Residual Value Miracle Aston Martin To Fetch Millions
A car bought in 1956 for $15,000 is expected to sell for between $1.5 million and $2 million when it goes on auction in November. It is expected to be the star of Sotheby’s first significant auction of collector cars in more than a decade, where some 35 prewar French cars, postwar American and European sports cars, as well as American and European classics will vie for the attention and wallets of affluent car nuts.
The 1956 Aston Martin is one of 15 with the so-called Supersonic bodies created by Ghia, and it is the only completed on an Aston Martin chassis, the Wall Street Journal says. The car was bought by Richard Cox Cowell, heir to an oil fortune, and turned into a present to Cowell’s young bride, the 19 year old blond Gail Whitney, a New York society debutante and member of the Vanderbilt clan.
The marriage was on the rocks a year later. After the divorce in in 1959, the car changed hands among “a who’s who of serious car collectors, including the current seller, Louisville collector James Patterson,” says the Journal. Its recent restoration alone is worth between $300,000 and $400,000, the Journal was told.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I saw this very car at the 2012 Concours of America at St. John's last summer. The Supersonics were designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi of Ghia, who swapped ideas back and forth with Virgil Exner Sr as Ghia built show cars for Chrysler in the '50s. One of the 1950s Chrysler concepts, the 1954 DeSoto Adventurer II, used the same basic styling as the Ghia Supersonics. Savonuzzi's design for the VW Karmann Ghia was essentially a scaled down version of Exner's Chrysler D'Elegance show car. More pics of the Aston Martin Supersonic (which looks great in person, btw) here: carsindepth.com/?p=11093
The $$$ blaa-blaa is a lot of noise. This is a sweet example of cars we'll likely never see again - space capsules with pencil-thin pillars and long/low hoods and trunks - she's a beauty.
"Affluent car nuts"? I'd call them investors.
I found it more surprising that a beige(well, Bendix yellow anyway) Toyota sold at the RM auction a few days ago for $1,155,000.00 http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1058397