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Let's get past the fact that today is April 15th, the most hated day of the year for all of the obvious reasons. Well, warm weather is finally threatening to break through and make it that much more tempting to drive something fun to work or get ready for a proper weekend blast. Spring in New England? Maybe, just maybe.....Let's focus on that, the start of baseball and perhaps the occasional round of golf, instead of what the IRS just fleeced you out of! Time to move on.

And while fresh on the mind, I'd like to thank all of our friends and clients who joined us last night for an evening of opera with "the maestro" Placido Domingo. Aston Martin is sponsoring his worldwide tour and last night was the only scheduled performance in the USA at the Wang Center in Boston. I apologize for not providing hand towels for those of you seated in the two front rows, you all know what I'm talking about. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic evening for all, thank you again for joining us and making it a great night.

Please pick up a copy of this month's Sports Car Market Letter and read my two cents about the Aston Martin DB4 Coupe that was auctioned of in February at the Artcurial Auction House in Paris. This car is the epitome of how educated mature collectors are now valuing original cars above restored examples. Of course, finding a truly original example of anything is next to impossible but there you go. Keith Martin has done a nice job of growing that magazine into quite a staple for those who enjoy a great classic car mag.

And along the lines of further obvious self promotion, our friends at ClassicDriver.com (Thank you Steve & Charis) have featured us in this week's dealer profile. Follow the link, http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3200.asp?id=13740, and check out Steve Wakefield's site. If you like up to the minute enthusiast news and thousands of classifieds every month, this is the place, book-mark it as a favorite. It's also the spot to check out the far flung pricing for cars in Europe. Every wonder why a great many cars are leaving the country for ports abroad? Just do the math....(And Kurt, that's a Fiat Jolly that I'm sitting on, or don't you have "them types of fur-un u-rup-peen cars in Texas?")

As I mention on our site, occasionally the "for sale" inventory never makes it that far to that section, last week was no exception.  A partially restored RHD Aston Martin DB5 Coupe was sold before it even got to our premises, let alone the website. It is now in the hands of an international collector who will finish what someone else started 30 years ago. If something like this is of interest, please let me know ahead of time. In the "potentially" for sale section, I'm currently chasing a very low mileage original Ferrari Daytona Coupe, another 1950s Aston project and a very rare Porsche 356 Coupe. Pass the word along of cars on your wish list, if you can, and you won't be disappointed to hear that something was just sold that would have been just right for you. How about a rare Fiat Abarth 600 Coupe? See, it's never the same from month to month......

Lastly, our first Aston Martin DBS Coupe is "on the water." If you didn't have a chance to attend the NY Autoshow last month please contact Patrick Roussel to sechedule a visit and see what all the fuss is all about, again, you simply won't be the least bit disappointed.

Be back at you before long...

Steve Serio

 

 

Tuesday, March 18^th, was a pretty exciting day for me.  You see, typically I’m stuck in the office enduring a pretty tough day, selling Aston Martins, test driving Aston Martins, and checking out the classics that Steve Serio seems to dig up.  Pretty dull stuff.  Right?  Well last Tuesday was exciting because I got to leave the office, and go to the Big Apple to see the DBS reveal.  All of this before the New York Autoshow chaos.

 

I grabbed Doug Ewing, from Premier Financial Services, in CT, which gave us a great opportunity to talk about the new Aston Martin lease program. In case you haven’t heard, Aston Martin now has a lease program! This is a first for Aston Martin, which I think is pretty cool.  Yipppeeee!  If you need any information, please give us a call, we would be happy to discuss the terms.

 

Ok, getting back to NY, and the DBS.  Let me tell you, and I’ll be honest, I was a bit concerned with the DBS,on how this beast would look. Well, when they pulled the cover off, I was just blown away.  My first thought was, who I have to kill, rob, or sleep with to get one!  It’s a perfect blend of the finesse, and elegance of the DB9, and the steroid induced DBR9 race cars that won LeMans last year.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you will have to wait until our very own DBS launch event in Boston.  I will definitely keep you guys posted.

 

Stay tuned, because Jude and I, will drive the DBS in April, at the Ascari Race Resort in Spain.  My life sucks.

Pat Roussel and Steve Serio are taking off for the New York Auto Show today.  Aston Martin is giving everyone a good peek at the yet to be seen in the U.S. new DBS. We should see the DBS sometime in June or July but I had a chance to drive one earlier this month when I was at the Aston Martin proving grounds in Millbrook England. The DBS is Aston Martin’s new flagship automobile with a V12 engine, 510 hp and utterly fantastic to drive. 

Stay tuned for DBS launch details

In the spirit of not completely boring our blog readers ad nauseum every day, we'll keep this section for small trade news, things we find relevant in the Aston Martin world  or perhaps just an occasional news update of a piece of inventory that is inbound to us. A great many transactions with inventory are pre-sold and the cars never hit the inventory section. Think 1963 Shelby Team Cobra that is in our showroom and was sold before it hit the transport truck to get here. Neat ride.
 
At the moment we are negotiating on some very neat rides. Today's offerings are an LP400 Countach, Porsche 550 Spyder and another Mercedes 300SL disc brake Roadster.
 
