DB3S Fixedhead Coupe
DB3S Fixedhead Coupe

DB3S Fixedhead Coupe

(1954 - 1956)

For the 1954 racing season, Aston Martin designed two new cars with fixedhead coupe bodies (DB3S/6 and DB3S/7) as it was believed that these would be even more aerodynamic and therefore faster. After a reasonable debut at Silverstone where they finished 7th and 12th overall, disaster struck at Le Mans where both cars were sensitive to crosswinds and unstable at speed so the rear ends lifted and sadly both crashed. Both of these works cars were subsequently rebuilt as open cars and remain like this to this day.

DB3S Fixedhead Coupe

Despite the obvious setback, three customer DB3S coupes were subsequently constructed (DB3S/113, DB3S/119 and DB3S/120). Since DB3S/113 has received an open body a few years back (the fixedhead body has been retained I have been told), the remaining two cars are an extreme rarity. The example featured on this page, DB3S/120, is sometimes to be seen in competitive racing and was photographed both at Brands Hatch (AMOC meeting) and Donnington Park (VSCC meeting) during 2002. It has also more recently been photographed during the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegence where the car was entered into the Aston Martin Centenary Class.

One point of interest is that the fixedhead coupe have retained the rear fins that were used on the first few works DB3S cars, particularly chassis DB3S/1 and DB3S/2.