British car-maker celebrates 60 years since it won the world’s most famous endurance race with a journey in some of its most memorable models
We are just moments into our diamond jubilee pilgrimage to Le Mans to celebrate Aston Martin’s one and only outright victory and we’re already in trouble.
Ahead of me is a sparkling silver Aston Martin DB6 Volante that’s insured for a cool million and behind me, closer still, I can just make out the faint golden glow of a pair of headlights that belong to a concours-winning cherry red ’79 AMV8 Vantage, but at this precise moment neither driver is in a celebratory mood.
Consumed with terror more accurately sums up the mood as the bruised sky darkens and a biblical downpour begins.
Sitting cocooned in the comfort of ‘my’ modern V8 Vantage I can only observe the horror unfold as the Aussie driver in the DB6 with 1970s-tech wipers completely fails to deal with the monsoon-like conditions.
Adding to the near zero visibility, a long line of slow-moving trucks ahead and alongside are engulfing our three-car convoy with an impenetrably thick cloak of water spray, blinding us from seeing the treacherous puddles of standing water.
Running on new but period-correct rubber, all of us expect at least one of the elderly Astons to pirouette gracefully under the wheels of a truck or off into the same battle fields that claimed the lives of millions in the first World War.
It’s not ideal and I’m not surprised to hear not one but two rapid down-shifts before the DB lifts its skirt and launches past the procession of big rigs.
Chasing him, jaw firmly clenched, I ignore the blinking stability warning light and pursue the DB as it disappears in the white mist ahead, hoping the ex-Rowan Atkinson Aston in my wake follows my tracks and makes it through in one piece.
With overtaking safely completed, if anything the rain gets worse not better, but luckily we’re gifted just enough vision to spot a sign for a servo and beat a hasty retreat to sit out the storm.
Time to reflect
An hour later and we’re still here sheltering with a crowd of shivering and sodden bikers overlooking a car park full of both old and new exotica.
It’s here that we meet up with the other heritage Astons that will travel along on our 700km anniversary jaunt to Le Mans. Assembled, I’ll admit us drivers are an odd bunch.
In our group there’s a well-known British TV wine critic, a pair of young influencers with perfectly coiffured hair (and millions of followers) and then there’s us – a handful of tatty dishevelled car hacks.
One man towering above the group does stand apart, both in stature and importance.
It’s Marek Reichman – Aston Martin’s design boss – the same man who penned the Rapide, new Vanquish, Vulcan and DB11, among others, during the 11-ish years he’s worked for the British car-maker.
Today he left his modern company Aston parked up at the car-maker’s HQ and turned up for the drive in these grim conditions in his delightfully ratty 54′ DB2/4 race car that he raced at Goodwood only last week.
Proudly wearing its dents, scratches and corrosion as a badge of honour, the DB2/4 is nothing short of achingly cool in an age where most Aston Martins are over restored to better than new.
But I have little time to pour over its patina as a quick check of the weather radar suggests we’ve borne the brunt of this freakish summer storm and it’s time to switch cars and press on.
Love at first sight
Climbing into Mr Bean’s — sorry, Rowan’s — old Aston and I’m instantly head-over-heels.
It’s this very car the British comedic actor once smoked around in during the early ‘80s and perched high on the driver’s soft leather armchair you can understand why as it offers the perfect view of its evocative huge bonnet power-bulge that’s every bit as iconic as a Countach rear wing.
Back when it was new, writers frequently mistakenly referred to the big Vantage as a British take on a US muscle-car – but today that seems a little unfair and does a massive disservice to what should be regarded as nothing short of a pure ‘70s supercar.
The all-aluminium 5.3-litre V8, for example, features double overhead cams and four big twin-choke, downdraft Weber carburettors to produce, even in standard form, a thumping 291kW.
This elevated the big Brit to become the world’s fastest four-seater and back when most cars struggled to hit 200km/h, the Vantage could cruise all day long at 250km/h and max out at 270km/h.
Away from the lights, despite its near-two-tonne mass, it could hit 60mph (97km/h) in 5.3 seconds – quicker than even the Ferrari Daytona.
With soft springs but firm damping plus a de Dion axle, today the V8 still feels like a fast, comfortable and sophisticated tool to help soak up the miles.
Even when the rain eventually returns with a vengeance it’s nowhere near as terrifying as I had imagined earlier.
Part of the reason, I imagine, is that even without modern driver aids, the old coupe runs far narrower tyres, helping it cut through the standing water rather than gliding over the top like modern low-profile sports car tyres do.
Even the dogleg manual gearbox, which won’t be rushed, is smooth and engaging, while the slightly wobbly and light power-assisted steering settles down at high speed.
Basically, the AMV8 is one of those rare old cars that gets better the faster you go.
But it’s far from perfect. Outside it sounds wonderful but within the leather-lined cabin (which features ice-cold air-con) it lacks the burbling V8 soundtrack promised by that swollen bonnet. There’s also a deeply unpleasant and vigorous rocking on its engine mounts, which at idle that makes it tiresome in traffic.
Bench racing
After a long spell behind the wheel we reach our overnight stay, and over dinner we hear how the DBR1 earned its hard-fought victory at Le Mans back in 1959.
In what remains a masterstroke of strategy, Aston Martin, with the help of none other than Stirling Moss, devised a cunning plan to bluff the Ferrari team out of a win.
It revolved around Moss lapping the near-14km circuit as hard and fast as he dared – not an approach ever favoured in a marathon race but one that proved effective.
As Moss chased down lap record after lap record he begin to build an impressive lead.
This startled Ferrari as it implied the DBR1 had far more pace than the Italian team was led to believe in the earlier practices and qualifying.
