This week we go for a lively ride in one of Britain’s (if not the world’s) most beautiful automobiles: an Aston Martin DBR1.
One of just five hand-built DBR1s produced, this example is particularly significant due to it being the very first one made, in addition to it being the same model, though not the exact car, that earned Aston Martin an overall Le Mans victory and a worthy motorsport legacy. Obviously, a car of such importance requires expert narration, and we were lucky enough to get the perfect man for the job: Stephen Archer.
Mr. Archer, a veteran Aston Marin racer since the late ‘70s, is the official Aston Martin Works Historian. Aston Martin Works is the historic home of the brand, and has a history of its own that is almost six decades in the making, so it goes without saying Stephen knows a thing or two about the cars.
Stephen retells DBR1/1’s most memorable moment, a tale that places near the top of the all time greatest racing stories. “Come '55, John Wyer and David Brown decided to produce a racing car that'd finally take the fight properly to the opposition,” Stephen tells, “[And] right from the outset, the DBR1 was to prove itself an incredibly competent racing car. And yet it was designed by a tiny team led by one man, Ted Cutting, who designed the chassis, the engine, and the beautiful, beautiful body that epitomizes racing Aston Martins.”
“Come 1959, the team of Aston Martins went on, of course, to win Le Mans—in fact, they took first and second. But why is this car, DBR1/1, so important if it wasn’t the winning car? Well, just three weeks before Le Mans was the 1,000 Kilometers of the Nürburgring and the factory wasn't going to enter a car there—the target was to win Le Mans—but Stirling Moss
said, ‘Look we've won this race twice, we can win this race again. Just let me take the car there,’ and John Wyer agreed.”
With a five minute and five second lead earned by the 17th lap, it appeared Moss wa
