Tag Archives: Aston

Cat Under The Bonnet ! – Aston Martin DB3 #DB3/6

The Aston Martin DB3 was designed to compete at Le Mans in 1951 by ex Auto Union D-Type designer Eberan von Eberhorst. Ten cars were built the first five for the factory team, who’s most notable success was a victory in the 1952 Goodwood 9 hour race won by Peter Collins and Pat Griffith.

Woodgate, Aston Martin DB3, VSCC, Castle Combe

Originally the DB3’s used the 133 hp Vantage version of the 2.6 litre / 158 cui straight six designed by W O Bentley for Lagonda that was also used in the Aston Martin DB2. However despite the win at Goodwood in 1952 this motor proved uncompetitive when run against the 3.4 litre Jaguar C-Typesand eventually a 2.9 litre / 178 cui straight six was introduced to the model. Later still the DB3 was replaced by the lighter DB3S.

Woodgate, Aston Martin DB3, VSCC, Castle Combe

This particular chassis #DB3/6 was the first of the customer cars is known to have been raced by Bob Dickson in 1953, with the FHH534 registration plate, when he scored a best finish of 5th with Desmond Titterington at Dundrod in the Tourist Trophy. Bob is also known to have won his class in the 1953 Rest And Be Thankful Hillclimb which ran at Glen Croe in Argyll, Scotland.

Woodgate, Aston Martin DB3, VSCC, Castle Combe

The following season R H Dennis acquired #DB3/6 and took part in at least won event at Goodwood in September 1954 where he finished 6th. By this time the car had been fitted with a larger 200hp Jaguar motor, acquired a hard top, first seen on the works racer #DB3/1 at Le Mans in 1952 and had large sections of body work removed from behind the front and rear wheels.

Woodgate, Aston Martin DB3, VSCC, Castle Combe

Dennis raced the #DB3/6 until mid way through 1956 without much success and then entered Geoff Richardson for at at least three events at Mallory and Goodwood in which he finished 2nd, 3rd and 2nd before the car vanished from the known racing records.

The DB3’s body could be removed in twenty minuets and this may have had a role being fitted with a bizarre two tone body, initially with conventional doors, and later with gull wing doors and a third headlight.

In 1965 it was all change again as #DB3/6 was united with an Aston Martin motor and the body was swapped for again with the body from a 1957 Aston Martin DBR2.

In 1989 #DB3/6 was sold for a £180,000 pounds without anybody work or even a motor, 14 years later the gullwing body also passed through auction. #DB3/6 is seen in these photo’s with a 2.9 litre / 178 cui Aston Martin 6 cylinder motor being driven by Chris Woodgate on his way to victory in the Historic Aston Martin race at Castle Combe last year.

During the research for today’s post I stumbled across the Aston Martin Scrap Book which I can heartily recommend to anyone interested in the marque and one off Aston Martin bodies.

Thanks for joining me on this “Cat Under The Bonnet !” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at another racing Aston Martin, albeit from an altogether more recent era. Don’t forget to come back now !

Standard Fire Extinguisher – Aston Martin DB5 Convertible

Longer Taller – Aston Martin DB4 Series V

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The Aston Martin DB4 launched in 1958 was an all new car that would be updated and modified through the DB5 and DB6 models built up until 1971.

Aston Martin DB4, Brooklands, Double Twelve

The all aluminium six cylinder Tadek Marek designed motor featured twin overhead cams and produced 240hp. Enough to propel the car from rest to 60 mph in 9.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 139 mph. DB4’s were fitted with servo assisted disc brakes.

Aston Martin DB4, Brooklands, Double Twelve

The superleggera body was designed by Carrozzeria Touring in Milan and could be ordered with the headlights faired in.

Aston Martin DB4, Brooklands, Double Twelve

DB4’s were built in five distinct series, the model seen here at Brooklands Double Twelve meeting last year is a 1963 Series V, first seen in 1962, which is distinguished by having a longer and taller body on smaller diameter wheels than the first four DB4 series.

Aston Martin DB4, Brooklands, Double Twelve

In all 1,110 DB4’s were built with 2+2 coupé, 2 seat Coupé or 2+2 drophead bodies, additionally 75 DBGT’s were built on a shorter wheel base shared with 19 DB4GT Zagato’s and one DB4GT with bodywork by Bertone known as the Bertone Jet.

