VMF64 (LML/50/8 – not pictured) in the hands of George Abecassis and Lance Macklin was 5th overall and 1st in class and also 1st in Index of Performance. VMF63 (LML/50/7) driven by Reg Parnell and Charles Brackenbury was 2nd in class and 6th overall. Unfortunately VMF65 (LML/50/9) crashed on way to the race and sadly didn’t compete.

All three cars were further raced by the Factory Works team throughout 1950 at Silverstone, Dundrod (Ulster TT) and Shelsey Walsh. VMF64 continued to compete by the factory in 1951 with a fantastic 3rd overall at Le Mans (and again 1st in class) and also in the Alpine Rally. In 1952, it also competed on the Mille Miglia (12th overall, 1st in class) and again on the Alpine Rally in where it came in 15th.

All three 1950 Works cars initially had the 3 part grille common to all the early DB2’s; from 1951 they subsequently received the revised horizontal bar type that they still have today.

Building on the experience of the previous season with the DB2 and a little more development time, the new Works cars were designed to be an incredible 200kg lighter than the 1950 examples. This was achieved by stripping out any unnecessary trim from the interior, the use on 18 gauge alloy for the bodies (instead of 16), Plexiglas side and rear windows and drilling the chassis.

XMC76 (LML/50/50) and XMC77 (LML/50/55) were entered in predominantly the same events as the previous year. At Silverstone, #76 came 6th overall and 1st in class, #77 retired. At Le Mans, #76 was 7th overall and 3rd in class, bettered by #77 which was 5th overall and 2nd in class. The 1951 team cars continued to be raced by the factory during 1952 and 1953.

Despite their age (all are over 60 years old) and immense value, all five DB2 team cars are still being actively raced even today at AMOC and other classic events worldwide.

At this time, the company were working on the first post war Aston Martin, based on the wartime Atom prototype with a chassis and 4 cylinder, 2 litre pushrod engine designed by Claude Hill. After thorough road testing of a virtually bare chassis by Claude Hill and works test driver, St John (Jock) Horsfall, it was decided that the best way to thoroughly evaluate the new car was to enter it into the 1948 Spa 24 hour race in the hands of Horsfall and Leslie Johnson.

David Brown must have been elated when the car came in 1st overall and it was quickly rebuilt for the 1948 London Motor Show and offered for sale as ‘The Spa Replica’. Sadly in post-war Britain, money was in short supply and no-one placed orders since, with sales tax, the price was in excess of £3,100, a massive amount at the time, sufficient to buy a very nice house.

The car spent many decades in car museums in both Belgium and the Netherlands but more recently was returned to the UK where it has been sympathetically restored by its new owner. The first time that it was seen in public in the UK for decades was appropriately at the 2006 AMOC Horsfall race meeting.

One element of the Spa Replica is in my opinion very special indeed. Look at the shape of the (three part) grille – which after countless re-designs, is still the most familiar AM design cue.

The car remains unique and is a special and important piece of Aston Martin history.

Sadly, only 14 examples were built, 13 with the open 2 seater coachwork, and a single example sold chassis only. They are very rarely seen indeed. The first that I have ever seen was in the showroom of Aston Workshop in Beamish during March 2006. This particular car was the last one to be made. It took until 2013 and the Centenary Celebration at Kensington Gardens for me to see my second 2 litre sports.

But one distinctive feature of the 2 Litre Sports can still be seen Aston Martins to the present day. It’s possible to see a familiar shape in the three piece grille. Unfortunately the centre section was not fitted to the car at Aston Workshop when I took these pictures.

After the DB2 was first announced in 1950, the 2 litre Sports become known retrospectively as the DB1.

The ‘egg box’ style grille was replaced by a barred type with only seven vertical bars. The air scoop on the bonnet was substantially lowered and lost the grille. Both the lower bonnet air scoop and barred type grille lasted in production through the DB5 right through to the last variant of the DB6, the Mark II in 1970. The much needed oil cooler became a standard feature with it’s easy to spot intake under the front bumper although amazingly was a delete option.

Most series 4 DB4’s were fitted with the engine in standard tune with twin SU carburettors. It was also possible for the customer to specify both the Special Series /SS engine as used in the DB4 Vantage with triple SU carbs. Five cars are also known to have been built with the optional GT spec engine with it’s desirable twin plug head and triple Weber carburettors.

The design of rear lights from the series 3 were carried over with individual indicators, rear/brake lights and reflectors mounted on a polished recessed plate. The rear bumper therefore were not fitted with inset red reflectors. As these early bumpers are now extremely rare, if a replacement has been fitted, it is usually is the DB5 type with the integrated reflectors.

The rear light clusters were slightly changed from the Series 4 and feature individual indicator, stop/tail lamp and reversing lamp. The rear reflector was therefore re-located to the bumper. Also the boot handle/number plate light was changed to a larger Hella type also used on the Karmann Ghia. Another change can be seen with the front indicators which are noticably a little larger than previously – go back to the DB4 series 4 page if you wish to see the changes.

