Miguel Sánchez
PHOTOGRAPHS ASTON MARTIN DB4 SERIES IV 1961: CATAWIKI
Last 2019 we had a veritable torrent of news about the Aston Martin DB4. Specifically about its Zagato version, since the Milanese bodybuilder celebrated his first centenary. For this, Aston Martin and the Italian house collaborated again by launching four variants based on the Vanquish, as well as various replicas of DB4 Zagato himself of the sixties. Nevertheless, the relationship of the British house with Italy comes from long before.
In fact, this transalpine projection stems from his first car. A model that was simply called Aston Martin. This one mounted in 1913 a Coventry Simplex engine on Isotta Fraschini chassis, constituting a multinational hybrid repeated in 1958 with the presentation of the Aston Martin DB4. And it is that, this quintessence of British motorsport, owes its appearance to a design made in Milan by Carrozzeria Touring, which fortunately knew how to give an obvious touch "british"To the whole.
Furthermore, these lines were put into practice with the Superleggera method. A method patented in 1936, by which the body of thin and light aluminum panels is mounted on a chassis built in small diameter steel tubes. A display of lightness that landed in motorsport since its use in the great interwar zeppelin. With credentials like this, you will understand why the Aston Martin DB4 is one of the great icons in British motorsport. A model that, in this unit, nevertheless has a marked Hispanic flavor.
ASTON MARTIN DB4. THE FINAL JUMP
For those fascinated by endurance racing, the Aston Martin name during the XNUMXs is a reference of the first order. Capable of manufacturing Racing cars as fascinating as the 1 DBR1956, winner of Le Mans in 1959 with Carrol Shelby and Roy Salvadori at the helm, the English brand is inextricably linked to pilots such as Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, or Jim Clark. However, the truth is that races do not pay bills. It takes something more. Something that, for brands like Aston Martin or Ferrari, was selling street-approved GT models.
It was actually an exceptional idea, as these cars were so well suited for series production as to dominate the circuits for much of the XNUMXs and especially the XNUMXs. So things, in 1958 the Aston Martin DB4 was born. Perfect representative of this leap since, although the British had already bodied some DBs with GT aspects as appealing as that of the DB2 Vantage, the truth is that the brand was still closely tied to strictly racing cars. Something that, examining different units of the DB3 we see clearly, being, most of the time, light and small "barchettas".
That is why the birth of the Aston Martin DB4 was a definitive leap forward in the history of the brand, since, although it knew competition versions, its approach fully obeys that of a luxurious sports GT. It benefits from state-of-the-art competition technology to a much greater extent than the DB5 and 6 later, but at the same time it inaugurates the saga of the great GT's of the brand. Endowed with a six cylinders in line with 3 liters of displacement, is capable of delivering 240CV at 5000 rpm. More than enough benefits both for any pilot of the time and for the powerful businessman or aristocrat who could afford it.
ASTON MARTIN DB4, WITH NATIONAL REGISTRATION
With a production that barely exceeded 1200 units, seeing an Aston Martin DB4 is something really special. Even more so when, in the case of this 1961 unit, we observe its registration. Neither more nor less than the original plates, which confirm this unit as one of only five DB4s sold new in Spain. In this case, we are looking at a copy of the fourth series, already with a bi-disc clutch in its standard mechanics.
Its condition is really exceptional, something that is finished off by the color of its bodywork. Precisely the famous California Sage that many Aston Martin racing cars wore at the time, such as the DBR1 24 Hours champion in 1959. Beyond being originally sold in Barcelona, the truth is that this unit has spent almost its entire existence in Spain. In Barcelona it came to add three owners -among them the owner of Neumáticos Turini- who kept it until it was sold to a North American collector in 2010.
There he received a complete overhaul. Everything to be able to wear it properly in high-level events, giving life to this Aston Martin DB4 that last 2018 it was imported back to Spain. Now it is guarded by its last owner in Madrid, where it awaits the new destination that it can find through your auction through the Catawiki portal. Wherever it ends, without a doubt we will have to follow the trail of this icon with national history.
