In vintage Aston Martin – at the very very top – there is one car that all collectors aspire to own. It is the DB4GT.
Most collectors want the one bodied by Zagato – and yes I understand why. But I also love the one bodied by touring, the normal DB4 GT.
The cool thing about the DB4 GT is that most people have no idea what Aston Martin the DB4 GT really is. The man on the street will no doubt shout James Bond car and think it is a DB 5. But the DB4 GT is a rare beast – and reason why collectors like it is not visible from the outside. It is only for those who know.
Let us look why the DB4 GT is such an awesome and cool car. And yes one is coming up for sale in London at RM Sotheby’s on September 7th 2016.
The DB4 GT is a high performance car and was designed to take on the Ferrari 250 SWB at the time. It’s an all alloy car so very light. Additionally, the rear window and quarter windows were made of Perspex to save additional weight. Optically there are three main differences that allow a connoisseur or collector to differentiate a DB4 GT from a normal DB4 early series.
- The wheelbase is slightly shorter than on regular DB4’s.
- The headlights are covered (also made out of Perspex).
- Two competition outside filler caps on both sides of the car.
All the other differences of the DB4 GT are to found under the hood. The main difference is of course the stronger engine that the engineers of Aston put into the DB4GT. Powered by 3 dual throat weber carburettors (as opposed to SU carbs on normal DB4’s), the DB4 GT also had more bhp (302 vs 240 for normal) and twin plug ignition.
Only 75 DB4 GT’s were built (not including the 19 Zagato versions) and they do come up for auction now and then (see our last post one found here).
The car being offered by RM is in good technical condition (according to one expert I talked to). The car features a rare four seat configuration) – very practical if you want to take children with you. Also the color combination is attractive in (snow shadow grey -which is also the original color).
The estimate of this DB4GT is £2.2-2.5m pounds. Even with the weak pound this still represents $3.0m at the mid estimate – which seems a little high in this weakening market. The last time a DB4GT sold was for $2m only two years ago. A 50% increase only two years later seems excessive – and I advise a potential bidder to try and get the car for £2m (including commission) – this would still be $2.6m.
For more information on the car see link here.
Let’s take a look at some pictures below. First the wonderful side profile of this DB4GT. If you put a regular DB4 next to the car below it would be slightly longer.
What is typical of the DB4 GT are the covered headlights (that would only be seen on a normal DB4 much later). The large air intake and mesh grille are also typical of early DB4’s and this DB4 GT.
The main difference of the DBGT is of course found under the hood. A twin spark plug, three dual throat weber carb car producing an estimated 300hp.
The DBGT was bodied by Touring in Milano using the Superleggera method.
For the man on the street it looks like normal DB4. For the aficionado’s who now know – it is a killer lightweight DB4 GT.
Another way to recognise a DB4GT from a normal DB4 can be found lifting the trunk. A large fuel tank with two left and right outside filler caps (that can be seen leading to the fuel tank in the picture below).
