Back to back: Monteverdi or Aston Martin?

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Plan some Christmas shopping? Bonhams has two sales in the next couple of days, and both of them take place in London, with Liberty, Harrods and Fortnum & Mason all very close-by. The wife will love you, but tell her to bring her own credit card. You'll need yours.

First there is the New Bond Street sale on the 2nd of December. New Bond Street and Bond Street in London’s Westminster are now famously the most expensive shopping streets of the whole of Europe (rental prices outbeat those of the Champs Elysees for the first time this year) so don’t expect too many bargains here. Bonhams stresses on Aston Martin during this sale and we pick out the cheapest of them, which – in our opinion – is also one of the prettier models. The reason for its relatively low estimate is that it is not particularly original. But we still like it. It’s a 1973 Vantage Sports Saloon with 4.2 litre engine upgrade. The Vantage model is of course the modernized DBS with two-headlamp front end. Just 70 of these were built between May 1972 and July 1973 with six-cylinder engine and this one was one of them. Delivered new to Odeon Motors (Whetstone) Limited in London on 25th July 1973, the car was finished in Cornish Gold with natural Connolly leather interior and was fitted with a Borg Warner automatic gearbox. No other history relating to the car's first three years has survived. Much of the rest of this car’s history file is there though. More London and Chesterfield owners followed, before arriving at Runnymede Motor Company in 2010. A full restoration was needed and this is when the car changed colour to silver with Oxblood leather, a rebuilt 4.2 litre engine and Tremec T5 manual gearbox. The car is estimated to sell at £100,000 - 120,000.

Not cheap, certainly not. But then you should perhaps have bought it back in 2010, before it was being restored. But hang on, you have another chance to do so with the Monteverdi Bonhams has on offer just four days later. From New Bond Street, go to the other end of Hyde Park, continue another mile or so and you’re at the next auction venue: Olympia. It’s a 1970 Monteverdi 375L Coupé with that beautiful low and long body by Carrozzeria Fissore. A rare Gran Turismo from Switzerland and this one is right hand driven. “The whole car possessed an aura of opulence” writes Bonhams, and right they are. This example, however, is somewhat tired. It’s a 7.2-litre 375L model with automatic transmission that was sold to a Mister LP March of Wardour Street, London and was extensively restored back in the mid-1990s by its current owner. Although it is still MoT’d the car is virtually unused since the new Millennium and will need work once again. However, the estimated price reflects that: at £25,000 - 30,000 it seems a steal compared to what an Aston Martin in similar condition would fetch…

(Words editor, pictures Bonhams auctioneers)

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