Peter Collins on the ultimate Aston Martin
“FOR SHEER PERFORMANCE, the Aston Martin DB4GT must be the car of the show” said John Bolster in his 1959 Earls Court Motor Show report in Autosport magazine. He was, as usual, right on the money. With its 3.7 litre six-cylinder engine giving 302 bhp and a smaller and lighter body than its sibling DB4 it had serious potential.
After the Second World War entrepreneur David Brown was looking for a business to sink some money into that he felt would be a good investment and a classified advertisement in The Times newspaper, offering the Aston Martin car company for sale, caught his eye. He was an enthusiast of British sports cars and Aston in particular so for an alleged outlay of £10,000 he bought the company. He also acquired Lagonda and with it, an engine. Combining this unit with a new coupe resulted in the DB2 and the new, revitalised Aston Martin was once again reborn, lack of finance being a recurring theme throughout the company’s history. The ‘DB’ appellation refers to David Brown and by the time the DB2/4 was on the road manager John Wyer – later to run the classic Gulf Porsche 917 race team – was thinking of the future.
Aston couldn’t keep making warmed over DB2s for ever so, in 1955, he called in Pole Tadek Marek to design a new engine for a new range of cars. Marek insisted that it should have an iron block for durability although Wyer was disappointed as his mind was heading down the potential race car road. In the end there wasn’t a choice, as the Birmingham company approached to assist with development told Aston there would be an eigtheen month wait as they were stacked up with work, but if they didn’t mind modelling the block in alloy their sister business down the road was looking for work and would be only too happy to assist.
The result was the classic Aston twin-cam straight-six of 3.7 litres capacity and at the 1958 London Motor Show it made its debut under the bonnet of the new DB4, which was launched to huge press and public acclaim. Propitiously, the next year at Le Mans, Aston won the 24 Hour grind after many years of trying and David Brown then put a stop to the vast expenditure that sportscar racing caused.
John Wyer, however, was a born and bred ‘racing improves the breed’ man and hankered after a return to the race tracks. Almost before the DB4 went public he had instigated the development of a smaller, lightweight version that was to be known as the DB4GT and one of these is featured here.
Only 75 were built altogether and they were conceived as a sporting carriage for gentlemen who may also wish to race at the weekends. The engineers at Aston Martin had taken the DB4 as a base and had shortened the chassis by 5 inches and reduced the weight by 100kg. The roofline was also lowered. The result was strictly a two-seat car and was powered by a much improved version of the 3.7 six that incorporated triple Webers, dual ignition, bigger valves and high-lift camshafts. Power was up from 260 to 302bhp and depending on the axle-ratio, it was possible to achieve a genuine 170mph. The bodies were still constructed on the Touring Superleggera principle but out of thinner gauge alloy than the DB4.
Months before the launch of the car Stirling Moss took the prototype to a win in the GT race accompanying the 1959 International Trophy at Silverstone and also used one at the Nassau Speed Weeks in November to win one of the heats. Into 1960 he again won in the Aston at the Goodwood International “as expected” according to Gregor Grant in Autosport, adding that it, “provided Stirling Moss with the opportunity of showing how rapid the Aston Martin DB4GT is.”
Our featured example, chassis 0145, sits on gorgeous factory Borrani wire-wheels, with its tightly sculpted bodywork in suitable British racing Goodwood green. The interior in fawn Connolly leather, now beautifully patinated, was originally sold to one Mark Garnier of Sheffield on 22 April 22 1961.
After 1,931 miles he took it back for its first service in June where, other than general fettling, a new speedo was fitted. It then settled down and passed through subsequent owners but crucially was never rebuilt and it remains as a very rare example of one of these very fast Astons in original condition with its original engine.
Sitting in the creased and comfortable driver’s seat as the car snarls forward, operating the short gear-lever controlling the four-speed box feels exquisitely mechanical and delightfully well-oiled in motion as the Webers snort and this high-speed carriage lunges for the horizon and the red-line.
This is a superb example of the ultimate Aston Martin and that includes the Zagato, and I express my thanks to Cars International of Kensington with whom it is for sale.
