ROME – Everything we would have expected, except that Mr. Bean was an indomitable racing car enthusiast. Yet Rowan Atkinson, the actor, has an enviable collection of supercars that he even drives on the track, giving serious professionals a hard time. Now one of his creatures, a red Aston Martin V8 Vantage Zagato, chassis no. 20013, was auctioned in the UK by Dylan Miles, at a price that is top secret for the moment.
What makes the car precious, in addition to the fact that it belonged to Mr. Bean, are its specifications: between 1986 and 1990 only 52 examples were built, with an all-Italian design, and its modification in a racing version for the mildly modified category of the Aston Martin Owners Club C2 class was created by the classic car department of Aston Martin Works. For its part, the engine, a 5.3-liter V-8, has been updated in injection and exhaust, changes that have brought power to 482 hp. To make the car lighter and more competitive, all the superfluous parts of the bodywork were replaced by fiber components, while to tackle the track the actor asked for new specific suspensions and a braking system in pure racing style. In short, a race car.
The British actor would have spent 10 years at the wheel of his V8 Vantage Zagato, also running into an accident in 2001 from which both he and the car came out practically unscathed. The car has since been retired from racing and underwent one final modification in 2016, to bring it back to its road use. Now the auction sale, which confirms the end of a racing curriculum: Rowan Atkinson will have one less car in his collection, in which other wonders graze such as an Acura NSX, an Aston Martin DB2, a BMW 328 of the 1939 and, until recently, a very rare aubergine-colored McLaren F1. In short, the stuff of millionaires, which has very little to do with Mr. Bean’s pea-green Mini.
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