B&M Side Valve Cloverleaf (3 seater)

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B&M Side Valve Cloverleaf (3 seater)

(1923)

Although the company of Bamford and Martin had been in existence since 1913, production cars did not finally appear until 10 years later in 1923 from the factory in Abingdon Road, Kensington. One of the first cars was this wonderful Cloverleaf side valve Aston-Martin, chassis number 1926, was first owned by a very sporting motorist, N T Beardsell. Indeed, Beardsell even entered it in the 1924 Aston Hill Climb in May, the very venue that gave its name to the marque. During this event, the car came in 2nd behind another similar Aston-Martin side valve, another Aston-Martin was third.

B&M Side Valve Cloverleaf (3 seater)

These early cars all had the same four cylinder 1486 cc side valve engine with what at the time would have been a heady power output of 38 bhp allowing for a top speed in the region of 77 mph.

For many years, chassis 1926 has been fitted with more sporty 2-seater coachwork and it continued to be entered in competitive events.

More recently chassis 1926 has been painstakingly restored back to the same specification as it was built back in 1923 with the attractive 3 seat layout. The first event that the car was seen was the 2013 Spring Concours at Greenwich where the car won the pre-war class. It then went on to appear as the 4th car in the 101 car timeline during the Aston Martin Centenary Celebration at Kensington Palace in July 2013. It has been recently found that ‘Cloverleaf’ is perhaps the 5th oldest Aston Martin in existence yet as all the early cars were prototypes or race cars, it is the 2nd oldest road going production Aston Martin. Price when new was only £695 plus £11 purchase tax, around £40,000 in todays money. Lionel Martin himself had a similar Cloverleaf bodied car, AM270, although it was believed scrapped in the 1930’s.

During 2014, the Cloverleaf gained even more exposure when Matt Baker took the car up Aston Hill in Buckinghamshire on the BBC TV programme, Countryfile. Interestingly this occurred exactly 90 years, almost to the day, that Cloverleaf came 2nd in the speed trial at Aston Clinton Hill.