Thanks for joining me on this “Longer Taller” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an Aston Martin DB5 Convertible. Don’t forget to come back now !

Unique Among Rare – Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato #0188/L

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #1 Track Action

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I planned to get up at 4am on Friday and head to Goodwood at 5 prompt, the first part of the plan worked well but by the time I’d corrected a false start and gone back home to collect my ticket it was 5:30 am before I hit the road in earnest.

As I arrived at Goodwood the 8 O’clock news headline on the radio was about a controversy surrounding pictures of naked Royalty that had been published in France. I switched the radio off before the whole story had been told and headed off into a car park full of classic and cars where I found this mascot on a Daimler LQ20.

As I approached the bridge that acted as an entrance into the circuit I observed a tent full of people being transformed from 21st Century to mid 20th Century citizens for what is one of the worlds biggest, if not the biggest, three day Fancy Dress Nostalgia events.

Once inside evidence of the Dan Gurney for President campaign was hard to ignore, I bet the guy I would vote for is faster than any other presidential candidate that ever lived.

On my way to the pits I popped by to say hi to Paul Chenard from Nova Scotia in Canada, Paul is seen above with one of the ten limited edition laser cut in steel Ferrari GTO’s he has recently been working on. Given that there were 15 250 GTO’s present to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the model which these day’s are conservatively valued at $20 million dependent on provenance I imagine Paul did not have to take too many of these cool pieces home with him.

Thanks to an armband kindly lent to me by the owner of the Porsche in this linked photo, I was able to get into the pits to see and hear some of the cars as they were being fettled ready for qualifying for the Goodwood Revival invitation races. Above the Walker Climax Tec Mec Tipo 10 apparently was commissioned by Rob Walker for Stirling Moss in 1960 but was never raced in period.

The Tartra T603 from the former Czechoslovakia easily won the unofficial biggest exhaust pipes in the pits competition, they are attached to an air cooled V8. The car qualified a respectable 8th for both rounds of the St Mary’s Trophy with John Haugland and Arne Berg driving in the first and second races respectively.

After a short break for lunch, during which I caught up with acquaintances from The Nostalgia Forum, I started an anticlockwise walk of the circuit as Kenny Brack was securing pole for the Shelby Cup in a Shelby Daytona Coupé. I got to the Lavant Corners in time to see a demonstration of pre 1939 Grand Prix Cars which included V12 and V16 Auto Unions, Mercedes Benz silver arrows models running together for what is thought to be the first time since 1939. Unfortunately the poor commentators had no idea who was driving what and the programme notes are no help either. Above two V16 Auto Unions lead a Mercedes Benz, the V12 Auto Union an ERA and a pair of 8 cylinder Maserati’s.

As the autumnal afternoon unfolded a seemingly endless stream of storied automobiles passed by including this recreation of a 39 inch tall prototype Maserati 151/3 driven by Jochen Mass and owner Barrie Baxter, which was invited to join the GT cars in the TT Celebration race.

After the many trials and all to few tribulations of BRM with it’s V16 P15 built in 1950 the team eventually evolved into Grand Prix and World Championship contenders winning the 1962 World Manufacturers and Drivers Championships with Graham Hill at the wheel of a V8 powered BRM P57, with 8 neat exhaust stacks, similar to the one above driven by David Clark in the Glover Trophy.

The last time I remember seeing Brian Redman at the wheel of an Aston Martin was at Donington Park in 1989 when he was driving the brutal Aston Martin AMR 1 Group C car. Here Brian is driving a 1957 DBR 1 of the type which, unlike the AMR 1, won at Le Mans in 1959 with Carol Shelby and Roy Salvadori at the wheel. Brian is seen above on his way to 18th on the grid for the Sussex Trophy race.

Having started the morning in the fog bound Channel Islands one of only two remaining Avro Lancaster PA474 bombers, powered by four Rolls Royce Merlin V12’s made a flyover of the track just before the day’s only scheduled race started.

