Innholdsfortegnelse for 75 Years of Aston Martin DB i 75 Years of Aston Martin DB

THIS BRITISH-MADE, Vl2-powered luxury Grand Touring coupe is to be made available to just ten discerning owners, with the first vehicles being delivered during 2022. Named the BAEVantare, the prestigious coachbuilt car has been designed to combine the performance, safety features and luxury of modern-day exotica with the refinement and elegance reminiscent of ‘Q Division’s’ much-admired classic, made famous in the Bond movies. Using state-of-the-art hybrid materials, the BAEVantare’s sleek, streamlined body is constructed from carbon composite and developed on a superbly engineered existing Aston Martin DB9 platform. Each model is bespoke, allowing owners to choose their own paintwork preferences and to select from a list of optional extras including mechanical upgrades, resulting in a truly individual and unique car. 1he redesigned cockpit features leatherwork in a choice of historic…

We’re munching fish and chips by the beach on Hayling Island, snapper Tim Andrew and I. Parked close by is a sports tourer of early post-war style, curvaceous and imposing. ‘What is it?’ we hear passers-by ask one other. Then they see the nose, parked facing the fence. ‘Wow! It’s an Aston Martin!’ It’s not surprising that they haven’t seen an Aston like this before, because just 14 such cars were built. I hadn’t seen one before today, either, other than in photographs. But here it is, large as life: an Aston Martin DB1. Plenty of people saw chassis AMC/49/6 at the 1949 London Motor Show, though, because it was on Aston Martin’s stand. That was the second time a 2-litre Sports had been displayed at the Motor Show; the…

‘So, Darren, what was the problem with the gearchange?’ Darren Turner has just brought the DB3 into the ‘pits’ – actually a World War Two hangar next to Bicester Heritage’s airfield circuit – after a quick blast to get the hang of the car. ‘Talent!’ he beams. Typical, you might be thinking: a modern racecar driver who just can’t cope with the old stuff. If so, you couldn’t be more wrong. Darren is a regular at the Goodwood Revival, driving cars as diverse as a Mini and an AC Cobra, and he owns a 1959 Turner sports car, which he bought specifically to go Historic racing. (As if Turner owning a Turner weren’t unusual enough, he went halves on it with a friend called James Turner, who is not related.…

‘At Le Mans, 3S/6 and 3S/7 suffered from alarming rear-end lift, and both cars ended up crashing in virtually the same spot’ Although successful in international racing, the DB3S lacked outright speed against its larger-engined rivals. More often than not the deficit was offset by a combination of cornering ability and aerodynamic efficiency, but where it really took a toll was on longer straights such as Mulsanne at Le Mans – and winning the 24-hour race at the French circuit was David Brown’s number one priority. The excellent LB6 twin-cam engine had already been enlarged from 2580cc to its limit of 2922cc, and although more and more power would be eked from it until the end of the 1950s, designing ever-slipperier bodies was always high on Aston’s agenda. Stylist Frank…

The debonair Briton Roy Salvadori and the laid-back Texan Carroll Shelby were a perfect pairing for the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans. Both were excellent racers with similar driving styles; both were 6ft 2½in tall and of similar build, a major time-saver during driver changeovers; and, just as importantly, they were great pals on and off the track. ‘Sebring 1956 in a DB3S was when we drove together for the first time,’ recalls Roy. ‘We finished 4th and won the class – with two gears left.’ Carroll pauses for a moment, then agrees. ‘I find myself trying to remember things and I get corrected all the time!’ The memories soon come flooding back, though: ‘Another time Roy and I drove together there, the gearlever fell off! I think it…

The gunman standing closest to me is holding an evil-looking assault rifle and wearing a snazzy shirt and a pair of tight white jeans. He looks exactly like a seedy, low-level Italian gangster should look, which is either because casting and wardrobe are good at their jobs, or possibly because he is a low-level Italian gangster. Filming for No Time To Die is taking place in the spectacular city of Matera, located on a rocky outcrop in southern Italy and famous for the houses that are hewn into the cliffs. Today’s action is taking place in a beautiful piazza, and I’m watching proceedings from high up on a balcony. Four vehicles are in view: a classic Range Rover with an impact-damaged front end, a 1990s Maserati Quattroporte, a Noughties Lancia…

