Rare Aston Martin V12 Speedster to be auctioned in November

The apparent battle between supercar manufacturers to make the maddest, baddest, most impractical speedster imaginable already feels as though it happened in a different century.

But it was only in 2018 that Ferrari kicked-off the trend for such cars with the Monza SP1 ahead of the SP2 the following year, both street-legal roadsters inspired by historic racers such as the 750 Monza, 250 Testa Rossa and 166MM.

McLaren, which rather wonderfully partnered with Mercedes-Benz to produce 75 fully open Stirling Moss SLRs in 2009, followed with its Elva of 2019, leaving Aston Martin to enter the fray in 2021 with its own offering, the V12 Speedster.

Aston already had form with this style of car, having produced the CC100 Speedster to mark its centenary in 2013, but just two of those were made and neither were road legal.

With 88 being produced, the V12 Speedster was a little more ubiquitous and promised all the wind-in-your-face driving anyone could want by combining the platform from the marque’s smallest production model, the Vantage, with its most powerful production engine – the 700bhp V12 from the DBS Superleggera.

The result was a car capable of hitting 60mph in less than 3.5sec and reaching a top speed (if anyone’s neck could stand it) of almost 190mph.

Despite costing upwards of £765,000 when new (depending on specification and extras) the cars sold out to 88 suitably wealthy and frivolous collectors – although the novelty seems to have quickly worn off it would seem for the French buyer of this particular one.

The 61st of 88 models, this was delivered less than a year ago, and has covered just 28 miles from new.

2021 Aston Martin V12 Speedster. On sale with RM Sotheby’s, Munich, November 24. Estimate: £670,000-£930,000