An Auction House for Folks Who Want Something a Little Different…

WE’VE ALL BEEN to numerous auctions and watched some nice cars crossing the block. But when was the last time you sat in the audience as a Ferrari that once belonged to a member of the Rolling Stones came up for sale? Or how often have you been strongly tempted to bid on an Aston Martin that served as the inspiration for the iconic car driven through harrowing adventures by none other than fictional spy James Bond?

Well, if you’d like to expand your collection and vehicles of this type strongly appeal to you, it’s time you started looking into the numerous sales held annually by the London auction house Coys (founded 1919).

Now before you hustle over to your computer and start making your travel reservations, you should be forewarned that the Ferrari has already been sold, and by the time you read this, the Aston Martin will have come under the auctioneer’s hammer as well.

But these cars are representative of the types of vehicles that Coys is known to serve up at its distinguished sales and no doubt if you start perusing their catalogs you’ll find more than one uncommon ride that you’ll just have to add to the group of cars and trucks that already reside in your garage.

To help get you in the mood for an upcoming sales event, let’s talk for a minute about the 1972 Ferrari Dino 246GT (seen on this page) that was bought new by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in February 1972.

Although Richards purchased the vehicle in California, he took it to the UK in 1975 and owned it until 1986. During that time it was registered to his address in Munro Terrace in Chelsea, London, and he racked up more than 25,000 miles on his silver Italian sports car. (I wonder why he didn’t order it in red.) Since ’86, the Ferrari had been part of “a prestigious Japanese collection,” Coys said in a statement.

The car was offered at no reserve as part of Coys’ Monaco auction in May and wound up changing hands for a little more than $400,000. Along with the car, the new owner received a letter from Rolling Stones’ manager Alan Dunn “confirming Richards’ ownership and mileage up to 1986.”

Commenting on the vehicle, Chris Routledge, Managing Partner at Coys, said: “A Dino offered at no reserve is rare enough in itself and would make this a highly desirable and collectible item in its own right, but when one adds to this proven long-term ownership by rock and roll aristocracy, the Keith Richards’ car has to be the ultimate Dino and will surely give any car collector and rock enthusiast a great ‘Satisfaction’!”

Now, about that Aston Martin that Coys said “is understood to have been the inspiration” for James Bond’s ride.

The car is a Vantage specification 1954 DB 2/4 Mk 1 that was purchased new on July 4, 1955 by the Honorable Squadron Leader Phillip Ingram Cunliffe-Lister, son of Lord Swinton, a confidant of Winston Churchill and head of MI5 (military intelligence) during World War II. Furthermore, the Aston Martin “was regularly at Ian Fleming’s direct next-door neighbor in Kent,” giving the author ample opportunity to observe the car.

To add to the car’s espionage mystique, Coys said that it had sat idle for many years, “collecting dust and rust” when it was purchased by a father and son as a restoration project. During the restoration, the two found “a set of unique special modifications” on the Aston Martin that “seem to be the same” as features found on the fictional Bond car in “Goldfinger.” Among them were “reinforced steel bumpers, concealed lockers, heavy-duty anti-interference ignition system, driver’s seat connections for two-way radio and/or a homing device, and a Halda Speed Pilot device which accurately computes time and distance in relation to a preselected average speed.” (It seems to me that the Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in the 1964 movie also carried front-mounted machine guns, a pop-up bullet-proof rear screen, a system for spewing oil slicks rearward and revolving license plates, but then that was a later-model car.)

As seen on this page, Coys fittingly unveiled its Aston Martin at the Old Admiralty Building in London, the former headquarters of the Royal Navy and a location where Ian Fleming once had an office.

The car was set to be auctioned at the company’s Blenheim Palace sale on July 12, after this issue has been sent to the print shop. But you can visit coys. co.uk to see on how it performed when it crossed the block or check back with us next month. –Ted Kade