‘When Michael made his debut, he was told he was an idiot with no chance of success’ It was something no-one expected to see. Not just a DB6 taking on the ranks of racing DB4s and ’5s, but a Volante no less. The man must be mad. Indeed, when Michael Urban and his Aston made their competition debut, instead of receiving polite words of encouragement he was told he was an idiot with no chance of success. Forty-four years and a cabinet full of trophies later, Michael and the DB6 Volante are gearing up for another season. Ownership of the Aston came by chance. At 19 Michael bought a Jaguar E-type roadster, and he drove it until his wife eventually told him to replace it with a family car. ‘That…

HE’D BE VERY PROUD to be remembered for all he did with Aston Martin, but there were so many facets to my grandfather’s life. As a young man he was a very keen motorcyclist, then he moved on to cars. He did quite a bit of hillclimbing in the 1920s, and once stood in for [Grand Prix driver] Raymond Mays during a test session at one of the local hillclimbs, setting a time that Mays couldn’t beat. In the ’30s he got into racehorses, and one of his proudest moments was in 1957 when one of his horses won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He also bought several farms; I think he saw them as a good investment. He drove his own tractors and he knew how to plough a field. After…

PAUL HARMER When the company that would eventually be called Aston Martin was founded in an unprepossessing London garage in 1913, the odds were better than even that it would fail, and indeed in the years that followed it went under several times – but on each occasion it was promptly revived. Aston Martin might have struggled to stay in the black, but there was never any doubt about its ability to produce wonderful cars, and the reputation of the marque among motoring enthusiasts ensured that somebody was always prepared to come to the rescue in a moment of crisis. Aston Martin’s saviour in 1947 was David Brown, a Yorkshireman who was persuaded by a brief drive in a prototype to buy not only the car but the company and…

KLEMENTASKI COLLECTION The man on the gate is unmoved. ‘If you don’t have an appointment I can’t let you in.’ But we do have an appointment, we tell him – with history! This, we explain, is the very car that won the 24-hour race held here in 1948. If he’s impressed, he’s hiding it well. The gate remains closed. Fortunately for us, much of the old Spa-Francorchamps track was made up of public roads that remain recognisable today. So even if we can’t get access to turns such as Eau Rouge, we can still drive part of the circuit that was conquered more than 70 years ago by this wonderful Aston. Its victory in ’48 gave Aston Martin a boost as unexpected as it was welcome: the car, which was…

‘Vantage’. A little word, but one that cannot be omitted from any telling of the Aston Martin story. Today it’s recognised by car enthusiasts as a marker of pulse-quickening performance, and, of course, as the name of an entire model line. And it’s ground zero for a naming convention that has now brought us the Volante, Virage, Vanquish, Vulcan, Valkyrie, Victor and Valhalla. Seventy-two years ago, though, ‘Vantage’ was merely a line on the delivery docket for DB2 buyers who had ticked the right box on the options list. Seemingly derived from the French word avantage (‘advantage’ or ‘edge’), it denoted an engine with a raised compression ratio (8.16:1 rather than 6.5:1) and larger-than-standard SU HV6 carburettors. The modifications to the DB2’s 2.6-litre straight-six were effective, increasing power from 105bhp…

The DB MkIII was the final expression of early post-war development by Aston Martin before the marque moved into an entirely new era with the far more modern DB4. Launched in 1957, it was initially known as the DB2/4 MkIII, until Aston Martin recognised, presumably, that even fans of the marque might be confused by that jumble of letters and numbers. It was a very fine road car, so it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to make it into a fine racing car. The MkIII pictured here was first owned by Elisha Walker Jr, a New York businessman with interests including the Long Island Lighting Company. He had previously entered a DB2/4 in races Stateside, earning the notice of Aston Martin management back in the UK,…

West London seems deserted as the sun creeps into the sky on the August Bank Holiday Monday, bathing townhouses, mansion blocks and verdant parks in soft light. I pedal my bicycle along empty streets and into a cobbled mews, where I dismount and wait. I hear the car first, the burble of its engine floating up from the road and over the mews. It’s a deep and mellifluous sound, but when an Almond Green nose swings into view I’m reminded that the DB4 is even easier on the eye than it is on the ear. What it must have been like to see it unveiled at the 1958 Paris Motor Show, where the elegant styling, courtesy of Carrozzeria Touring, caused a sensation. Beneath the beautifully shaped panels, visitors at the…

