Reach for the stars

ASTON Martin values were both shaken and stirred this week when an ex-James Bond movie DB5 was auctioned for nearly 158,000. The immaculate car, used in one of the chase sequences in the 1995 movie GoldenEye, was snapped up for 157,750 by a private collector at Christie's auction house on Wednesday.

Along with the bikinee worn by Ursula Andress in Dr No, the DB5 was the star attraction at the Bond memento sale, and its movie connection doubled the value of the car. Normally, even the most pristine DB5 is worth no more than 60,000 or 70,000.

Its fleeting appearance in the 007 movie turned the car into a collector's piece. Yet even the price it fetched was modest compared with the original Goldfinger Astons from the Sean Connery Bond era. Three years ago, one of these was stolen from its Florida owner and insurers later paid out a rumoured 3.11 million.

That car was also the first Aston Martin DB5 produced, and had previously been sold at a New York auction in 1986 for 192,000.

Last January, a 1940 Lincoln Continental convertible came up to auction in the United States. It would normally be worth 30,000 to 45,000, but this car was originally owned by American baseball legend Babe Ruth and fetched 77,000.

Last September, a 1961 Bentley S2 owned by screen legend James Cagney soared to 37,000.

Without the Cagney connection, it might not have been worth even half that.

"Cars with a history of famous ownership bridge two fields of collecting and that makes it difficult to pinpoint values," says Douglas Jamieson, chairman of London-based auctioneers Coys. "Fame can be so fleeting, I suppose that's why many appear at auction, where it's left to the market to establish their value."

I T'S not just stars' cars that have a price on their heads.

In 1998, a 1963 Mk1 Ford Lotus-Cortina once owned - and even paid for - by Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds fetched an orbital 38,000 at auction.

Reynolds's name on the log book doubled what the auctioneers were expecting for the car.

A year earlier, an ex-Graham Hill works Mk2 Ford Lotus-Cortina hit a hefty 23,000. In the real world, no Mk2 Lotus-Cortina other than works cars would command anything approaching 10,000.

All the cars mentioned so far have solid classic credentials, but that's not always the case.

Perhaps the ultimate groupie car is Princess Diana's 1981 Ford Escort, given to her by Prince Charles as an engagement present. At a 1995 auction, it made 6,000, at least double the book price for a secondhand 1.6 Ghia at the time. Now the owner hopes for at least 50,000.

Jamieson adds a word of caution, though. "So-called Bergerac Triumph Roadsters were once all the rage," he says. "The car used in the TV series sold for a premium and for a while that lifted the value of all Triumph Roadsters, whether or not they were directly connected with the series. As the memory has dimmed, the value of the Triumph Roadster has fallen back to its natural level.

"If you wanted to enter this market as an investment, you have to exercise incredibly sharp foresight to differentiate between five- minute wonders and celebrities with true staying power.

"As an enthusiast, though, there's the pleasure of owning something no one else has, something with its own history, whether it's Mussolini's Alfa Romeo or a Ford Anglia that appeared in Heartbeat."

Copyright 2001
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