Do You Want An Aston Sportsman? You'll Need More Than $433K

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

What’s that, chum? You’re finding your Lynx Eventer to be a little, shall we say, common? Your friend the Sultan of Brunei has six Ferrari 456GT Sportwagons, courtesy of Pininfarina, and you require a competing conveyance that is both brutally subtle and subtly brutal? Well, then, you’ll need to find one of the two fellows who took delivery of an Aston Sportsman in 1996 and pry it out of his clutches.

If a recent auction result is any guide, however, you’d better have about seven hundred Krugerrands to make the deal…

Based on the 1996 V8 Coupe, which itself was a direct descendant of the 1969 Aston DBS, just two Sportsmen (Sportsmans?) were built. One of them reportedly has well over 100,000 miles on it and is in use as a near-daily driver. It’s unknown whether that was the example which went up for auction at Bonhams in September, but we do know that the estimated sale price was in excess of four hundred thousand English pounds. The highest bid turned out to be a little more modest; $432,650 was not sufficient to meet reserve.

Sports Car Market sniffed that they have doubts as to the Sportsman’s future collectibility. They may be right, but the fact is that, if you want an Aston shooting brake with eight cylinders, you have just two choices in the world. And even if it would take eight hundred grand to put it in your garage, wouldn’t it be nice to turn up your nose at the proles in their Veyrons?

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • FreedMike Off topic, but folks, this site is not working well for me from a technical standpoint, and it doesn't matter if I'm using my phone, or my computer (on two different browsers). It locks up and makes it impossible to type anything in after a certain point. Anyone else having these issues?
  • Syke Kinda liked the '57, hated the '58. Then again, I hated the entire '58 GM line except for the Chevrolet. Which I liked better than the '57's. Still remember dad's '58 Impala hardtop, in the silver blue that was used as the main advertising color.
  • Dartdude The bottom line is that in the new America coming the elites don't want you and me to own cars. They are going to make building cars so expensive that the will only be for the very rich and connected. You will eat bugs and ride the bus and live in a 500sq-ft. apartment and like it. HUD wants to quit giving federal for any development for single family homes and don't be surprised that FHA aren't going to give loans for single family homes in the very near future.
  • Ravenuer The rear view of the Eldo coupe makes it look fat!
  • FreedMike This is before Cadillac styling went full scale nutty...and not particularly attractive, in my opinion.
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