YOUR CHANCE TO OWN THE PETER SELLERS ASTON MARTIN DB4 GT
23 May 2023
If you have a few million pounds to spare and the desire to own an automotive film star, Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed may have the ideal car for you on the 14th of July. Not only did this 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT famously appear in The Wrong Arm of the Law, but it was also the off-screen property of its leading man, Peter Sellers - Bonhams: 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Coupé Chassis no. DB4GT/0157/R
41 DPX is one of only 75 DB4 GTs to leave the Aston Martin works, 30 in left-hand drive form. Chassis number DB4GT/0157/R is especially rare in being one of only three GTs equipped with vestigial rear seats. Aston Martin launched the DB4 in 1958, and in May 1959, Stirling Moss drove the GT prototype to victory at the International Grand Touring BRDC race at Silverstone. The official debut took place a few months later at the London Motor Show.
Compared with the standard DB4, the GT had a shorter wheelbase, and the body was in 18-gauge aluminium alloy. The distinctive recessed headlamps had Perspex covers, and the Borrani wire wheels sported light-alloy rims. The GT’s power was from a 3,670cc straight-six engine with a raised compression ratio of 9:1, twin-plug cylinder heads, and triple Weber 45 DCOE carburettors. A 30-gallon fuel tank occupied the boot, and the specification included a ‘Powr-Lok’ limited slip differential to overcome potential loss of power through wheel spin.
The price of a GT was £4,534 – or more than the cost of nine Minis, but the top speed was 153 mph, with 0-60 in a fraction over six seconds. Your dealer would also tell you of its ability to accelerate from 0-100mph and then stop in less than 20 seconds, as demonstrated at MIRA by Reg Parnell.
The factory claimed the GT was “designed for the most critical of fast car owners a collimating experience of really fast, safe, motoring.” Car and Driver wrote: “It does our English ego good to doubt whether this ‘Englishman’s car’ is in much danger of having its feat eclipsed by foreign rivals of comparable rating. Or any rating.”
As for 41 DPX, it arrived at Ken Rudd’s Brooklands dealership on the 1st of March 1961 as a demonstrator. Filming commenced in the following year, with the GT joining the Sellers fleet. Rudd appeared in The Wrong Arm as an extra and drove a standard DB4 for the humpback bridge stunt. The production also used a second DB4 GT, chassis 0167/R registration 40 MT, for some high-speed sequences, while DPX’s engine block was damaged during filming. In March of 1963, it was replaced by a factory 4.0-litre unit.
The Wrong Arm went on release in that same year, and on the 5th of September 2018, the DB4 GT sold at the RM Sotheby’s London auction for £2.65 million. And one of this writer’s favourite moments of the film is the chase scene through the less than mean streets of Uxbridge. “Get a move on – that’s a fast car they’ve got there” urges a police sergeant, as a Wolseley 6/90 Series III understandably fails to keep pace with the Aston Martin.