As victory seemingly began slipping away from its clutches, the Italian team crumbled under the pressure and ordered its drivers to hunt down the Brit in their Ferrari 250TRs.
This was the beginning of a costly mistake.
As the red cars rapidly closed the gap to Moss’ car, the Englishman’s engine expired – exactly as Aston Martin had predicted. But by then it was too late.
The lead Ferrari driver had already pushed his car too hard, hitting an incredible 9500rpm on the Mulsanne straight in pursuit of the British Racing Green DBR1s.
From then on it was a waiting game for the Ferrari to eventually blow up, which it did.
This handed the outright victory to Roy Salvadori and Texan, Carroll Shelby, with the second remaining factory car completing a famous 1-2 for Aston Martin.
On the road again
After a decent sleep and the news the British team has scored pole in qualifying, the omens are good for perhaps not an outright win but a victory in the GT class.
Climbing behind the wheel of a V8 Vantage V550 and I’m happy to admit feeling more than a little bit apprehensive.
Just the day before in admittedly damp conditions, one of the drivers reported the 1995 coupe happily spun its rear tyres up in fourth gear at over 130km/h.
Powered by a twin-Eaton supercharged version of the original Vantage’s 5.3-litre V8, the V550 produces 550bhp or 410kW in our money.
More relevant to the secret of the heavyweight coupe’s sledgehammer performance is that the engine manages to deploy an incredible 745Nm of torque.
Even more remarkably, this late car isn’t as powerful as the early ones.
Originally, Aston didn’t have a dyno strong enough to cope with the supercharged V8’s monumental torque output. Instead of buying a new one, the most powerful engines went untested.
Only years later engineers realised their rudimentary calculation for estimating power outputs was far too conservative and that some of the early cars generated even more power and torque than the final Vantage V600 that pumped out 600bhp (447kW).
The mid-1990s Vantage cabin feels gloriously outdated and full to the brim of old Ford parts and switchgear, including a steering wheel borrowed from the Crown Victoria sedan.
Back then it was labelled ‘cheap’ and not very cheerful but today, with the Fords that donated its parts long gone and rusting away in peace, the V550 feels quirky and characterful.
What doesn’t feel outdated is the pace.
No wonder the big Aston spun up its tyres a day earlier on the wet highway, despite its imposing dimensions (it’s 4750mm long). The V550 can hit 100km/h in around 4.6 seconds and top out at more than 300km/h.
Barking loudly into life, the powerful Vantage produces a cultured, deep, hollow and unmistakeable V8 soundtrack that’s joined from around 2100rpm by the familiar sound of a belt-driven superchargers.
Curiously, those twin belt-driven blowers initially feel like a sequential turbo set-up.
There’s lag down low in the rev range when, suddenly, from two grand the boost comes online. Then, just when you think acceleration is about to plateau, above 4000rpm it feels like the V8 comes on-boost all over again.
It’s an intoxicating experience aided by a sweet-shifting six-speed shared with the similar vintage Corvette ZR1.
Limiting confidence are the brakes that, despite featuring an anti-skid system, struggle to cope with the velocities generated by that savage supercharged V8.
The Vantage also bottoms out on big bumps and always feels wide (1830mm) heavy (1920kg) and a little unwieldy.
Road to Le Mans
With only a 130km autoroute run into Le Mans remaining, we switch for one final time and it’s my turn in the car I’ve been dreading.
For almost two days now I’ve seen people pottering along in the DB6 giving me the impression that it’s not only slow but a little decrepit in its old age – something a large number of cars from the ‘50s and ‘60s suffer from, despite their jaw-dropping looks.
Worse still, the DB6 journeying down is neither the fastest Vantage nor, in my eyes, the more desirable coupe.
Slurping its fuel through weedy SU carbs, which also fed my first Mini, I expect to potter along at pedestrian speed and be forced to sit back and enjoy a slower pace of life.
I couldn’t be more wrong. The DB6 flies.
Powered by a lusty 4.0-litre straight-six, the 210kW it produces easily shrugs off its 1500kg mass and, if anything, makes it feel quicker than the 6.3 seconds Aston claimed the DB6 took to hit 60mph (97km/h).
By far the best sounding car of the day, the sonorous inline six is combined with a glorious five-speed manual and all-round disc brakes that are far better than you would ever imagine.
All this means you can drive it far faster than you probably should, bearing in mind the astonishing £950,000 ($1.7m) price that Aston Martin Works is charging for this very car.
Perhaps a little more feedback from the factory-fitted power steering would be welcome, but as we approached the circuit you couldn’t have hoped for a better reception from the assembled Brits, even if they were mostly inebriated.
Parking up at Aston’s own glamping facilities, I wish I could tell you that we got a hero’s welcome. But rightfully so, it was the cars that got the attention from the Aston Martin owners and VIPs amassed at Le Mans.
As you’ve no doubt already read, this year fate conspired against the British car-maker from paying a proper on-track tribute to its original outright 1959 win.
Despite the huge disappointment of not being competitive and, ironically, being beaten by Ferrari, the devastated racers, engineers and team bosses were heartened by the genuine support and passion shown by those who actually put their money where their mouths are and buy the new cars that fund the car-maker’s race efforts.
It’s precisely that support that is bank-rolling Aston Martin’s historic return to top-tier Le Mans competition once more, not in the GTE sports car class but the newly-formed hypercar category with the Valkyrie in 2021.
Replacing the current, premier LMP1 prototype class, it will finally give Aston Martin the chance it deserves to finally reclaim outright victory at what remains the world’s toughest endurance race.
Keyword: Aston Martin road trip to Le Mans