UP NEXT
You may not have heard of Piper Cars, but the owner of this P2 helped create it.
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Films:
1956 Aston Martin DBR1: A British Racing Rarity
Has anyone spotted the location yet? I have a feeling that the shoot was done in Marin County. The faded white board-on-batten barn looks like some which are maintained by the Park Service up there. The white oaks and the dormant grasses too look about right, for that region.
Did anyone notice that the driver is wearing Polyco P-Grip gloves? I suppose if you are driving a 20,000,000 USD car you want to minimize the transfer of skin oils to the elements of the car you touch. These are a back-vented glove with a light urethane coating on the fabric of palm and contact area under the fingers. Or do some people use these for driving? The grip with the urethane is going to terrific. The man behind the wheel is not identified. He seems to know what he is doing . . .
What I find extraordinary about Cutting’s achievements is that they were attained with so very few people. Cutting and his people were competing with extended ‘works’ teams of engineers, technicians and pit crews from far larger enterprises. There are a few times in the ‘modern era’ when smaller teams of engineers, fabricators, mechanics and operators got everything right. The U2 aircraft was one of these high points of synergy in an exceptional, small team. Designed at the same time as this car, the U2 team used the same approximate set of engineering & design tools. Both teams were using slide rules, adding machines, lead pencil on vellum paper, and (probably) Mark’s Standard Handbook for mechanical engineers. The U2 is still useful and still flying. And the work that Ted Cutting and his team did still represents a kind of apex of what is possible in this class of work.
Wow wow wow. This is among your finest work, and your work always sets a high bar. The car is unbelievably stunning. How could one man design the chassis, engine, and body. Good lord it dominated! What cars made up the competition? Ferraris? 175 mph on the straight for 24 hrs? Phenomenal video, truely inspired, artistic, and gifted.
Yes, but what a race! It beat a host of Ferrari 250 Testa Rosa’s, Maserati 300/450s and Jaguar D-Types at Nurburgring 1000KMS. It even ended up in a ditch at one point! Only 5 Aston DBR1’s were ever made and they, in my opinion, the most beautiful and greatest 50s sports cars ever. They were the first ever British Sports Car to win the World Sports Car Championship.
a very good short video..l’d love to drive a DBR1…the nearest l have got is the DB2..
If you want to see the very best video on Astons, get a copy of Victory by Design.featuring Alain de Cadenet. the best motoring dvd collection l have ever seen…he drives all the period racing and sports cars .he has driven more makes and models than anyone living or dead…and he knows his stuff !
Excellent piece on a truly historic specimen.. I hope the winning bidder at the Monterrey auction next week keeps it in the public eye and doesn’t lock up and hide the old girl somewhere… maybe even races it… Kurt
http://www.rmsothebys.com/mo17/monterey/lots/1956-aston-martin-dbr1/1704221
Quite a trove of detailed photographs at the Sotheby’s auction website. Thank you for posting. Interesting to see the medallion for Saint Christopher screwed to the transmission tunnel. It seems to have worked. Sterling Moss was Jewish, of course, but that doesn’t mean it did not put in on there . . . .
