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A 1979 Aston Martin V8 Volante that spent 46 years with the same film producer is live on Bring a Trailer through Friday, October 23 at 2:18 p.m. ET. Bidding sat at $45,250 on Monday morning with eight bids in. Check the listing for the current number.
The car is not especially flashy, and the price is not the story. The story is who owned it, and how he ended up with it.
The Rolls-Royce He Didn't Buy
According to the seller, the original sales paperwork tells a good one. James G. Robinson reportedly agreed on June 21, 1980, to buy a 1978 Rolls-Royce Corniche from a Chicago dealer. When he showed up on July 10 to collect it, he spotted the Aston Martin instead. The seller says the dealer simply crossed out the Rolls-Royce on the contract and wrote in the Aston. That is the seller's reading of the documents, and the listing says purchase documentation is included, so bidders can check it for themselves.
What is not in dispute is the length of the ownership. The listing says Robinson kept the Volante as part of his collection for the next four decades, in Los Angeles and later Baltimore. The seller says it had just 7,613 miles when he bought it. The odometer now shows about 18,000, roughly 10,000 of which were added under his ownership.
Who Was James G. Robinson?
Robinson was the money behind Morgan Creek Productions. TheWrap reported that he died on February 15, 2026, at age 90. He co-founded Morgan Creek in 1988 with producer Joe Roth, investing $80 million of his own money, and the studio's slate included Young Guns, Major League, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Last of the Mohicans and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
The car business came first. TheWrap says he founded Maryland Undercoating in 1964 to process foreign cars arriving at the Port of Baltimore, and later built Subaru Mid-America into a regional distributor before selling it in 1988. Hollywood followed through bridge financing for studios, starting in 1979.
The seller says Robinson's collection numbered well over 140 cars at his death, kept in a 56,000-square-foot facility near the Port of Baltimore with its own service bays and paint shop. More than 60 of them are expected to cross the block on Bring a Trailer in the coming months, according to the seller. We have not independently verified the size of the collection, so treat those figures as the seller's claims. If they hold up, this Volante is the start of a long run of listings.
The Car Itself
Aston Martin introduced the V8 Volante in June 1978, adding a power-operated soft top to the V8 line. Under the hood is Tadek Marek's 5.3-liter V8 with four Weber downdraft carburetors. The listing quotes 310 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque, though Aston never officially published output for these engines, so take any number as an estimate. Power goes to the rear wheels through a three-speed Chrysler TorqueFlite automatic with a limited-slip differential.
Fans of the franchise will recognize the layout. Timothy Dalton's James Bond drives a V8 Volante in the opening of The Living Daylights.
This one wears burgundy metallic paint over a tan power top and tan leather, with burl wood trim, a Blaupunkt stereo and Koolaire air conditioning. The listing believes the paint dates to sometime after 2004. The seller says Robinson's in-house team did the work in the collection's own paint booth and asked for extra metallic flake. U.S.-spec bumpers are fitted.
What to Know Before You Bid
This is a well-kept car with a visible history, not a concours restoration. The seller notes various chips, scrapes and other imperfections around the body, along with rust on some underside components. Several parts are not original: aftermarket round headlights, Magnaflow exhaust finishers, an MSD ignition coil in place of the Lucas unit, and 17-inch multi-piece alloy wheels. The listing includes an owner's manual, purchase documentation and service records.
The title is also worth a close read. The car comes with a clean Montana title in the name of the late owner's LLC, and it is being sold on behalf of the estate. The seller says the car is available for inspection near the Port of Baltimore, in Dundalk, Maryland.
More Aston Martin and British Cars on Motorious
If you like cars with a story behind them, we have been following a few others. A rare Ice Blue 1963 Aston Martin DB5 is headed to auction, and a Frua-bodied Rolls-Royce Phantom VI that took 22 years to finish is live on Bring a Trailer this week. For another auction car with a famous name attached, see Neil Peart's silver Maserati Mistral Spyder, and for cars that sat untouched for decades, read about the veteran cars hidden since WWII that surfaced at Bonhams.
The 1979 Aston Martin V8 Volante is live on Bring a Trailer until Friday, October 23 at 2:18 p.m. ET. Do your own inspection, read the comments, and check the listing for the current bid.
