by Mike –
The Aston Martin DB2 was introduced at the New York Auto Show in April 1950. The second, third, and fourth DB2 examples were raced at The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1950 resulting in a first and second in class. Not bad for a small company like Aston Martin.
1957 Aston Martin DB2
The DB2 had a straight-6 cylinder, 2.6-Liter engine with a a dual overhead cam. The engine evolved from Lagonda, which Aston Martin had purchased. This engine was designed by W. O. Bentley, of Bentley Motorcar Company fame, and Willie Watson previously with Invicta, who also participated in the design of the V12 Lagonda.
The American Briggs Cunningham raced a later DB2 in the first Sebring race in December 1950 winning second in class.
The racing success of the DB2 convinced David Brown to continue racing so beginning with the DB3 Aston Martin made purpose-built race cars. DB are David Brown’s initials and his name is on the Aston Martin logo. You can do that when you own the company.
In total 411 DB2s were produced from 1950 through 1953.
In all the car shows that I attend every year this may be the first DB2 that I have seen in person. The distinctive rear look does not look like what I think an Aston Martin from the 1950s should look like. I think of the fast back of the 1958 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk III shown below.
1958 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk III
This Aston Martin DB2 was photographed at the Danville d’Elegance in 2013 in Danville, California.
Let us know in the Comments what you think of the Aston Martin DB2
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After this was originally published in Decenber 2013 Tom Price sent in the following:
Text and photo by Tom Price,
Aston Martin raced three DB2 Prototypes in 1949 including the first Lagonda powered 6-cylinder (previous Aston Martins were all 4-cylinder). A photo of my 6-cylinder car racing at Monaco several years ago is below.
This car raced at Le Mans in ’49 and ’50 with DNF both years and finished third overall at Spa in ’49.
Tom Price
Price Family Dealerships
135 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
Larkspur, California 94920
Tom Price’s Aston Martin DB2 at Monaco
This Aston is really hustling around Monaco! I notice that the grille shape of this DB2 is different than the one I originally wrote about. I think that means that this Tom Price DB2 is an earlier model.
Thank you Tom for sharing this information and photo.
I love it when you all share stuff that I don’t know especially the owners of these special cars.
The standard coupes were all fastbacks. This looks like a hard top appended to a DB-2 drophead, but in fact it is likely not a DB-2 at all, rather a DB-24
Thanks Robert – maybe that explains why I have not seen one before.