The DB2 was Aston Martin’s first real post-war success story. The company had struggled to get back on its feet, having sold only 15 of its new 2-litre Sports models (retrospectively called DB1) between 1947 and 1950. Soon-to-be owner David Brown had taken the prototype (called the Atom) for a drive in 1946. He’d answered an advertisement in The Times newspaper for the opportunity to buy a”high-class motor business”.
It would turn out to be his date with destiny, but he wasn’t bowled over by his prospective purchase. He found the Atom’s four-cylinder engine lacked the punch to exploit its excellent chassis. In less than a year – after negotiating hard – he would find himself in a position to do something about that…
Brown’s spending spree would also include acquiring Lagonda for a snip just a year later. During negotiations he met WO Bentley; the famous engineer was Lagonda’s technical director. Bentley showed Brown his new dual-overhead-camshaft, six-cylinder engine, and Brown immediately saw it as the motor to pep up Aston Martin performance. In April 1950 at the New York Auto Show, the DB2 wowed the world; it sported Bentley’s new powerplant under its elongated bonnet.
This DB2 Drophead is well known in Aston Martin circles, because it is the prototype car built for the 1950 London Motor Show. After its turn in front of the crowds at Earls Court, it became David Brown’s personal runabout. At the same time it doubled as the marque’s press demonstrator; it initially featured in Aston’s advertising posters, and it would later go on to star in the pages of The Autocar in October 1950 and Motor Sport in February 1951. By the end of ’51, with the car’s press duties finished, Brown’s son took it racing at Snetterton before a Vantage engine and floor-change transmission were fitted in October ’52 – and in 1954 it became the first car to be fitted with the new 2.9-litre engine.
After leaving Brown’s ownership, VMF 37 would eventually fall into obscurity and disrepair until it was rediscovered by a collector in 1970. It received its first full restoration shortly after that, before headlining the RM Sotheby’s Classic Motor Show sale in 1996. It was restored once again, this time by marque paint specialist Spray Tec Restorations, and the exceptional condition in which you see the car displayed in this picture, taken by myself at Concours of Elegance in 2020, is a credit to its current owner.
ENGINE: 3.0-litre, in-line six, double overhead camshaft, 140bhp, twin carburettors
CONFIGURATION: Front engine, four-speed gearbox, rear-wheel drive, tubular-steel chassis, stressed aluminium bodywork, coil spring with trailing arm suspension, drum brakes.
How cool is this? Maybe not everyone’s flavour of car, but a rare classic car for sure.
