Classified of the week: an Aston shooting brake

An old, muscular two-door Aston Martin with a giant boot implant on the back. Which, if you know your car nomenclature, means this is a shooting brake. And we like shooting brakes here at Top Gear. But we have to admit this 1996 Aston Martin V8 Sportsman Estate Car (Aston’s naming, not ours) can be a bit hard to swallow. So let us try and sweeten it up for you before it goes under the hammer next week at Bonham's Aston Martin sale at Newport Pagnell.

It was commissioned in 1996 by two Swiss brothers who obviously wanted more space from an Aston Martin V8. However, these bros didn't want to share the car, so demanded that two were built – the other being chassis number '79008'. Sprayed in British racing Green (with matching interior), the two cars were both left-hand drive and had stepped taillights. A third and final ‘Sportsman’ conversion was also commissioned, but that one had inline taillights. 

No. There had been a few bootiful Aston’s before the brothers waved their cheque books about. Previously, seven DB6s were crafted by coachbuilder Harold Radford, then three Virages were turned into estates in the early 1990s. This car, however, is based on the Virage's successor: the V8 Coupé.

The same normally aspirated, 5.3-litre engine that was in the Virage but fiddled with to produce another 20bhp. So, it's got 350bhp – good enough for 160mph and 0-60mph in under seven seconds. 

The two standard left-hooker donor cars left the factory in July 1996, were quickly homologated and then returned to the factory to be chopped up into shooting brakes shortly afterwards.

Now, we’re not sure who designed the new bigger boot, but we’re guessing they used the back of the heads of the martians from Mars Attacks! as a guide. 

The work was carried out by Aston Martin between September 1996 and December 1997 and the overall the result is similar to the earlier Virages but held within the new, more muscular frame of the V8 Coupé's. 

Yep, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle leather offset against rich walnut. The combination of champions. 

You’re not wrong. Perfect for the occasional booze cruise, trip to the tip to bin a wardrobe of tweed or for a wet Labrador to mess all over. 

Well, the engine was rebuilt by the factory in 1999 at 9,263 kilometres where it was then sold on to a new owner, a French art collector by the name of Fedoroff who registered it in Monaco. Obviously. Unfortunately, Fedoroff died a few years ago, so the Sportsman was sold at an auction in Paris in 2014.

Yes, it is. But since it was last sold, the sat nav has been upgraded. Having only done 1,300 kilometres in the last seven years, the clock is only on 21,000 kilometres as it’s spent its last years hidden away in an extensive private collection of Aston Martins. 

So, give Bonhams a call if you fancy a very British two-door estate.