Lot 461: 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 MkI Saloon

This historic Aston Martin, bearing chassis number ‘LML/501’, is the first of the DB2/4 production sequence. A development vehicle never intended for public sale, it was fitted originally with the Vantage-specification engine number ‘VB6E/50/1241’ and finished in Moonbeam Grey. The works retained ‘LML/501’ for development purposes right up until the DB4’s arrival in 1959. Its evolution is sketchily documented in factory records, but the substitution of one of the DB MkIII development engines, ‘DBA/4’, must have been one of the many modifications. Regular servicing is recorded between 1956 and 1960, there being ten entries for 1959 alone. A particularly interesting entry on the record card is the title, ‘Works Car’, which has been crossed out and replaced with ‘used for destruction purposes’. Despite this unfortunate demotion, ‘LML/501 survived to be sold into private ownership, passing to Aston Martin enthusiast, Mr Anthony Heal, (of Heal’s, Tottenham Court Road) in March 1959. Mr Heal covered some 7,000-or-so miles between April and October that year, and most of the ten service entries for 1959 relate to his ownership. The final entry, dated June 1960, records the car as being ‘stripped for estimate and sold off.’ Nevertheless, the AMOC Register subsequently records it as passing to Anthony Crook Motors in 1961 and then on to one B W Pollard in 1964. A photograph taken at the AMOC Silverstone meeting that same year depicts a car registered ‘148MMC’ - complete with standard DB2/4 bonnet - taking part in the parade, but the next reference to ‘LML/501’ is not until 1981, when a newspaper clipping from September that year reports is rediscovery in Bognor Regis, ‘where it had been exposed to the elements without windscreen or even one of its doors for more than a year.’ The accompanying photograph clearly shows the MkIII bonnet and the article states that the car was undergoing restoration in Stratford-upon-Avon. From this point the car’s history become even more confusing, with many inconsistencies of listed owners and dates, details of which are available. Suffice to say that the current owner acquired the car in November 1993 from Mr Peter Edwards of Durrington, West Sussex in part settlement of a debt. The car has been undergoing restoration at the premises of former Newport Pagnell engineer and previously listed owner, Shaun Magee, and merely required an interior re-trim and final detailing to finish it off. It was completed in the early 1990s and the vendor’s bills dating from this period are available. Since that time the car has covered circa 300 miles and in recent times has been kept out of doors. Although somewhat weathered as a result, ‘LML/501’ nevertheless represents a wonderful opportunity to acquire an historically important car that played a central role in the forging of Aston Martin’s reputation under David Brown’s stewardship, ripe for sympathetic restoration. The car is offered with sundry invoices and Swansea V5 registration document