The Aston episode
The Aston episode began in the early 1980s with a DB6 Vantage that I blew £4000 on that had just been inherited from a favourite aunt. I am not sure that she would have approved. Whilst I loved its engine sound and brute power it has to be acknowledged that its fuel consumption and servicing requirements were a cause for concern. Also the aluminium bodywork was extremely vulnerable to car parking mishaps (and falling bicycles when I failed to strap the historic Rover adequately in the rafters).
Veteran car owner Dick Pullman gave me an amazing fifty percent profit when I next ran out of money and I retreated to a bargain basement Jensen 541. This turned out to be a much underrated car that with very tall gearing and bags of torque from its 4 litre Austin unit was virtually as quick as the Aston with a lot less fuss. Admittedly the 325 gross bhp of the Vantage was amazing in a straight line but the car was too heavy to throw about!
So too in fact was the Jensen with its much less sophisticated chassis which felt too narrow and imprecise due to wear in its many idlers in its convoluted steering mechanism. However, it was very fast, easily shaking off an aggressive BMW on the long motorway rise at High Wycombe and it was pleasingly quiet and comfortable. I tried to address the inherent steering problems by buying a scrap rack and pinion type 541R but the complexity was beyond me. Studying the rotted out tubular chassis of the 541R made me realise that my working car straight out of a dump behind a garage was probably in an equally parlous state (one of the tubes acted as a servo for the brakes). Having lost confidence I sold the lot but years later encountered the original car still looking faded but by then on German registration plates and running lustily.
The lure of Astons led to a DBS Vantage which was mechanically just like the DB6 though now in William Towns (I got to know him quite well) Italianate clothing. The real difference was that the chassis was at last suitable for all that power. I bought the car in a Christies Beaulieu sale when the bidding faltered at less than £2000 (one forgets how unpopular the new shape was 20 years ago).
I had a lot of fun with the car even though my budget could only stretch to Commer PB van tyres with a speed rating almost 70 miles below that of the proper Avons. Actually those tyres gave it pleasantly vintage handling and I enjoyed a visit to Scotland with Supercar Classics artist Bob Freeman who used a jointed wooden snake to prove that the famous Electric Brae was an optical illusion.
I can't remember which of those Vantage engines gave me a nasty turn when power suddenly dropped off accompanied by a sickly rattling. The village garage, where Screaming Lord Such's brother was mechanic, was undaunted by the need for specialist repair and maintenance tools and whipped the twin cam head off to reveal nuts from the air box filer on the Webers embedded in the tops of the pistons. Amazingly that had done no real damage.
By then it was the late '80s and the DB6 had climbed to about £30,000 leaving my 'modern shape' DBS far behind. I asked Dick Pullman if he would like to do a part exchange but it was far too late, he'd sold the car for £9000 to someone who had left his phone number under the wipers!
The last Aston to join the Baldwin fleet was the oldest. It was Richard Hudson-Evan's 1953 DB2/4 which I seem to recall set me back £11,000 after I had a major clearout to free up some funds. In a funny sort of way it came closest to feeling like the Austin-Healey but made even nicer noises. Actually the exhaust note was a bit too much as the car was fitted with the highest numerical axle ratio for hill climbing, which meant that peak decibels were reached at normal highway cruising speed. Dunlop. the motoring dog, refused to travel in it, which goes to prove how unacceptable it must have been!
As with all my old relics, I had some fun times with the DB2/4. I visited Sir William Lyons old home in it when Jaguar and Aston Martin came under the same Ford Umbrella (actually I met Sir William in his Salcombe swimming pool as a youth). I stormed Aston Hill near Aston Clinton from where Lionel Martin's first car got its name and I loaned the DB2/4 for a year's display at the National Motor Museum, where it was discovered that it was one of the first 15 built and that the original owner was George Abescassis of HWM sports racing car fame. Incidentally this reminds me that the original owner of the DBS (a member of the Fattorini badge making family) came up to me on a rally in Guernsey to say that he remembered the car well as being his all-time least favourite! I suppose it all depends on comparing like with like, past experiences and on whether one prefers fully accomplished or quirky cars. As I think you will have gathered by now, I like my cars to have character and this often comes with cars that have lived long and eventful lives.
Continue my story into the Sublime to the ridiculous.