Anthony Reid stormed off into what looked like an invincible lead for the 90 minuet Freddie March Memorial Trophy race as the evening drew to dusk. However a gear box fault meant that when owner Nigel Webb took over there was only one gear available, 4th and so the #24 C-type fell back to an eventual twelfth place. This meant that all Alex Buncombe had to do was keep his #12 Jaguar Heritage Racing C-Type,which had started with John Young at the wheel, on the road to keep the lead. Alex did take the win but only after a lawn mowing incident at St Mary’s corner which resulted in Alex loosing his head lights for a good half an our before remembering where the switch was.

Thanks for joining me on this Goodwood Revival 2012 – #1 Track Action edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a look at some of the MG’s at Goodwood. Don’t forget to come back now !

Cum On Feel The Noize – Donington Park Test Day

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When Ted Walker told me about the possibility of a 1939 Mercedes Benz 154 Grand Prix racer appearing for a test day at Donington Park a couple of weeks ago my ears just knew I had to be there to hear it.

At 6 am (ish) I picked up GALPOT contributer Tim and headed up to Donington Park and headed for the Hall & Hall pit where a mouth watering selection of cars was on display including this 1982 Matra V12 powered Ligier JS17 Grand Prix car.

Next to and in front of the JS17 were not one but two 1973 World Sports Car Championship winning Matra 670 C’s powered by similarly awesome sounding V12’s !

As we waited in the pits for the Gentleman from Crosthwaite and Gardiner to prepare the W154 for an engine warm up this Lola T70 Mk 3 Coupe rumbled down pit road to wet our appetites.

After a five minute warm up the plugs on the W154 were changed and one lucky Rob Hall jumped out of his Matra and into the Benz. The car sounded great although it was anything but a smooth test as first a recalcitrant motor had to be cured and then a water leak from the radiator brought and end to proceedings. While it was running cleanly the ear splitting sound of the 476hp 3 litre / 183 cui two stage super charged V12 was music to the ears !

As the test day progressed Tim and I took a wolk around the track which I had not seen, despite several trips to the Donington Museum, since the early 1990’s. Since my last visit the gravel traps have substantially increased in size and safety fences have increased in height. Above Rob Hall charges down the Craner Curves pursued by a Porsche GT3.

One of the many advantages of traveling with Tim is that he has breath taking memory for motor racing details, he has won several prestigious motor racing knowledge awards, during the Test day he pointed out that the arch in the Folly above was part of the pre war Grand Prix circuit through which the likes of the Mercedes Benz W154 along with Alfa Romeo’s, Auto Unions and ERA’s once raced in anger !

The works Gulf Prodrive Aston Martin team had three V8 Vantages present the #97 above, seen exiting Coppice, appeared to be the 2012 Le Mans entry driven by Adrian Fernandez, Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner which finished 19th overall and 3rd in class behind to Ferrari 458 Italia’s. The distinctive deep thump of these V8’s made it easy to tell where they were on the track even when they were not in view.

When we got back to the pits we found Terry Durdin’s 1972 Formula Ford Crosslé 25F being prepared for an afternoon’s run.

Another rumbling monster with a Le Mans history was this Sunbeam Tiger Coupé, one of two built by Lister for the Rootes Groups 1964 Le Mans challenge. Keith Ballisat and Claude Dubois qualified 34th for the endurance classic but both cars, powered by Ford 4,2 litre / 260 cui motors failed to finish due to engine failure.

There were two Ferrari’s present a 360 and this F430 driven by Sam Smeeth.

Following in the footsteps of Danica Patrick is the ambitious Laura Tillet who has stepped up to Formula Renault this year. Here her Fortec run Tatuus FR2000 is being prepared for a last minute run before the track closed at 5pm.

We did not time all the cars but thought the 2 litre / 122 cui BMW powered Ralt RT1 Formula 2 car of Philip Harper was amongst the quickest on the track. Ted Walker told us that Philip was running laps in the 1 min 02 second bracket. Tim and I reckoned Philips time would have seen him challenging James Hunt and Mario Andretti for second or third place at the very first meeting held at Donington Park the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Trophy in 1979. To be fair the 3 litre / 183 cui cars of Hunt and Andretti had a much slower chicane to negotiate than Philip did.

Thanks for joining me on this “Cum On Feel The Noize” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !