DBR1: Moss, shelby, Le Mans, World Champions
When David Brown bought Aston Martin in 1947 he had a dream: that a car built by his new company would win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
When David Brown, the man from whom all the DB cars take their name, bought Aston Martin in 1947 he had a dream. That dream was that a car built by his new company would win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With this, the Aston Martin DBR1, that dream was realised in 1959, beating giants like Porsche, Maserati and Ferrari to the World Sportscar Championship’s constructors title.
When the FIA abolished the requirement that WSC racers had to be based on road-going cars in 1956 Aston jumped at the chance to produce a totally bespoke racing machine. Things didn't go smoothly, however, with the DBR1's early victories at the Nurburgring 1000 km and Spa marred by crushing retirements from Le Mans three years in a row. A stable of excellent drivers (Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby) and continuing tinkering meant that by 1959 the DBR1s were ready to take the fight to the big boys in earnest.
The dream of winning Le Mans was finally achieved in 1959, with the beautiful Brit's straight six and Carroll Shelby powering it to victory in the hallowed French race. Aston's other DBR1 finished second with a lead of 25 laps over third place. The 1-2 finish at Le Mans put Aston firmly in contention for the constructors championship against Ferrari and Porsche, with the title being decided in the last race of the season at Goodwood. Aston fielded three of their own DBR1s as well as one owned by privateer Graham Whitehead.
Things were going well for the British upstarts until the DBR1 that had been leading the race caught fire while refuelling, knocking it out of the contest and damaging Aston's pit box to the point of making it unusable. With nowhere to refuel their cars any hopes for a constructors championship seemed to have gone up in flames. Whitehead had other ideas, gallantly withdrawing his own car from the race and allowing Aston to move into his pit box. Stirling Moss bumped Carroll Shelby out of his car, taking over and winning the race for Aston Martin and the whole of Britain. Bulldogs celebrated with cigars and eel pie was savoured up and down the land. Aston Martin had killed giants in Ferrari and Porsche and old DB's dream had come true.
A Warrior's Death
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Comments (2)
Great tribe James! Drop me a comment when you are back.
Ben
Hey Ben! Back in business with new stuff on the way soon