Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports (DB1)

Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports at a glance

The 2-Litre Sports opens the "DB" line that continued with the DB2, the Aston Martin DB2/4 Touring Spyder and, much later, the DB5 and the Aston Martin DB7. The story of the company is told in our Aston Martin history.

From the Atom to the 2-Litre Sports

The car's roots go back to the Second World War. Claude Hill developed the Aston Martin Atom prototype with a new tubular chassis and a new 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine. When the industrialist David Brown bought Aston Martin, work started on an updated version, and the 2-Litre Sports became the first product of the company under his ownership.

In an interview with Motor Sport magazine in April 1949, Hill explained his aims: simple construction suited to small-scale production, first-class steering and roadholding, and a genuine 90 mph (about 145 km/h) with a comfortable ride from soft springs.

Engineering

The chassis was a frame of rectangular and square mild-steel tubes, replacing the channel-section chassis of earlier Aston Martins. According to Hill, two men could build a frame in ten days. The Spa car had a wheelbase of about 2,740 mm, while closed cars were planned with about 2,640 mm.

The front suspension was independent, with trailing links running on needle-roller and ball bearings, coil springs and Armstrong hydraulic dampers, plus an anti-roll bar through the front cross-member. At the rear, a hypoid axle on trailing members was also sprung by coil springs. Front brakes were 305 mm (12-inch) Girling hydraulic units.

The four-cylinder engine has a bore of 82.5 mm and a stroke of 92 mm, giving about 1,970 cc. Hill replaced the overhead camshaft of the pre-war Bertelli engines with simpler pushrod valve gear and dropped dry-sump lubrication. The normal compression ratio was 7.3:1. A David Brown synchromesh gearbox replaced the Cotal gearbox of the Atom.

The Spa 24 Hours victory

To test its durability, the updated prototype was entered for the 24 Hours of Spa in 1948. Driven by St. John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson, it won outright. Motor Sport reported an average speed of about 116 km/h over roughly 2,780 km, on a single set of Dunlop racing tyres. The race car had two oversize SU carburettors, a compression ratio of 8.5:1 for the local fuel and a 136-litre fuel tank in the tail.

The car averaged about 14 litres per 100 km over the race and carried Lucas headlamps and two spot lamps for the night. In the same interview Hill described the plans for Le Mans in 1949: two 2-litre cars, one experimental 2-litre engine and closed bodywork on the shorter wheelbase.

After the race, Aston Martin showed a rebuilt Spa car at the London Motor Show as the "Spa Replica", offered for public sale, but there were no buyers. The original Spa car spent many years in a Dutch museum before returning to the United Kingdom in 2006, where it was fully restored.

Production

The production 2-Litre Sports, presented at the London Motor Show in 1948, had a more conventional body than the cycle-winged Spa car. Thirteen cars received the open roadster body with a three-part grille and a spare-wheel compartment in one front wing, and one more was delivered as a bare chassis for custom coachwork. By the time the DB2 arrived only 12 had been built; chassis 13, 14 and 15 were completed to special order as soft-tops for customers who still wanted the earlier car.

The car weighed 1,143 kg and could reach about 150 km/h. One car, registered UMD 123, has a remarkable later history: sold to New Zealand in 1991 and to Japan in 1994, it was stolen from a wharf, recovered in 2007 and then sold to a buyer in Australia.

Legacy

The 2-Litre Sports was built in tiny numbers, but its Spa victory and its new chassis gave Aston Martin a fresh start under David Brown. Its successor, the DB2 of 1950, was a closed car with a Lagonda straight-six designed by W. O. Bentley, and David Brown's initials went on to name a long line of Aston Martins, from the DB2 to the DB12.

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