There are few things car makers love more than celebrating success in motorsport. Who can blame them? Winning races and championships is difficult, and manufacturers are in it for more than just the glory. They want your readies, too. Cooking up lightly burnished, livery-happy road cars is a time-honoured way of doing this, and there's been a lot of it going on this week, from Ford's Heritage Edition GT to Lanzante's LM25 McLaren tribute act.
Can we do better? Well, it certainly helps to cook with the right ingredients. We're all partial to a Megane RS 230 Renault F1 Team R26 - but given the inspiration for this week's Buy Hard is very much from the opposite end of the industry, we've stuck to celebratory supercars. Chequebooks out then...
Has there ever been a motorsport-inspired special edition that isn't actually a bit naff? They always seems a bit try hard, the modifications typically redundant as well because this limited-run, very expensive special is only going in a collection anyway. For the layman, the standard car - or, heaven forbid, the actual race car - tends to hold more appeal.
Handily, the Aston DBS Superleggera 59 Edition proves that a liberal sprinkling of motorsport fairy dust need not spoil a supercar. Largely because it's a DBS Superleggera, and you could put a pre-school in charge of the spec and still end up with a gorgeous GT. But also it's because the Edition 59 didn't try too hard to evoke the Le Mans win of 61 years ago; it's many things to many people, the DBS, but it's patently not a DBR1. So why try to make it one? Instead the V12 flagship was subtly enhanced with Aston Martin Racing Green paint, tan leather, fabric accents similar to the DBR1 and even some olde worlde race helmets. And some string-backed driving gloves. Oh. So perhaps Aston Martin went slightly over the top with the details, but the basic motorsport homage idea - of painting a DBS the colour of a DBR1 - is an entirely acceptable one by us.
The Edition 59 was mechanically the same as any other Superleggera, with 725hp and the sort of torque more associated with locomotives than automobiles. Perfect, then, for a jaunt into France and beyond, living your best old racing driver life with the gorgeous green Aston. The DBS is the best car that Aston currently makes, which is saying something given how good the rest of them are. Painted in this colour and with the status that comes from being one of just 24 made, the Edition 59 might be the best version of the best Aston - better, even, than the OHMSS car. And the very best bit? Once upon a time these were being advertised at £300k+. Today this 1,000-miler, car number 18, is on offer at £270,000. Which remains an enormous amount. But you're still going to buy an extra Euromillions this week, just in case...
MB
Okay so Matt's right, motorsport specials do tend to err toward the naff. So much so that it's tempting to embrace the kitsch and go long on something like the 599 GTB 60F1, a car tasked with the laudable job of celebrating six decades of Ferrari winning Formula One races - but which emerged with the kind of questionable paint job that made it look like it had crashed through the tills at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. Only nine RHD 'Alonso' cars are said to exist, and yet three of them for sale on PH right now. Peruse them here, here and here - price start from £300k...
Granted, the 488 Pista Piloti is not exactly endowed with the most compelling hand-me-down livery either. But it can be forgiven because a) it appears on a 488 Pista, which easily ranks as one of the finest supercars ever made; b) it was directly inspired by (and paid tribute to) the WEC-winning 488 GTE, not some car from a million years ago; and c) you could only buy one new if you were involved in one of Ferrari's motorsport programmes - which does go someway to nixing any question of its credibility.
Launched at Le Mans in 2018, the Piloti was the work of Ferrari's Tailor Made division and while the inclusion of the FIA WEC logo isn't going to wow your family and friends, the car does feature some nice touches; notably a matt black finish for the S-Duct, vent surrounds and carbon fibre rear spoiler, and the original choice of Rossa Corsa, Blu Tour De France, Nero Daytona and Argento Nurburgring. That number on the side? Ferrari let you pick that.
In this instance you get '72', which migrates to the base of the steering wheel, too. The 4-point harnesses over Alcantara buckets are obviously standout items; ditto the perforated tricolore centre section and paddle shifters. Alcantara and matt carbon fibre are liberally featured elsewhere in a nicely muted cabin, with only the rev counter picked out in white. Of course this is connected to the Pista's 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 which provides 720 additional reasons for choosing the Piloti. True, it's £130,000 pricier than the Aston. But because the cars were individually commissioned, '72' could be said to be one-of-a-kind. You do the math.
NC
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