And as the New York City AutoShow approaches, we'd like to gently remind our future DBS customers, please contact us ASAP so we can let you preview that spectacular Aston there.

With the excuse of revamping our website, our humble group has decided that a blog or two would be a good idea. We'll see...

I hope to add a weekly story or two that can add a little fodder to the car world.

Here goes with a little story about a visit to the Artcurial Auction in Paris during Retromobile last month.

A remarkable price realized for a rather unremarkable DB4... or, upon closer inspection, you'll discover what the hoo-hah and trend is now all about.

The price guide has been recalibrated once again as I attempt to unravel the mystery of how "unremarkable" has become the new "amazingly remarkable." Confused yet?

Let me un-wrap the preceding paragraph and the Parisian auction process as a bonus.

First the baffling Franco auction scene. Close your eyes and think back, humor me, to your formidable college years, the ones that involved an overheated, dry, windowless auditorium. Stubbornly overcrowded and perhaps involving an Armenian / Pakistani / Russian tongued professor who was rambling at such an incomprehensible pace his accent was the least of your worries. How do you focus? You were behind before he even got started. You were clueless and failing before you signed up for the class. Got it? Remember that physical & mental uncomfortable surrounding? Well that is a nice way of describing an American in Paris visiting the Arturial auction house. Talk about your classic culture shock. Not speaking fluent French was the least of my worries.

This auction venue during Retromobile was simply bizarro world compared to events in the USA & UK. The above-described room is no exaggeration mon ami. I attended, I nodded, I left empty handed.

When the show started I could make out the auctioneer easily enough, a DeGaulle-esque leader with a wooden pointer, he was in charge of the scene; but who was his accomplice and what was his purpose? The mystery man who was parroting DeGaulle's every word, if you will. Standing not but three paces ahead of the auctioneer and yammering with such a sing-song cadence, half a syllable behind in the same language echoing every word! Great, two pig-latin speaking professors having at it in a tempo that only needed dancing girls to finish the theatrical effect. Why the need for two people rabbiting on? Why is one mimicking the other? The French appeal for Jerry Lewis & Mickey Rourke is a relative cake walk compared to understanding this podium chaos & Clouseau silliness.

More foreign still was the quiet calamity of the crowd. Catholic wakes have more life. A room full of the buried Terra Cotta soldiers from China would show more physical movement. I'd need night vision goggles, a sight dog and three interpreters to point out the ROW any winning bid came from. Man, I was the proverbial fish on the bicycle here....please someone, yawn, stretch, show that much excitement or clap. Winning bids are happening in an auditorium full of people sleeping with their eyes open, that's the best way to describe it... honestly.

Onward to lot #21, the 1961 Series III Aston Martin DB4. I ventured across Paris hopefully to buy this lot and was dreaming it would knock my socks off in person.  Not so much at first glance.

Here was my immediate discovery with knee jerk observations.

First and foremost Series III DB4s are the red headed step children of DB4s, no one specifically ever asks for one, can't change that. They're the middle child that every family has few photos of. Not old enough to be the first and not young enough to be the most advanced.

This car had a few whopper door dings, a DB2/4 MKIII steering wheel (curious to know if it was ordered like that), DB5 Selectaride (huh?), unfortunate non-original chrome strips on the rockers and paint that was as dull as a ride in a new Kia. Bumpers a bit pitted, engine bay could use a few hours of tidying and the Avon Turbo-Squirms were correct (maybe original) but really dated and no help to the drive...but here's where the collector car world takes those minor irritations and goes 180 degrees on us. I was micro nit picking an incredible jewel.

Behind my head fake of said aforementioned irritations this car was otherwise 100% complete & original down to the chassis number chalk marks on the underside of the rear seats. This DB4 possessed that amazing scent of old Connolly leather that only an honest Aston can have. Glorious!  Tools, engine markings, manual, factory correspondence, killer panel fit and a like-new straight chassis really showed that this one-owner car was truly loved better than most family members.  I've only seen four other cars as original as this in the last 22 years and three of them have had that beauty and charm restored right out of them. Sacre bleu! A retrospective tear is being shed here, pity really.

So it's bidding time. I figured this car to be a $275-300k DB4 all in back home. Most buyers would not see the value in such a glorious car but it was worth a shot. Well, before I could say "HEY CHUCK, LOOK THIS WAY, I WANT TO BID!" the sing-song helper blew past the auction estimates and rapidly hit the 300k Euro mark. Well, so much for being an expert in such things, time to get some fresh air and digest what I just witnessed.
 
Playing the part of Louis Lament back at dinner, the obvious had struck square in the choppers. A car is only original once and this is proof positive AGAIN that a really savvy collector will pay much more for that than he would a restored car. A car in this shape, with all of its' warts and blemishes is exactly what has become de rigeur for the truly clever buyers in this hobby. Anyone can own a restored trailer queen but the very few great original cars that still exist are being coveted by the real educated buyers. Price guides can be used as kindling or emergency t.p. in these instances, no one can figure what a 1-owner, honest, low mileage, documented classic will do, not even an expert in room full of terra cotta statues quietly smashing world record prices while they bid.