to recognize Johnny Allen’s land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, quickly becoming one of the brand’s most iconic bikes. The only thing we can’t understand is why Triumph aren’t putting the McQueen version into production.
