David Brown Speedback GT for sale

[Tazar]

I see that a David Brown Speedback GT is being sold on Collecting Cars auction site. With a Jaguar engine and an Aston DB lookalike body it’s not really a supercar but it was quite expensive to buy back in 2015.
They talked of making 100 but I don’t think that figure was reached.
Will it sell ? Probably not as it’s likely the present owner will have to drop quite a lot of money for it to sell.

[av185]

Never a £600k car in the first place when new due to relatively limited appeal and very niche market.

Current owner bought for c£275k and it will be interesting seeing what it makes this time.

[Tazar]

I see that the company founder, David Brown, terminated his directorship a couple of months ago leaving two directors in place and overdue accounts.

They were also building £100k original minis so that’s an unlikely saviour.

What’s the saying, how do you make a small fortune in the motor industry, start with a large one.

[TP321]

Well that’s going to struggle to get anywhere near £275k. Anyone who was a teenager or in their 20s in 1964 when Goldfinger came out, and hence the DB5 legend was born, will late 70 and 80 years old now - I think the demand is dying off.

[ex-devonpaul]

TP321 said:

Well that’s going to struggle to get anywhere near £275k. Anyone who was a teenager or in their 20s in 1964 when Goldfinger came out, and hence the DB5 legend was born, will late 70 and 80 years old now - I think the demand is dying off.

I agree - a niche toy for the wealthy. People want what they remember, hence the massive leap in 80s/90s hot hatches and fast Fords. And this is an auction, so it is going to need 2 dealers or wealthy oddballs interested to reach a decent figure.

[m4tti]

£275k was it’s sale price January 2023..

[generationx]

It just looks… odd. Especially with those wheels.

Pretty inconsequential anyway, I can’t afford it even if I liked it.

[Tazar]

It’s now reached £50k with two days to go. The guy who bought it eight months ago for £275k obviously didn’t buy it as a long term investment.

[SydneyBridge]

Not there now - removed?

It had 120 bids when sold in January

[Saweep]

It's back up.

I'd love it at less than 6 figures.

The asking price shown in this thread is just bonkers if you ask me.

[Tazar]

I think it’s going to be a rarity as the company is down to one Director after David Brown resigned earlier this year. They seem to be concentrating on electric minis and Simon Cowell took delivery of his earlier this month . After a long gestation according to him.

The automotive world is full of companies that didn’t reach their potential and some who didn’t survive after the founder disappeared, resigned or was dismissed.

[Tazar]

With just under 4 hours to go its at £140k. Several traders seem to have been the bidders so far so presumably they are looking at a reasonable markup. I suppose a buyer is safer buying it from a dealer because of warranties that they can put on it. But basically it’s still Jaguar mechanics covered in a hand made kit car body made to look like an Aston Martin.

The various Ferrari look alikes made by Richard Colton or Ray Mallock at least have Ferrari engines. The Aston Martin DB4GTs made by the Aston Martin specialists can get FIA certificates to race in historics. But this is just a hash up made by someone out for an easy buck which didn’t happen. And then he ran away.

[thegreenhell]

Unsold with a high bid of £198k. It's now relisted with a buy now price of £257,200

[bryn_p]

thegreenhell said:

Unsold with a high bid of £198k. It's now relisted with a buy now price of £257,200

I think if it was mine I'd have taken the £198k and consider it getting off relatively lightly...

[bryn_p]

bryn_p said:

I think if it was mine I'd have taken the £198k and consider it getting off relatively lightly...

Saying that based on the comment from the seller on the CC auction that it sold for £225k in November 2022 and not the £275k shown in January 2023 - don't know what the deal is with that?

[thegreenhell]

It's back on there yet again, currently at £115k with 5 hours to go.

[r o n n i e]

This David Brown is effectively a scam.

No automative excellence, just trading off the confusion / coincidence that Aston Martin were once owned by another David Brown (hence the DB naming conventions at Aston).

This speedback which is copying certain “classic” Aston styling queues (again to push the fake Aston connection) is just a Jaguar XKR underneath.

Credit to him in suckering some very wealthy high profile customers - Alan Sugar, Cowell, etc to hand over the original half million £ price.

But in the resale market as the offers are showing, these cars are not valuable nor in demand.

[Saweep]

I doubt it's gonna make the 195 offer of last time.

I just don't see who's gonna drop 200k on this given the ups and downs of the car market in the last six months.

This is a classic Boomer retirement car...are they still in the market en masse now a majority have already retired?

[easytiger123]

I like idiosyncratic cars more than most people, but this thing just has too much of an "I saw you coming" whiff about it for the kind of money they want.

[Saweep]

There's a lovely brown/black Virage on CC at the moment too that will probably end up around 40k.

I'd much rather that any day of the week.

Not quite as unusual as the DB thing but still a pretty rare car.