Value
The Most Expensive Aston Martin Ever Sold
The most expensive Aston Martin is DBR1/1 at $22,550,000 — RM Sotheby’s, Monterey, 18 August 2017. Five were built, and Moss, Brabham and Shelby all drove this one. It was the most expensive British car in history until McLaren took the title. Nobody rents an Aston here.
| Car | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| DBR1/1, 1956 | $22,550,000 | RM Sotheby's Monterey, 18 August 2017. |
| DBR1 production | 5 built | 1956–58. This was chassis number one. |
| Previous British record | $21,800,000 | A 1955 Jaguar D-Type, 2016. |
| Bentley Bentayga | the nearest we rent | Same idea, different century. |
Five cars, and this was the first of them
DBR1/1 made $22,550,000 in 2017 and became the most expensive British car ever sold at auction. Five DBR1s were built, and the one that sold was chassis number one.
It won the Nürburgring 1000 km outright in 1959. The people who drove it during its career include Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori — a cast that is difficult to assemble accidentally, and part of what the money is paying for.
The record it broke belonged to a 1955 Jaguar D-Type at $21.8 million, set a year earlier. The record it set has since been broken by a McLaren F1 GTR at $34,655,000. Three British record holders in a decade, and every one of them a racing car.
Two rules, because they are where these lists break
A record is a date. This one stood from 2017 to 2026 and is now historical. Any page still calling the DBR1 the most expensive British car is quoting a fact that expired.
Fame and value are different properties. The DB5 is the most recognisable Aston Martin on earth and is worth a small fraction of a DBR1. Recognition comes from films; these prices come from logbooks.
What Aston Martin is, commercially
A small company that has spent most of a century making beautiful, fast, expensive cars in numbers that would embarrass a mass manufacturer, and it has been financially precarious for most of that time. The precariousness is relevant: production runs stayed small because the money to build more was rarely there.
That produces exactly the value profile this series would predict. A handful of competition chassis worth eight figures, a long tail of road cars worth six, and nothing in between. The DB4 GT Zagato is the bridge between the two and it is closer to the racing cars than to the road ones, which tells you which end the market takes seriously.
Why the road cars stay where they are
Because they were road cars. That sounds circular and it is the whole finding of this series stated plainly: across every marque examined here, competition history predicts the ceiling better than beauty, rarity, engineering or fame.
Aston Martin has all four of those in quantity and one competition programme that produced five cars in the late fifties. The five are worth more than everything else the company has ever built, put together, and nothing about the road cars is deficient. They simply never had to prove anything against a clock.
Nobody rents one here, and what to book instead
There is no Aston Martin in this fleet, and the market for one on a daily rate in Los Angeles is thin enough that any listing deserves the usual two questions: which chassis, and when may I see it.
The nearest thing we hold is a Bentley Bentayga, which is the same British proposition translated into the body style this city actually books: fast, quiet, expensive, and unmistakable at a hotel entrance without being a supercar. If what you wanted was the coupé rather than the character, the honest alternative is a Ferrari 488 at $1,999/day, and it is a different country and a different argument.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
The Bentayga carries a $2,000 refundable deposit and the 488 the same, both back 5–7 business days after the car returns. Multi-day blocks rarely beat the days they cover at this end of the fleet, so the rate on each car’s own page is the figure to trust.
Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is priced per direction: $75 standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, and $150 VIP, where it is at the terminal when you walk out. Anything past the mileage allowance is charged per mile at the rate written into your agreement. The rest is in the terms.
The short version
The most expensive Aston Martin ever sold is DBR1/1 at $22,550,000 with RM Sotheby’s in August 2017. Five were built, this was the first, it won the Nürburgring 1000 km, and Moss, Brabham and Shelby all drove it.
It was the most expensive British car in history for nine years, until a McLaren F1 GTR passed it in 2026. Nobody in Los Angeles rents an Aston Martin; the nearest booking in our garage is a Bentayga.
5 photographs from this guide are free to use under CC BY 4.0 — download them →
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive Aston Martin ever sold?
DBR1/1, the first of five DBR1s built, at $22,550,000 with RM Sotheby's at Monterey on 18 August 2017. At the time it was a world record not only for an Aston Martin but for any British car at auction, beating a 1955 Jaguar D-Type that had made $21.8 million a year earlier.
Why is the DBR1 worth that much?
Five were built, it won the Nürburgring 1000 km outright in 1959, and the list of people who drove it reads like a history of the era: Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. Scarcity, a result and a cast — the three things that produce these numbers.
Does Aston Martin still hold the British record?
No. McLaren does, with an F1 GTR at $34,655,000 in August 2026. The title has moved three times in a decade — Jaguar to Aston Martin to McLaren — and every holder has been a racing car.
Is a DB5 worth anything like that?
Not close. The DB5 is the most famous Aston Martin in the world thanks to the films, and fame and value are different properties. The cars that clear eight figures are the competition chassis, and the DB5 was a road car built in the hundreds.
Can you rent an Aston Martin in Los Angeles?
Not from us, and the market for one here is thin enough to be worth checking carefully. The nearest booking we hold is a Bentley Bentayga — the same British idea of a fast, quiet, expensive car, in the body style people in this city actually want.