First Goodwood-9-Hours winner is up for sale

Bonhams brings a very special car to its auction at the Goodwood Revival in September. This Aston Martin DB3 was the winner of the very first 9 Hours-race in Goodwood, exactly seventy years ago.

In 1952, the inaugural 9 Hours race in Goodwood on August 16^th was the first renewed effort to hold an endurance race for sports cars in Great Britain. Chairman of the newspaper The News of the World, Emsley Carr, coughed up the prize money, which was at a level unheard of before in racing. This got the attention of all the big names, in particular Jaguar and Aston Martin got ready to get involved in another duel, this time on home soil.

Up against the C-Type

Jaguar had had the upper hand so far with the C-Type, thanks to a slightly bigger engine. Aston Martin came up with the DB3, the first open sports car in the David Brown era (disregarding the 1948 Atom, which was very much a pre-war effort). The plan had been to have the DB3 ready for Le Mans 1951, but the design process took more time. It was only at the Dundrod TT, in September 1951, the DB3 appeared in competition for the first time.

Testing early in 1952 led John Wyer’s troops to the discovery of a weakness in the rear suspension design. The car you see here, chassis #5, appeared for the first time in Silverstone in May. It was a terrific debut for the Aston Martin DB3, taking second, third and fourth overall, and one-two-three in the 3-litre class. Chassis #5 came fourth overall with Lance Macklin behind the wheel.

Le Mans misery

For the Monaco Grand Prix, exclusively held for sports cars in 1952, Aston Martin tried out a new engine, 2.9-litres instead of 2.6-litres. It wasn’t a success and for the rest of the season Aston kept the 2.6. Chassis #5, again with Macklin, was out after 73 laps with con rod failure. Macklin and Peter Collins were Aston’s best team in the Le Mans 24 Hours in this car, carrying number 25. They were third overall, behind two Mercedes 300 SLs, when after 20 hours of racing a problem with the final gear caused retirement. The two other DB3s were long out by then.

Goodwood drama

Reg Parnell scored a first in class in chassis #5 in Boreham, two weeks before Goodwood came up. Aston had an adapted 3-litre engine ready for Goodwood, in chassis #3. When that car came in the pits, the crew accidentally set fire to it by spilling fuel. John Wyer and two other team personnel ended up in hospital with more or less severe burns. In the background, Peter Collins and Pat Griffith in chassis #5 with the 2.6-litre engine, carried on towards a very fine overall victory. It would be the only overall victory the DB3 would score, for 1953 Wyer focused the team’s efforts on a new, lighter car: the DB3S.

In 1953, chassis #5 competed in the Sebring 12 Hours. George Abecassis and Reg Parnell drove it to a fine second overall and first in class. The final competitive outing for Aston Martin came in the 1953 Mille Miglia. Abecassis retired after a crash following a steering issue.

Sebring and Mille Miglia finale

Aston sold the chassis to Nigel Mann, who continued to race it with a closed cockpit body. Subsequently, it moved to Hong Kong carrying registration UPL 4. It wasn’t before 1990 the car returned to the UK, where it was restored to factory specification.

Only five factory DB3s ever existed, so bringing this to market at Goodwood no less is a considerable achievement. Currently, Bonhams has not yet released an estimate for the car, but we for one are curious to see what this rare Aston will do at the Goodwood Revival auction, September 17^th.

More info here.