THE CONTINUATION DB4 GT. The new/old Aston, built the new/old way. The parts look the same as they always did, but measure them and you’ll find they’re made with a precision that simply wasn’t achievable at Newport Pagnell back in 1959. At Aston Martin Works today, the DB4 GTs are assembled in their own sealed-off, glass-walled area with a little extra air pressure to ensure dust can’t enter. But the creation of the sub-assemblies – the chassis, the body sections – happens in the regular restoration workshop. ‘That’s Customer Car 2,’ commercial director Paul Spires tells me as I look at a fairly complete, but as yet unpainted, GT. ‘We fit the mechanical parts before the body is painted, to minimise the chance of damaging the paint.’ The chassis, the…

Spoiler alert: this is the greatest Aston Martin ever. So there you have it. Savour the pictures and enjoy the rest of your day. Not so fast, Archer, I hear you say, that’s quite a claim. But greatness, I would contend, is not a subjective thing; it can be measured, by the achievement against the intent and in view of the circumstances. David Brown wanted to win Le Mans from the moment he bought Aston Martin in 1947. After 12 years of trying, he and Aston Martin finally took the winner’s flag in 1959, with the DBR1. Two generations on, a lot of other fine Astons have come and gone, but in terms of competition success, the DBR1 remains in a class of one. The model is also remarkable for…

The pictures you see here are drawn from Racing Through Europe, a celebration of the life and photography of Brian Joscelyne. The book is by no means just about Le Mans, nor only about Astons, though Aston Martin did figure prominently in Brian’s life. At its heart is the most wonderfully evocative collection of images from a time before motorsport became overtly corporate, when the amateur spirit still prevailed and you could get close to the cars, the teams and the action. And few got closer than Brian Kent Joscelyne. In the summer of 1957 and just released from National Service, Brian accompanied his parents and brother on holiday to France to take in the 24 Hours. Joscelyne Snr had booked them rooms at the Hôtel de France, where the…

‘You don’t know me, but I bought the James Bond DB5 at the RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey last night.’ Not a bad opening line. In the course of the conversation that follows, I learn that the new owner is planning to move the car to Switzerland, and I seize the moment. ‘Then you have to take it to the Furka Pass.’ Two months later, photographer Andy Morgan and I are in a hire car, climbing from Lake Lucerne to Andermatt. It’s the day before the shoot, and our excitement is tinged with apprehension. Back in 1964, the Goldfinger crew could afford to wait days for the conditions to be perfect. We have no such luxury. Fine weather is forecast, but a sign at the roadside delivers worrying news: the…

The Persuaders! arrived on TV screens in 1971 and hung around just long enough to become a cult show, though not for the reasons its creators might have hoped. Each of the 24 episodes chronicling the adventures of crime-fighting playboys Danny Wilde and Lord Brett Sinclair cost some £100,000 to make – around £1.5m in today’s money. Despite that investment, the scripts were excruciating and the action sequences poorly executed. Think ‘KAPOW!!!’-era Batman, but without the charming silliness. Comedy writer Frank Muir called The Persuaders! ‘the best bad series ever made’, and it was watched by a reasonably large British audience in that spirit. It was sold to many overseas markets, and in Germany and France the dialogue was completely altered by dubbing artists, who turned the show into a…

‘THE DB2/4 MkII is a very special sort of fast car,’ observed John Bolster in a road test report written for Autosport in May 1957. ‘In the hands of the right driver, it is almost fierce, and yet it is a perfect lady’s shopping conveyance, though it never for one moment stops being a sports car. If I describe it as a very sporting car that you can drive in a dinner jacket, perhaps I may make its character clear.’ All things to all people, then, and when Aston Martin launched the car, and the DB2/4 MkI before it, the company did its best to ensure that there was a style of coachwork to suit everybody, too. The MkI, which arrived in 1953, was offered as a saloon and a…

When I first set eyes on a DB3S as a schoolboy, it was clearly not just a beautiful car but the most beautiful post-war open two-seater sports car bar none. No argument. The original 1953 DB3S was pretty, but the higher-waisted, smoother-lined 1955 evolution was a masterpiece. Frank Feeley shaped the car using both good taste and good sense: the cutaway front arches are there to remove heat from the radiator and front brakes, and do so very effectively; the ‘cathedral arch’ ridges that run the length of the wings and bonnet add strength to the body as well as accentuating its lines; the grille opening cleverly directs air to where it’s needed. In the 3-litre class of the day, DB3Ss were nearly always the cars to beat, and on…

The cool metal and soft leather. The old-fashioned fonts on the dials. The heady hydrocarbon aromas that fill your nostrils. Even the slightly laid-back position that the bucket seat immediately encourages you to adopt. The deception is tremendous. Sitting here, looking at the swimming-pool azure of the DB badge in the centre of the steering wheel, this really could be an original DB4 GT. I twist the small key one click clockwise and pause as a red light indicates that electricity is flowing. Twist and hold the key to the right again and there’s a brief, high, metallic jangle as the starter motor spins, before it’s replaced with a much deeper GRUMMM from the 4.2-litre straight-six and I let the key spring back to the left. The four-speed racing gearbox…

