After acquiring Aston Martin in 1947, David Brown set his sights on victory at Le Mans. This goal was to be achieved in 1959 by the team of three DBR1’s. The triumphant DBR1/2 was driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. Maurice Trintignant and Paul Frere, in DBR1/4 finished in runner-up spot, and Sir Stirling Moss & Jack Fairman retired in their influential DBR1/3.
The epic battle between Moss and the Ferrari's in the early stages of the race caused the fragile Ferrari's to become overstressed, and one by one, they retired. Thus Moss, in his sacrificial DBR1, cleared the way for Shelby and Salvadori to claim the chequered flag and give success to David Brown and
Aston Martin in the 24 hour race.
With other excellent race performances, including victory for the third year running, at Nurburgring and the Goodwood TT, Aston Martin would also secure the overall Sportscar World Title that year. Having achieved the double of Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship, David Brown then announced the decision to concentrate their racing involvement in single seater car race series, with Formula One their main focus. Therefore the total production of DBR1's numbered only five.
The DBR2's were prototypes constructed on a pair of backbone chassis that were left from the short lived 1955 Lagonda V12 race car project. These two cars showed great promise but fell foul of rule changes in 1958 that limited engine capacity to 3000cc. However, they both enjoyed successful racing careers, with victories and podiums in several races including at Silverstone, Goodwood, Oulton Park, Aintree, Spa- Francorchamps and in the USA. The newly developed straight six engines that they were using would go on to power Astons into the 1970's.
