Today’s car is a 1953 Aston Martin DB2 Drop Head Coupe owned by David Martin. I photographed this car at the San Marino Motor Classic, that is held at Lacy Park, located in San Marino, CA. where this rare DB2 took Second Place in the British Sports Cars 1946 to 1975 class. As the name suggests, the DB2 is the second model introduced under the ownership of David Brown. His acquisition of both Aston Martin and Lagonda in 1947, led to Frank Feeley’s design of the DB2, their first successful post-war production car. Grand Prix champion Phil Hill once said of the DB2, ” the Aston handles as well as any sports car I’ve driven….”
The car is finished in aqua green with a cream leather interior with a dark green soft top. I like the look of the split window soft top. It is powered by a 105 hp, 2580 cc, 6 cylinder DOHC engine, with a pair of SU carburetors and mated to a David Brown 4-speed standard transmission with 3.77:1 rear axle gear ratio. Slowing this beauty down are Girling drum brakes in all 4 cornersr. It has independent front suspension using trailing arms, coil springs, shock absorbers, and an antiroll bar. The rear suspension has live rear axle, coil springs, radius bar and a hard pan rod (which provides lateral location of the rear axle). It has 2 exceptional original features including factory-optional Borrani wire wheels, (a very unusual option on a DB2), and the Smiths Bijou cigar lighter.
The production years were 1950 – 1953 with a total 0f 411 units built of which 105 were drop heads. It had a published top speed of 110 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 11.0 seconds. This is a beautiful example of an original restored post war sports car. What a great car to take to British car shows, Cars & Coffee events, or cruising to the beach for brunch in style, top down of coarse. Thank you for riding along. Frank
