Table of contents for Issue 24 in Vantage

SPeCiALiSt Aston Service Dorset has used original factory drawings to remanufacture the water-heated inlet manifold from the DBD ‘Special Series’ engine, as originally offered as a performance upgrade on late-50s Astons. the DBD upgrade comprised the special cast manifold and three SU H6 carburettors. the set-up was developed for the DB2/4 Mkiii and was said to give better torque characteristics than the earlier, track-oriented ‘Special Series’ engines, making it ideal for fast road use. A total of 47 cars were factory-fitted with the DBD option in period. Aston Service Dorset has re-made an exact ‘toolroom copy’ of the manifold to the original drawings, which the company owns. All the ancillary parts fitted are also made to the original drawings and/or sourced from the original suppliers, including the plumbing fittings that…

In a memorable comedy sketch by Harry enfield and Paul Whitehouse, hapless, catastrophically sweaty inventors Ken and brian appear on dragons’ den hoping to secure funding for their new month, augcember – made up of 31 days ‘pinched from other months’. The dragons don’t go for it, but car dealers, we imagine, would be delighted to see some december days donated to augcember. The weeks before and after christmas have traditionally been tricky ones for floggers of cars, with potential customers either broke or holding out for a marginkilling deal. Some dealers must feel like shutting up shop before advent, which is exactly what many auction houses do. or did, until quite recently. With the auction calendar fuller than ever before and competition increasingly fierce, the comparatively empty twelfth month…

To look at it, you’d never know. What you see is surely a standard DB6 Mk2 Volante, white with red seats, the leather starting to get a bit damp because there’s drizzle in the air and the roof is down. Not to worry; a blast from the heater will help dry it off. Hold that thought. Looks, however, deceive. This piece of the past is a pointer to the future. Peer underneath and you’ll see there are no exhaust pipes leading into the rear silencer, although two tailpipes emerge from it to maintain the correct visuals. Open the bonnet and you’ll see not a castaluminium Marek straight-six but a large piece of aluminium sheet covering a mysterious black box of tricks with ‘Danger – High Voltage’ labelled on its side…

At the time of its ownership of Aston Martin, the David Brown Corporation had its fingers in many pies: gears, tractors, marine engineering, electronics and much more besides. Its products were sold globally and its staff travelled extensively. And none more so than the group’s exhibition manager, Peter Jackson. Jackson’s primary role was organising the stands for David Brown tractors and machinery at agricultural events. However, staging the displays of Aston Martin and Lagonda cars at international motor shows, including London, Paris, Geneva, Turin, Milan and Frankfurt, was also part of his remit. ‘Jetting across the world sounds the perfect lifestyle,’ says son Bruce, recalling his late father’s career, ‘but it wasn’t all glamorous. Dad was just as likely to be dragged out of his bed in the early hours…

The 1980s were famously the decade of excess. Big hair, even bigger bonuses; shoulder pads for jackets and bodykits for cars. Not even tweedy old Aston Martin was immune. When Newport Pagnell launched the Volante version of its prodigiously powerful V8 Vantage at the 1986 Birmingham motor show, it came with a huge front air dam, flared wheelarches, sills pulled out so far they resembled the running boards of a pre-war sports car, and the obligatory tail spoiler. The fastest four-seater convertible of the time with a top speed in excess of 160mph, lavishly appointed and with undeniable road presence, the Vantage Volante was many things, but subtle it was not. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t to everyone’s taste, and among those for whom spoilers and skirts were a little outré was…

THE DEVELOPMENT OF Aston Martin’s first SUV – now officially confirmed as the DBX – is progressing apace, with the first development prototype being put through its paces on a demanding welsh rally stage in the hands of Aston Martin’s chief engineer, Matt Becker. while wearing substantial body cladding and a disruptive livery to disguise its design, the five-door SUV’s first run was a symbolic step towards the launch of what Aston Martin Lagonda CeO Andy Palmer describes as one of the most important models since founders Bamford and Martin built their first car at Henniker Mews more than a century ago. Despite the disguise, in showing this early stage ‘M1’ prototype commencing real-world testing Aston Martin has confirmed that the production DBX is considerably more conventional than the rakish…

