£360K Aston Martin DB2 Vantage leads Bonhams' Chantilly sale

Unlike the Bonhams Revival sale, historic competition cars were thin on the ground at the 2017 Chantilly auction, with the emphasis being very much on classic road cars, both pre- and post-war.

The red 1953 Aston Martin DB2 achieved the highest hammer price of the 2017 Bonhams Chantilly sale, changing hands at an impressive £363,228. The Aston Martin was one of just 98 examples built (75 with left-hand-drive, such as the Bonhams car). This DB2 was originally delivered to its New York-based client in late 1953 with burgundy coachwork and a beige convertible hood.  The car had a known, full history, contributing to its healthy Bonhams auction price.

Appropriately for a French-based sale, the second highest auction price achieved by Bonhams last weekend was for a scarce and seductive Citroen DS Cabriolet, made by the famed Paris coachbuilder Chapron, the Chantilly example being a late (1969) swivelling headlight ‘shark nose’ model, which sold for an impressive £186,047.

The highest-priced pre-war car at the Bonhams Chantilly sale was a charming 1935 Frazer-Nash TT Replica Shelsley, one of only eight examples built to such a specification, out of the 85 TT Replicas made in total. Powered by its original and rare Blackburn 1.5-litre, four-cylinder engine, this Frazer-Nash achieved hammer prices of £181,614.

With just 500 examples of the short-lived Ferrari 365 GTC/4 built at Pininfarina between 1971 and 1972 on a Daytona chassis, the original French market metallic blue model sold at the Bonhams Chantilly sale for £171,236 was one of the last five GTC/4s built. 

An even rarer Ferrari, a one-off 328-based concept car with distinctive Barchetta coachwork by Michalak of Germany achieved £103,779, making this something of a bargain for a unique Ferrari-based prototype. Called the Conciso, this one-off Ferrari concept was presented by Michalak at the 1989 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show to showcase the German styling studio’s design capabilities.