There was an interesting story behind the birth of the Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake, and it involved the owner of the automaker David Brown. Being an avid sportsman, David Brown became frustrated with the fact that his polo gear couldn’t fit inside the original DB5. He also needed some extra space on the car for his dog so that it wouldn’t chew on the seats. The engineers quickly resolved the issues by creating a shooting brake based on the DB5 chassis, but coachbuilder Harold Radford built it as the Aston Martin factory was busy with the regular DB5.

A total of 12 examples of DB5 Shooting Brakes were built eventually, and one of them will appear in the RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction next week. Chassis DB5/2273/L is one of the four fitted with a left-hand drive for export. This particular car left the coachbuilder with extras such as power antenna, seat belts, detachable headrest for the passenger front seat and owner’s initials on the doors, The second owner bought the car in 2003 and took it to Aston Engineering for a thorough restoration, upping the displacement from 4.0 litres to 4.2 and replacing the automatic transmission with a five-speed ZF gearbox. The current owner further boosted the engine to 4.7 litres and added suspension and a few upgrades. RM Sotheby’s estimates the example of selling for US$1,000,000 – US$1,400,000.