The car illustrated above is quite a special example of the Series 5 Saloon as it was fitted from new with the optional Special Series or ‘/SS’ engine, normally fitted as standard to the DB4 Vantage. As many of the Series 5 cars built have both the /SS special series engine and the faired-in headlights are thus are correctly referred to as DB4 Vantage. Strictly speaking, DB4 saloons with the Special Series engine but retaining the upright headlamps are not called DB4 Vantage even though they have the engine from the Vantage.

In total, a mere 55 Aston Martin DB4 series 5 saloons were built during a 10 month period between September 1962 and June 1963. It was replaced in the range by the popular DB5.

Whilst the regular DB2 body was made of aluminium, Graber had everything ahead of the windscreen in aluminium and everything behind it in steel. This then allowed them to weld the steel body directly onto the chassis. The doors were made in the classic coach building fashion using a panneled oak frame attached to oak door posts. As you would no doubt expect, the additional weight of the Graber coachwork would have a somewhat detrimental effect on the performance.

This particular car was sold at the 2012 Bonham’s auction at Aston Martin Works.

Whilst the introduction of the convertible was simultaneous with the series 4 saloon, all examples have the longer body associated with the series 5 cars. The greater distance between the rear wheel arch and rear bumper is indicative of a total length of 457cm – 15 feet. Also a look at the chassis number range makes it also appear that all the convertibles are ‘series 5’. But the earlier cars do have typical series 4 front indicators, side lights and tail lights. All examples have opening front quarterlights, a feature not seen on the equivalent saloon until the introduction of the DB6. The chassis of the DB4 convertible was also necessarily stiffened to compensate for the loss of the stiffening roof section.

One wonderful and attractive feature of the interior of the convertible is that many have the dashboard painted body colour instead of the simple dark grey used on the saloon.

The folding roof was manually operated and covered with Everflex although this is often replaced with mohair during restoration. A few later cars were supplied with an optional factory hardtop, an expensive £200 option and very rarely seen. Yet I was fortunate to photograph an example, in the rain at the Newport Pagnell factory in May 2004.

Only 70 of these most elegant of cars were ever built (30 in series 4 and 40 in series 5) out of a total DB4 production of 1110 cars. Many cars were fitted with the /SS Special Series engine with triple SU carbs (see DB4 Vantage) but only two received the faired-in headlights of the Vantage, one of these a GT engine.

Perhaps the most famous DB4 Convertible is 163ELT, finished in Snow Shadow Grey with a red interior. This was the car driven in the film “The Italian Job” by Michael Caine, but thankfully not actually pushed over the cliff. The film company substituted a converted Lancia for that part of the film.

Needless to say, the DB4 convertible is a very rare and beautiful car, one of the rarest of the cars made during the David Brown era.  When examples reach the market, the prices asked most certainly reflect this at around double that over  an equivalent DB4 saloon. A now a polite additional note: under no circumstances should the DB4 convertible be called a Volante; the Volante model wasn’t introduced until 1965.

Originally owned by the legendary Academy Award-winning actor, playwright and diplomat Sir Peter Ustinov, this ultra-rare DB4 Vantage Convertible (below) was delivered to him at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland in 1962. In May 2015, at the Bonhams Aston Martin sale, it was sold for £1.5 million, a world record price for the model.

Thanks to Kean Rogers for some assistance with this page.

The DB4 Vantage is not just an enhanced engine as it also has the faired-in headlights from the DB4 GT with the addition of a chrome rim. DB4 saloons with the Special Series engine fitted as a cost option and regular headlights are not normally classified as DB4 Vantage. The saloons and Vantages have distinct chassis number sequences.

The series 4 was replaced by the series 5 in September 1962; the body was lengthened by 9 cm which gave more rear leg room and a bigger boot but also allowed a higher roofline. Some sources will claim that the series 5 has a longer wheelbase but this is not the case at all. A majority of series 5 DB4’s were built to full Vantage specification. In almost all respects the final series of DB4 Vantage had become the DB5 – a car it is often easily confused with. Visually, the series 5 DB4 Vantage and DB5 only differ in minor detail. Most DB4’s have only one fuel filler on the left rear pillar (DB5’s have two), DB4’s have no model badges (many DB5’s have wing and boot badges), DB4’s have the four speed David Brown gearbox (most DB5’s have the German ZF 5 speed box).

The occasional DB4 Vantage even goes racing. This car was photographed (Red number 72 below) during the 1999 season during an AMOC race meeting at Donnington Park. Early DB4’s are favourites to go racing as towards the end of it’s production life, the DB4 gained weight. But remember, the Vantage was a more powerful car too.

Many of the series 5 Vantage also featured the GT instrument panel (but not the one pictured below) Also visible is a window winding handle, a feature which saw its last service on the DB4, DB5’s and later cars had electric windows fitted as standard.

Pictured below features a DB4 Vantage in Dubonnet Rosso together with a 2CV6 Dolly (indeed it’s my car), If nothing else, it illustrates the breath of the classic car world. The picture was taken in 1995 in a park in Newport Pagnell being used as parking for the factory open day, a very busy day in the town.

The car has been unseen for decades until it was offered for sale at the RM Sotheby’s auction in London during November 2024.

Images, believed taken in the 1970s are by Roger Stowers, copyright Aston Martin Heritage Trust