It would be hard to overstate the transformation of Aston Martin that’s been wrought since Andy Palmer arrived in Gaydon four short years ago. He inherited a company in crisis, with mounting debts and ageing product, a company in danger of slipping back into bad old ways, struggling to keep its head above water. Since then and the introduction of the DB11, the company has not stopped, launching a dizzying array of products from Vantage to Valkyrie, announcing its first SUV, relaunching Lagonda as the world’s first electric luxury brand, building a third home in Wales, becoming a title sponsor in F1, making dazzling recreations of icons from its past and forming partnerships to create not just bespoke cars but aircraft, boats, apartments – even a submersible. Most significantly of…

Superleggera. Is there a cooler-sounding word in the entireAston lexicon? Literally it translates from the Italian as super- or extra-light, but what does it actually mean when applied to an Aston Martin, be it 60-year-old DB4 or brand new DBS? To find the answer to that question, you need to look under the skins of both cars – and go back slightly further than 1958. While the DB4 was the first production Aston to wear the distinctive script, it wasn’t the very first. That distinction went to a special-bodied DB2/4 that appeared two years earlier, just three examples of which were built. The model in question was the DB2/4 MkII Touring Spyder, and the clue is in the Touring part of its name. It was Carrozzeria Touring, the celebrated Milanese…

It was back In november 2011 that Aston Martin rolled out the Vantage V12 in GT3 form, and it very quickly become a favourite with fans, team owners and drivers in race series all over the world. This year, with the all-new V8-powered Vantage taking over frontline duties in endurance racing, the V12 Vantage has been on something of a farewell tour, although the racing days of this particular Vantage are far from over, as we shall see. Meet Bilstein Billie. The sixth Vantage V12 GT3 chassis built by Aston’s race partner Prodrive, it first captured the fans’ imagination when it appeared at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring in 2013 in the striking livery of Aston’s then suspension partner, Bilstein. The N24, as you might be aware, has long…

Developed, it is said, for £3.5 million – the sort of budget a major carmaker might devote to a new air–con unit – the Virage sums up the spirit that kept Aston Martin going through its darkest hours. Propelled into being largely by the conviction of Victor Gauntlett, himself the living embodiment of that spirit, the Virage was an audacious but necessary move, replacing pretty much at a stroke the whole range of classic Aston V8s – saloon, Volante and Vantage variants – with a lineage all the way back to the DBS V8 of 1969. Astonishingly, it’s 30 years since the Virage made its public debut at the 1988 Birmingham motor show, which makes this as good a time as any to re-evaluate what has long been the Cinderella…

Tim Samways is a man with a good sense of humour and a nice line in self-deprecation. ‘When I was eight months old, I had my head banged in a car door,’ he says, ‘and the rest is history.’ I suppose we could leave it there, but Tim’s journey, from his early life on a farm in Somerset to running one of Europe’s most successful racing workshops, is well worth recounting. He enjoyed his schooling, in Hook Norton – ‘I was good at science and the practical subjects at school and scored 98 in my final science exam,’ he tells me – but it was extracurricular activities that would shape his life. After a summer spent ‘earning a few bob working on the family farm’ he bought himself a motorbike:…

we DOn’t USUALLY get terribly excited by the announcement of a new ‘special edition’, but when one combines Aston Martin’s single finest sporting achievement with the newest and most impressive car in the range, it’s hard not to be enthused. Announced in advance of the 60th anniversary of Aston Martin’s historic – and so far only – outright win at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the DBS 59 is the latest in a line of limited-run cars commissioned from Q by Aston Martin by the dealership Aston Martin Cambridge. Based on the 715bhp, 211mph DBS Superleggera, just 24 of the cars will be made. All will be finished in the same gorgeous shade of Aston Martin racing Green and feature a beautifully executed suite of details that evoke the DBr1…

