1962 Aston Martin DB4 Series IV Vantage Convertible (DB4C/1072/R)

Open DB4s are already rare. Aston Martin built on the order of seventy DB4 convertibles — a run smaller than the DB4 GT coupe tally that collectors recite from memory. What makes chassis DB4C/1072/R rarer still is the Special Series (Vantage) engine in that open body: public Bonhams catalog language for the forthcoming Goodwood Revival sale frames it as one of the very few convertibles so equipped. Engine number 370/1030/SS and the Vantage story are the specification point; the soft-top count alone is not enough if it were a standard DB4 drophead without the SS package.

Provenance is the second half of the score. First registration 15 October 1962 to R.T. Gwynn — then Managing Director of F.W. Woolworth — via Brooklands of Bond Street, with order paperwork and early John Wyer correspondence cited in public sale notes. The car stayed in family hands until a 2012 Bonhams Aston Martin Works Service sale brought it to the present (second) owner. Later restoration and maintenance narratives (including Pugsley & Lewis work and recent Sussex servicing) belong in the diligence file, not as a substitute for the factory identity. Registration 225 EXN and a thick history stack — guarantee copy, MoTs, invoices — make the documentation unusually strong.

Score 84. About seventy convertibles were built, and the Vantage engine makes this one rarer still; specification rarity is high for open SS cars; provenance is two-owner continuity with period factory correspondence; documentation quality looks strong on paper; market appearances of true DB4 Vantage convertibles are infrequent; condition points assume a restored high-end driver, not an unrestored survivor.

This auction has ended. The car was offered at Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival Collectors’ Motor Cars sale on 19 September 2026.

Watcher’s checklist

1. Confirm chassis DB4C/1072/R / engine 370/1030/SS against build records.
2. Separate factory Vantage SS identity from later 4.2 or other upgrade lore if any appears in file.
3. Read the two-owner / Gwynn continuity against title documents.
4. Inspect restoration quality vs originality goals (Pugsley & Lewis era).
5. Check the Bonhams lot page for the sale result.