Aston Martin

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Aston Martin | Pre War British Sports Cars



The design of the original Aston Martin was conceived as far back as 1913, when Lionel Martin, noted Singer exponent, appeared at speed events and hill-climbs with a hybrid car, powered by a 1400-c.c. Coventry-Simplex side-valve engine in one of the smaller Isotta-Fraschini chassis. This car was successful, especially at the Aston Clinton hill-climb, consequently the famous venue gave the car its name when the first production Aston Martin was marketed by Messrs. Bamford & Martin in the very early 'twenties.

Originally the car possessed a somewhat odd arrangement of three-quarter elliptic springs at the rear, but these were later supplanted by normal semi-elliptics. The Aston Martin was one of the first British cars, and certainly the first British sports car, to be marketed with front-wheel brakes. These were developed entirely by road-racing, and were of the Perrot pattern, a system adopted by the concern for many years. Lionel Martin had great faith in a well-built side-valve engine, and in this he was justified.

Fitted with the 66.5 x 107-mm. (1487-c.c.) unit with Hele-Shaw multi-plate clutch and four-speed gearbox, the Aston Martin had a wonderful racing career. In October, 1921, the first Aston Martin in the hands of H. Kensington-Moir (later of Bentley fame), actually covered 86.21 miles in the hour, a performance which was no mean feat on an unblown 1.5 liter car of the day, particularly with a side-valve engine.

Success followed success, and in the 1922 200 Miles Race G. C. Stead finished second. Two years later, H. S. Eaton, scheduled to drive a new-type o.h.v. car which was damaged in an accident whilst being towed, actually had the audacity to enter his own side-valve hack touring model. He finished this race at an average speed of 79.55 m.p.h., an incredible pace for a car which was not prepared in any way for racing. This repu­tation for sustained high speed remained with the Aston Martin. You only have to look at the concern's fine record in the 24-hour races at Le Mans. Possibly only the Bentleys could surpass the performance of the Aston Martins.

Bunny, Green Pea and Razor Blade



The old Astons were really famous in their day. Cars such as " Bunny", "Green Pea" and the immortal "Razor Blade" will, for Aston aficionados, live forever in their minds. "Bunny" was actually the first light car to hold world's records, breaking ten of them in a momentous non-stop run of eighteen hours in 1922. Several o.h.v. cars were also made before A. C. Bertelli took over the concern. The Hon. John Benson devised an extremely fine twin overhead-camshaft car, which was exhibited at the 1925 Motor Show. This same car, now fitted with a Zoller blower, was in the possession of J. A. Andrews, of Highgate, and was regu­larly seen in "vintage" events.

One or two 16-valve cars were also made - this engine was generally believed to have been based on the straight-eight Ballot power unit which had such a run of successes on the Continent. In the middle 'twenties the goodwill and so on of Bamford & Martin, Ltd., was acquired by A. C. Bertelli, who had made Quite a name for himself by designing very successful Enfield-Allday cars. Bertelli and his co-designer, W. S. Renwick, had been busy on a car of completely new design, and this car, tentatively called the R. & B. Special, became the Aston Martin of 1927 onwards.

Bertelli had similar ideas to Lionel Martin in that hard-wearing qualities, sustained high-speed capabilities, and first-rate handling were the prime considerations for a sports car. The new Aston, in time, showed that it had all those attributes. The overhead-camshaft engine was a fine piece of work. The valves were placed in the detachable head in the same plane, and, to quote W. Boddy, "to provide a head shape beloved of Ricardo, yet usually associated with side-by-side location." The eccentrically mounted rockers passed below the camshaft to bear on steel studs on the valve stems. A timing chain, with Weller chain-tensioning as fitted later on A.J.S. motor-cycles, drove from a countershaft which, in turn, was driven from the crankshaft.

This arrangement made possible the removal of the head without disturbing the engine timing; it was necessary only to unhook the camshaft sprocket. Perhaps the most notable departure was the use of dry-sump lubrication when wet sumps were almost universal. This system, of course, had been completely vindicated by racing motor-cycles and notably by the "Model 90" Sunbeam. The oil tank was carried between the dumb irons, and the crankcase interior was scavenged by a pump mounted in tandem with the main delivery unit. Another departure was the use of an impeller to cool the cylinder head, the block being cooled by a straightforward thermo-siphon system.

Capacity was 1488-c.c. (69 x 99-mm.); twin carburetors were fitted, magneto ignition was used, and the crankshaft ran on three large bearings. The Aston had already anticipated remote control of the gearbox by fitting the gearbox where the gear- lever came to the driver's hand. Bertelli retained this separate mounting, which is always identifiable with the older Astons. The rear axle was unusual in that underslung worm drive was used. This was probably the only part of the car that was unsatisfactory, and it was later replaced by a more conventional E.N.V. spiral bevel unit. Performance was exceptional and every example was capable of a genuine 80 m.p.h., even although the weight of 17-cwt. was considered high when compared with contemporary 1.5-litre cars.

In 1930 the "International" four-seater was introduced, and immediately caught on. The low, racy-looking lines started a fashion that is still stylish to-day. Racing successes were many, and the 1932 Le Mans saw Bertelli and his co-driver Driscoll win the Biennial Cup. The following year the separate gearbox was dropped, and it was mated with the engine assembly. The brakes were further improved and a long-chassis model introduced to take closed coachwork. The Mark II came the following year, and was reputed to push out over 73 b.h.p. at 5200 r.p.m. The engine, of course, was considerably modified, including the adoption of a fully counterbalanced nitralloy crankshaft and a compression ratio of 7.5 to 1.

The " Ulster " model was developed from this type, and is generally regarded as being one of the prettiest sports cars ever made. It was the " beau ideal" of all sportsmen, with its long streamlined tail, close-fitting cycle-type wings, outside exhaust pipe, low-slung appearance, impressive facia panel (with dozens of switches), and a maximum of around the century mark. This car represented the peak of the Bertelli-type Aston Martins, and “Ulsters" in good order are extremely valuable cars even to-day. In recent years the concern have tended to concentrate more on 2-litre cars, which were every bit as successful as their fore­bears. The " C-type " Aston was possibly the fastest un-supercharged car ever offered for sale with the possible exception of the big Le Mans-type Lagondas.

The “Atom" was of exceed­ingly advanced design and was fully aerodynamic. However, there is a slight suspicion that the glamour surrounding the earlier Astons is fading. The cars produced just prior to the Hitler war hadn't quite the sleek look of the old cars, although their per­formance was infinitely better. The streamlined "Atom " model was not a good-looker, but its performance was that of a racing car. The 1,949-c.c. (78 x 102-mm.) power unit has tremendous possibilities, especially when fitted with the novel extractor exhaust system, a series of irregularly spaced pipes running between the cylinder block and exhaust manifold. The 2-litre Astons did well at Le Mans, and St. John Horsfall's car was the first British car home in the 1938 T.T. at Donington Park. He also returned to racing with a fine win in the Belgian sports car races in June.
1930s Aston Martin International
Aston Martin International Two/Four Seater of the early 1930s.
Aston Martin Ulster
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