‘I’ll be quick, I promise,’ I tell the Bonhams people, mindful that they still need to shoot a promotional film with the car this afternoon. ‘But don’t worry, not too quick.’ In just a few weeks, 2 VEV will have a new owner: it will change hands for a cool £10m at Bonhams’ Festival of Speed auction. For now, though, and scarcely believably, the key is in my paw, and an empty Goodwood Circuit awaits… 2 VEV is the best-known Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. You’ll have seen it in widely published photographs taken at the 1962 Goodwood Tourist Trophy. Several of the pictures capture driver Jim Clark drifting the car at a remarkable angle; others show it lying stricken, John Surtees’ Ferrari 250 GTO buried in its right flank.…

ALAMY I’m at Silverstone, squeezing my absolutely not Formula 1 figure into Aston’s first F1 car. The DBR4 is gorgeous. Okay, perhaps not as classically beautiful as its near contemporary the Maserati 250F, but the car’s flowing lines are combined with the hint of brutality you always find in the best-looking Astons. This is the fourth of four DBR4s built for the 1959 season, but it was never raced by the factory F1 team, which kept it as a spare. F1 regulations at the time limited engine capacity to 2.5 litres, but before DBR4/4 was shipped off to Australia for the 1960 Tasman Series, it was fitted with a 3-litre engine – essentially the same straight-six that powered the DBR1 to victory at Le Mans – offering over 300bhp at…

Ken Adam was born Klaus Adam in Berlin in 1921 to a Jewish family. He anglicised his name after the Adams fled Nazi Germany for Britain in the 1930s. When World War Two broke out, he was working as an apprentice draughtsman designing bomb shelters, but by October 1943 Ken had become one of just three German-born pilots to serve in the RAF during the war. His brother Denis was one of the others, and the pair knew that if they were captured by the Nazis they were liable to be treated as traitors and executed. Flight Lieutenant Ken Adam flew Hawker Typhoons in support of both long-range bombing missions and ground troops, and earned the nickname ‘Heinie the Tank-Buster’ from his fellow pilots for his daring exploits. After demobilisation…

Searching for a suitable DB6 for this feature, I dial the number of Hexagon Classics, Paul Michaels’ London outfit. They have a fine example in the showroom, I’m told: chassis DB6/2987/R, 1967, beautiful original condition, ZF five-speed manual gearbox, power steering, and just 14,900 miles on the clock. (The car has apparently spent most of its life in Jersey, where even the most enthusiastic motorist can only drive so far.) ‘One other thing to mention, Robert…’ ‘Yes?’ ‘It’s Autumn Gold.’ ‘So much the better!’ You have to be comfortable with attention to drive a metallic gold car, but the look-at-me colour is entirely appropriate given what we’re setting out to demonstrate, which is that the DB6 has for far too long been unfairly overshadowed by its movie-star predecessor. Having sealed…

I left the UK in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave, but here in Germany it’s even hotter. I ponder the ability of long-chain synthetic rubber molecules to hold together under these conditions as I hurtle along in a fast, heavy car, 40°C air rent apart by the big, bluff nose. In March 1971, Motor tested the V8-engined version of the DBS, praising its ‘dragster performance’. When it was announced in 1969, the DBS V8 was Britain’s fastest car as well as the fastest four-seater production car in the world, with a top speed of 160mph, and I’ve come to Frankfurt to get as close to that figure as I dare. Our feature car, chassis DBSV8/10061/LC, belongs to the remarkably relaxed Holger Wohlenberg. He acquired it after spending fully five…

Mr JL Hopkins of Manchester was not impressed. He had bought, directly from Aston Martin Lagonda Limited, a car described as a ‘used Lagonda Saloon’, and there was an awful lot wrong with it. It smoked. Water leaked into the footwells. The electric windows were either slow or didn’t work at all. Much trim was damaged. The air-con was useless. The respray was poor. And so the list went on. In a letter of 6 August 1975, Mr Hopkins announced his intention to visit Aston Martin to check, personally, the standard of the rectification work he had demanded. It isn’t hard to understand how Aston Martin could have ‘overlooked’ all those faults. In 1972 David Brown had paid off the company’s debts and sold it for £101 to a group…