Incredibly rare Aston Martin DB2 Vignale, built for the King of Belgium, will be sold at auction for £3.65m

AN INCREDIBLY RARE Aston Martin DB2 Vignale built for the King of Belgium is set to fetch £3.65million at auction.

The Aston Martin DB2 Vignale was commissioned by King Baudoin of Belgium in 1954 to his personal specifications.

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However, the shiny engine fell into disrepair after changing hands and ended up in a scrap yard in the United States.

That’s when Aston Martin enthusiast Bob Fountain, who owns a workshop in Beamish, County Durham, first heard about it in 2007.

Bob arranged for the wrecked vehicle to be shipped to the Northeast, where his team has been working on it ever since.

King Baudouin ruled from his father’s time, King Leopold’s abdication in 1951, until his death in 1993.

After 42 years on the throne, he was the longest-reigning monarch in Europe at the time.

The car has been completed in a one-off distinctive fastback design with a large opening tailgate, subtle lines and bold good looks.

The DB2/4 was the first Aston Martin to bear the initials of new owner David Brown.

Only around 1200 DB2/4s of all variants were made, making each one a collector’s item today.

And the supercar was delivered to its aristocratic first owner, King Baudouin, on March 10, 1955, four years after His Majesty’s accession to the throne.

He was only 24 years old when he bought the supercar.

King Baudouin sold the car to palace aide TR Mottershead in the late 1950s where it was kept in Moselle, France.

In the early 1960s, James Toth, an American soldier serving with NATO in Paris, bought the Aston Martin.

The DB2/4 Vignale returned to the US with Toth damaging both the original engine and the replacement before selling it to an army captain.

Eventually, this one-off Vignale-bodied Aston was purchased by Roland Wommack of Virginia and offered to Aston Workshop as a restoration project.