Aston Martin DB4

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Totally new from tip to tail, everything about the new Aston Martin DB4 broke new ground – a real achievement for such a tiny, albeit highly regarded, manufacturer. Unveiled at the Paris show in 1958, it was the perfect blend of rugged British engineering and exquisite Italian style.

On top of a brand-new platform chassis, developed by Harold Beach, sat a lightweight 'Superleggera' body by Touring of Milan, with aluminium panels fixed to a tubular frame. And what a body it was – lithe, muscular and impossibly elegant, it remains to many the most beautiful four-seater ever made.

And it didn't just look good. Thanks to a race-bred 3.7-litre all-alloy twin-cam straight-six (designed by Tadek Marek) and disc brakes all round, the DB4 was the first production car capable of 0-100-0mph in under 30 seconds, hitting the 100mph mark in 21 seconds on its way to a top speed of 140mph in standard 240bhp tune.

At a time when the average family car was doing well to hit 60mph and might take a week to get there, this staggering performance made the DB4 the fastest thing on the road, easily the equal of the best the Italians had to offer.

Keeping everything under control were disc brakes all round, rack-and-pinion steering and a beefed up David Brown four-speed gearbox. Suspension was by independent coil-springs and unequal length double-wishbones to the front, with a Watts-linkage located live axle to the rear.

The DB4 went through five series in its five-year lifespan with only minor styling tweaks to tell them apart, some 1,040 examples being made in total.

This 1960 Series II car was purchased by Lady Aubrey Brocklehurst of Swythemley Park in Cheshire through Brooklands Garage and was delivered on 26th January 1961. She was the daughter of Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst 2nd Baronet, who was a friend and member of Shackleton’s 1907 expedition to Antarctica and a member of the Brocklehurst dynasty who had made their fortune from shipbuilding and silk weaving.

She chose the exotic colour combination of ‘Elusive blue’ paintwork with ‘white gold’ Connolly leather interior – it must have looked sensational. It initially carried her personalised registration number, being reregistered with the Cheshire number 5985 TU when she sold it.

The green logbook shows a few subsequent owners who kept the car for relatively short periods until it came into the hands of the vendor’s brother in 1972 from a gentleman in Devon for the princely sum of £640. A significant number of bills on file date back as early as 1969 and show that the previous owner had spent freely on keeping it all up together.

The Aston was used regularly in Monmouthshire on a near daily basis but by the late 1970s was a little down at heel and was laid up.

It was taken to a local restoration shop where it was stripped and the body repaired, prepared and sprayed its current shade of green. The garage then folded and the project was put into storage where it has basically remained ever since.

The work appears to have been carried out to a good standard, with good panel fit around the doors - although its new owner may wish the car to revert to its original colour scheme and now is clearly the time to do it.

It was a complete car when the work started and during the restoration process the dashboard and instrumentation has remained in place. The interior panels are evident as are the seats and some of the carpets at least. The engine, which is the original to the car has been removed but is as yet untouched and the gearbox and brake/clutch pedal unit are with the car as well – the vendor cannot categorically state that it is all there, but does not know of anything that isn’t!

Complete with a current V5C, aforementioned green logbook and lots of interesting bills and invoices, this rare find is sadly being offered due to illness.

AMENDMENT; The Chassis number indicates that this car was built as a LHD model. The factory build sheet shows this, and the fact that it was fitted from new with yellow bulbs to the headlights, which would indicate that it was intended for use on the Continent. At the time of writing, we have yet to ascertain when the conversion was made, although it had already been done by 1972 when it came into the vendor's hands.

Since arrival, it has been pointed out to us that there are no bumpers or overriders, fuel tank or brake calipers.