Story and History

1952 Aston Martin DB2 Sports Saloon - Immaculate Condition

A complete cracker of an Aston and sooooo under-rated against the more televised DB5's

Price wise I think these have just got to jump up a notch or two

Really capable sports cars and excellent to drive at all times - we were lucky enough to take this little number via Gloucestershire and thence to North Wales before returning to Central London, over a nice few days and she was simply fautless

A cracking exhaust note, snappy acceleration, sharp brakes and handling to match

The driving experience is simply exhilarating with the limited grip from the correct cross ply tyres enabling a driver with similarly limited abilities (me) to feel as though one was capable of drifting a Maserati 250F around the Nurburgring - dream on Graeme

The DB2's we consider to be a most attractive motor

The need to accommodate the younger family man's small offspring brought a small redesign with 2 little extra seats and a new profile to the roof (for the worse to our eye) making the DB 2/4 after only 411 DB2'shad been completed

Our's is a nice early example and has until recently been in small, but important collection for the last 12 years or so

A sister car in the stable was a DB3S (excuse me but that is a tasteful couple, is it not?) and the maintenance was initially carried out during this ownership by well reputed Four Ashes garage until this enthusiastic custodian came across Rex Woodgate

He has maintained the DB2 exclusively for the past many years and amongst many other maintenance bills there is an extensive engine overhaul in 2012, since when only a couple of thousand miles have been travelled

Many Woodgate upgrades were include, amongst which from the paperwork it appears that a replacement crank from another DB3S was fitted

Anyhow, this does give us is, what must surely be, one of the best running DB's available anywhere

This little DB has been punching well above her weight in terms of her high profile keepers - a quite illustrious list of heavy weights

He bought her from the "Saviour" of Aston Martin, none other than Victor Gauntlett (what's the phrase here - if it was good enough for him, well then it must be good enough for anyone), who in turn acquired her through renowned Classic Car specialist, of note, Lukas Huni

Previously one John Donner had run her too, and he was very well known not just to me, but to Victor Barclay (son of Jack) too

So good were Mr Donner's restorations, so good was his eye for a special motor, that most unusually Mr Victor allowed his cars to be displayed for sale within the Showrooms in Berkeley Square - he did not allow this for anyone else at this time

There is full photographic folder of the chassis off restoration, carried out, we believe, whilst under the guidance of Mr Donner

Hence the DB was owned but such eminent and knowledgeable bastions of our industry subsequently

This would have been 20 years ago and when we got her back to Kensington it seemed appropriate to paint her bodywork

Time had left a few marks here and there, nothing of note you must understand, but to match the rest of her wonderful condition this was but a small undertaking

Now, even though we say so ourselves, her bodywork is most resplendent and one may even suggest glorious

Naturally we have detailed the engine bay to match - it's glorious in there too

The interior was lovely, so we decided to simply take out the seating and fresh seat belts, shampoo the carpets and then to clean everywhere rigorously before hide feeding the leather work and putting it all back together again

So now she is ready to 'cock a snook' at any DB5 that she may meet on the roads and her new custodian will sit comfortably knowing his investment is but a snip in comparison and yet his driving pleasure will be, well at least the same, and most probably, immeasurably larger