aston Martin supersonic found in Detroit decades ago | FerrariChat

aston Martin supersonic found in Detroit decades ago

Discussion in 'British' started by bitzman, Apr 2, 2014.

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  1. bitzman

    bitzman F1 Rookie
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    Feb 15, 2008
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    wallace wyss
    #1 bitzman, Apr 2, 2014
    1956 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk II by Ghia.chasis 300/1/1/32

    Maybe it's the two tone white with lime green roof that turns me off. It's not the best looking use of the Supersonic body designed by Savonuzzi but it's always fun to see how the same body works out when it's adapted to different cars (there is even a 427 Cobra running this body in the UK). I've seen this body on Alfas and Fiat 8V cars.
    In the story I found in the RM auction description, being a Detroit native I don't know how I missed it, 9 mile Road being practically Ferndale, but RM said it belonged to a playboy named Cowell (not a Rubirossa, but he did manage to land some monied women)
    then went to racer/car dealer Bob Grossman,
    then to Fred Benson
    then Arnie O’Brien, in Detroit who committed the "crime" (to car collectors) of leaving it parked at an abandoned gas station.

    RM goes on: "In 1974, the car was discovered at the old filling station around Detroit’s Nine Mile Road by 21-year-old Brian Joseph, an enthusiast who would soon enjoy a budding restoration career. As unfamiliar with the car as most people at that time were, Mr. Joseph giddily recognized the Aston Martin badge and knew that the car he had found was certainly something quite special. Mr. Joseph took photographs of the Supersonic and returned occasionally to admire it, until, on one such occasion, the car had vanished."

    "By late 2003, Mr. Joseph was informed of the car’s whereabouts, as it resided with one Bill Mains, of Toledo, Ohio, from whom he acquired the car after re-discovering it some 30 years after he first laid eyes on it."
    -----------------------------------------------------------

    My question is: Is Mr. Joseph still have a restoration shop so I can write him and see what the car was bought for? I'd like to know how the guy in Toledo found out about it but maybe he was just driving by the gas station.( Even where I live now in Calif. I see collector cars parked in abandoned gas stations--most recently a coachbuilt Rolls)

    I don't care about its more recent values (though it is worth pointing out that RM did sell it for $2,310,000 in 2013)
     
  2. glassdave

    glassdave Rookie

    Mar 22, 2014
    2
    #2 glassdave, May 2, 2020
    i realize this is a very old thread and i have actually been a basically silent member here for years but i was just doing some searches for current info on the supersonic, i recently found some old pics i took of it some twenty years ago when i had it in my shop for a few years.

    I first ran across the Supersonic while i was working on a project for a friend of mine in Toledo Ohio around 1998. His father, who owned this car, owned a large industrial building here and my friend was running a Donzi dealership out of it at the time. When i first saw the car it was outside in the back of a gravel lot backed into the weeds, the second i saw it i knew it was very special as it reminded me of a muted version of one of the BAT Alfas, the internet was just budding (it was for me anyway lol) and info was still somewhat limited. As i had a strong background in restorations (several cars that I've done attend Amelia Island, Meadowbrook/Concours of America and Bay Harbor to this day) i talked the owner into letting me take the car to my shop and possibly approach doing a restoration. I was working on some high performance boat projects with the son of the cars owner Bill Mains. The Aston sat for several years in my shop with not much hope of securing a restoration as the economic climate at the time was not great. I tried a few times to purchase the car but could not get anywhere with it and truth be told this was a restoration for another individual, my cornerstone was pre war American cars and i was admittedly in no position to finance what this car needed. I had a good customer that offered to finance the purchase and project but again we could not get anywhere with current owner and i believe he wanted to utilize Mucum or Barret or someone i cant recall but it was probably brokered through one of them. Interestingly my customer that offered to finance it called me shortly after we lost track of it and was having lunch with his friend Brian Joseph at Amelia Island, and Brian was telling my customer about the purchase and he literally called me from the event to ask if that was it (yep) Brian shop is right across the lot from my customers business in Troy Mi and is probably the most fitting owner that car could ever ask for. Having had a brief time with the Supersonic i was just glad it went into the right hands.

    Also attached is a copy of a magazine article that came out by sheer coincidence while i still had the Aston in my garage, i couldnt help but chuckle a bit within it states "the whereabouts of the Aston are unknown" and its body was "oddly rumored to have been made of fiberglass" . . . . and it was at that moment sitting in my shop in obscure Toledo ohio.

    My involvement was only in passing and a treat to even have had my hands on it for a short time, i only have a small footnote in the cars story but it was so very nice to have seen the car resurface some years later in fitting concours form it has today.

    Also of note the owner of the Supersonic, my friends father was Gil Mains. He purchased the car in the 70's, he was a Detroit native and was an all star defensive tackle on the last Detroit Lions Championship team and was a bit of a celebrity back in the day. An absolute larger then life character and someone i am glad to have known. I still keep in touch with his son Bill who has a successful exotic car service shop in Bloomfield Hills MI.

    Hope this fills in some of the story although i have no info for what the car sold to Joseph for or how Gil ended up with it in the early 70's

    Attached are the pics i have and a copy of the article from the magazine i purchased in May of 2000
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    71Satisfaction, Tenney and BJK like this.
  3. glassdave

    glassdave Rookie

    Mar 22, 2014
    2
    #3 glassdave, May 2, 2020
    71Satisfaction, JohnnyRay and BJK like this.

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