An Aston Martin One-77 has come up for sale at a London dealership with a £1.7 million price tag. Just in the event you have that kind of money sitting about…
One of just 77 cars built, it uses a naturally aspirated 7.3-litre V12 that unleashes 750bhp and 553lb ft of torque. Combine that fire-breathing engine with a comparatively lightweight carbonfibre monocoque chassis and hand-crafted aluminium body and you’ve got a recipe for stomach-squeezing speed. From rest, 60mph is a mere memory after 3.5 seconds and you’ll be nudging 220mph with the engine at full bore.
It may look similar to other cars in the Aston Martin range but this really was a bespoke product. The lucky owners could tailor almost every aspect of the car to their own taste, so no two cars are entirely alike. The gearbox did come from a DB9, however, but significantly it was re-engineered to deal with the colossal torque. The quality of the engineering almost borders on art – in fact, one owner wanted another one, but only the stripped-out chassis, to put on display inside his collection. A neat £2.4m bill, and he only got to drive one…
The suspension was suitably beefy, with a race-car-like height-adjustable pushrod setup that was visible through the rear screen. But this was not a stripped-out racetrack refugee.
The interior, thought a little cramped, is truly concept car-style futurism, all swoops and smooth curves, dominated by the massive transmission tunnel. The car we’ve found here has an engagingly sporty red over black combination – relatively tasteful compared to some of the more lurid examples we’ve seen. This car is left-hand drive, but nearly all of them were. Stories vary, but a mere one or two vehicles were crafted with right-hand drive.
Never fear though – even if that may mean overtaking in the UK is either a worrying solo affair or eyebrow-raising ‘fun’ for your lucky passenger, this is a car just begging to be driven. We can just imagine blasting through the Alps, that glorious V12 reverberating off the mountains. It’s probably loud enough to cause an avalanche. Left-hand drive would be perfect for the continent.
This car’s up for grabs with Joe Macari at a cost of £1,695,000 – that’s a phenomenal amount of money but if we weigh that up alongside a Ferrari Enzo, a significantly more common car (399 built versus 77), then the Aston does seem to make rather more sense. It’s ultimately prettier too.
And while the majority of us will never know the answer to that question, that doesn’t mean Aston Martins are totally out of reach. Head over to our Aston Martin section, where you can pick up a DB7 from around £20,000 – they may not be quite as fast as the One-77, but you’ll still feel great all the same.