the Vulcan famously made its race debut at this summer’s le mans festival, but of equal note was its club racing debut in september’s amoc meeting at snetterton. Driven by Gleb stepanov and stephen tomkins, it fully lived up to expectations, providing a wonderful spectacle while converting pole position into a convincing race win. in the Gt race going on behind the thunderous Vulcan were four Vantage Gt4s vying for class honours. chris murphy came out on top to win the class and take 4th overall, with robin marriott not far behind at the end of this 50-minute mini-endurance race. until the 1960s, a lot of racing was run to a handicap formula and the Pre war challenge honoured this old-school approach, where part of the fun is waiting to…

Project confusion With reference to your recent article on Rex J Woodgate Automotive Consultants (The Specialist, Vantage issue 23), I am the long-term owner of Aston Martin Project 214 (DB4GT 0194). Chris Woodgate has looked after the car from 1993 to the present day, through all its racing exploits, driven by me or my sons, Julien and Matthew Draper. The last time it was raced was in the Tourist Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival in 2012. Your article suggests that I then decided to build a replica of 214. This is categorically not the case. What actually happened was that a replica of the sister car (DB4GT 0195), which was destroyed in 1964, was created by Chris Woodgate for Robert Rawe. Simon Draper, Chilgrove, West Sussex Apologies for the…

Considered by many to be the ultimate Astons, the DB4 GT and DB4 GT Zagato are two of the most covetable and valuable models from the marque’s rich and storied past. Now fast approaching sexagenarian status, these racebred GTs refuse to step from the limelight. Quite the opposite, in fact, thanks to AML’s recently activated Continuations programme. This is a twin test with a difference; not so much a nostalgia trip as an exploration of Aston’s love affair with leveraging its heritage. One that began three decades ago with the DB4 GT Zagato ‘Sanction II’ and most recently embodied by Aston Martin Works’ DB4 GT Continuation. Special cars with a similarly unusual (and controversial) genesis, brought together here for the very first time. Basking beneath glorious azure skies, their timeless…

‘I WASN’T LOOKING FOR AN ASTON. WE WERE OUT DRIVING ONE SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND I JUST SPOTTED IT’ Some things, it seems, are simply meant to be. When it comes to Aston Martins, fate occasionally conspires to bring an individual and a certain car together. This is what happened with Robert Cook and his 1962 DB4 Convertible, and it happened not once but twice. ‘I certainly wasn’t looking for an Aston,’ muses Robert, recalling the day in 1967 when fate first took a hand. ‘I’d been looking for a car to replace my Zephyr. We were out driving one sunny Saturday afternoon and I just spotted it. ‘I was with Cherry, who was my girlfriend at the time and would later become my wife, and there it was, poking out…

this car’s resumé makes for impressive reading, starting in 2013 when it spearheaded Aston’s first serious bid for outright victory in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. In its centenary year, Aston sent in an all-star cast, hoping it could repeat its victories in the 1000km races of 1957, 1958 and 1959. Fivetime winner Pedro Lamy was put in charge of qualifying, which took the form of a two-lap shoot-out among the top 40 in practice. Lamy’s first lap put him seventh fastest, but on his second he improved by a full two seconds, landing Billie a spot on the front row of the grid in second place. The car would lead for more than half of the race but, after a long pause because of dense fog, bad weather caused…

‘TWIST THE KEY AND hear the characteristic whoop-whoop as the huge 5340cc engine cranks over a couple of times before barking into life. The note of the new 32-valve motor is quite distinct, with a higher pitch and less bass rumble than the old 16-valver. It’s no less thrilling though. Short of a Ferrari 12-cylinder, nothing sounds quite like an Aston V8. Some things never change, like the stout feel of an Aston Martin clutch. Well, maybe the Virage’s is a touch lighter but it is still hefty and engages with a jolt that can stall the engine a few times until you’ve mastered it. Another evergreen is the piggish ZF gearbox. Built big to handle Virage torque loads, the gearbox shifts its constantly chattering cogs with reluctance until its…