Descripción
H&H Classic Auction @ The Imperial War Museum, Duxford/ Cambridgeshire
20th September, 2023 10:00
1949 Aston Martin 2/ 2. 6-Litre Sports 'DB1'
The rarest of all the 'David Brown' Aston Martin production models
Estimate
£100, 000 - £140, 000
Registration No: DB 149
Chassis No: AMC/ 49/ 8
MOT: Exempt
Chassis eight of the fifteen ‘DB1’ cars manufactured
Fitted with factory replacement 2. 6-litre six-cylinder Aston Martin engine
Re-bodied in period by Swallow Coachbuilding Company
Competed during the 1960s in its current guise
In current ownership for almost thirty years
Surely the perfect registration number ‘DB 149’ – model year DB1 1949
An incredibly exciting restoration project and once completed would be an interesting entry into numerous of the motoring world’s most prestigious events
'The modern Aston Martin is a most interesting car. Its 9ft 0in wheelbase chassis is of entirely specialised construction, a rectangular section steel tube structure being used, which also forms a frame for the bodywork ... a very high degree of road-holding has been achieved - the Aston Martin is one of our most outstanding cars in this respect...' - Motor Sport, November 1948.
The 2-Litre Sports is model that ushered in the 'David Brown' era at Aston Martin. Successful industrialist David Brown had bought the struggling Aston Martin in 1946, having seen a 'High Class Motor Business' advertised for sale in The Times newspaper with an asking price of £30, 000, and the following year added Lagonda to his expanding motor-manufacturing empire, a move that would make the latter's twin-overhead-camshaft, 2. 6-litre six available for a new Aston Martin sports car. When Brown bought Aston Martin he acquired the Atom prototype - a 2. 0-litre four-cylinder car intended for post-war production - plus 'a few rusty old machine tools and the services of the Atom's designer, Claude Hill, who was very good...'.
The chassis of the Two Litre Sports was a direct development of the Atom's, being of tubular construction and featuring independent front suspension by means of trailing arms, and a well-located live rear axle. Coil springs were used all round, plus a torsion bar at the front. A departure from Aston Martin's customary overhead-camshaft type, the 1, 970cc overhead-valve engine was intended to be more reliable and easier to service. The gearbox was a David Brown four-speed unit, and there were Girling drum brakes all round.
With the Lagonda purchase had come the services of their remarkably talented body stylist, Frank Feeley. Feeley designed the drophead coupé body for the Two Litre Sports, based on sketches he had made pre-war for the Lagonda V12. This modern, streamlined shape was very different from the traditional Aston Martin style, and its trend-setting influence can be detected in other handsome contemporary designs such as the Sunbeam Alpine. A foretaste of future glories was provided in 1948 when a stripped-for-racing Two Litre Sports won the Spa 24 Hours Race. But David Brown was pressing ahead with the new DB2, with its 2. 6-litre six-cylinder engine that had been designed by Willie Watson while the great W O Bentley was Lagonda's Chief Engineer. With the DB2 ready for release, manufacture of the Two Litre Sports (retrospectively known as the 'DB1') was halted in mid-1950 after only 15 production models had been made, plus one Team Car. It is thus the rarest of all the 'David Brown' Aston Martin production models.
Chassis number ‘8’ of ‘DB1’ Aston Martins, AMC/ 49/ 8 was supplied to the first owner who managed a mere 1, 500 miles on the original 2-litre overhead-valve engine before the Aston Martin returned to the factory and was supplied with a second 2-litre engine under warranty. A similar fortune transpired with the second 2-litre engine giving way, with the factory fitting the 2. 6-litre six-cylinder DOHC Aston Martin engine (LB6B/ 50/ 630) to resolve the engine troubles, which indicates from the engine number that this was in c. 1951. The two engine changes were both completed while the ‘DB1’ was wearing its original coachwork. Little is known of its history from here until the late 1950s, when AMC/ 49/ 8 was rebodied by Swallow Coachbuilding Company, well known for their SS Cars and later the Doretti sports car, with the Aston Martin being styled with inspiration understood to have been taken from the Doretti.
Discovered by racing driver Mr. McGee in a scrapyard in Portsmouth with light front nose damage, he acquired the ‘DB1’ and contacted Swallow to see if they would remodel the front end. A manager at Swallow Coachbuilding Company met McGee to assess the venture and remembered the car having worked as an apprentice on it when it had first been, likely making AMC/ 49/ 8 one of the last creations completed by Swallow with them becoming defunct in the early 1960s. Thereafter competed by McGee, the vendor has a couple of period images on file of the car, finished in Red, ready for competition while in McGees ownership. The vendor informs that at some stage in circa this period, the ‘DB1’ acquired seats from Reg Parnell’s DBR3 and that the back axle and gearbox are either DB3 or DB3S.
Sold to France in the 1970s/ 1980s, it was thereafter offered at auction in France and acquired by an Englishman who repatriated the Aston Martin. Another period of unknown ownership ensued before the vendor acquired the car in 1994, with the ‘DB1’ running but poorly, with no oil pressure. Despite this, the vendor found the chassis, bodywork, brakes and suspension to all be sound. Removing the engine with a view to rebuilding it, the project stalled while attempts to research the car were untaken, with the Aston lying dormant in the vendors workshop for the following twenty-nine years. Offered for sale now with the vendor regretfully feeling that he will not feasibly complete the work on the Aston Martin, this is an exceptionally exciting project, not only being the rarest of all the 'David Brown' Aston Martin production models, but also once completed, has the potential to be an interesting entry into numerous of the motoring world’s most prestigious events.
PLEASE NOTE: This lot is still being researched and further information will be added in due course.
