1952 Aston Martin DB2

This car competed in two races at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2015.

It's The Reed family's 1952 Aston Martin DB2 which the programme of the event says has the 2,992cc engine that was introduced with the DB3S in 1953. Its first race that day was the AMOC '50s Sports Car race when it was driven by David Reed, but this photograph shows it at Lodge Corner being driven by David Reed's wife, Mrs Anne Reed, during practice for the Equipe GTS Race.

1952 Aston Martin DB2

This car competed in two races at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2015 and it's here being prepared for one of those races in the pit garage.

It's The Reed family's 1952 Aston Martin DB2 which the programme of the event says has the 2,992cc engine that was introduced with the DB3S in 1953. Its first race that day was the AMOC '50s Sports Car race when it was driven by David Reed, but the photograph below shows it at Cascades during its second race, the Equipe GTS race, being driven by David Reed's wife, Mrs Anne Reed.

Britten's Chicane, Oulton Park

Three photographs here and a short video clip taken at Britten's chicane during the Equipe Pre '63 race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2018.

This is the 1965 Austin Healey 3000 of Martyn Corfield leading the 1959 Elva Courier of Paul Andrew. In the background Adam Key in his 1961 Austin Healey Sprite has spun after Island Corner and is still facing the wrong way.

Paul Kennerley in his 1959 Jaguar XK150 is leading David Reed in his 1952 Aston Martin DB2

James Haxton in his 1960 Austin Healey 3000 leading the 1954 Austin Healey 100/4 of Jim Campbell, the 1962 Morgan Plus 4 of Mark Hoble and the 1962 Lotus Elite of John Pearson.

The field passing through Britten's chicane on the first lap of the race. It's a bit shaky and filmed on my little Canon IXUS camera.

Aston Martin Owners Club

The Aston Martin Owners Club has organised race meetings at Oulton Park for many years, and this photograph was taken at the 2002 meeting, in May of that year.

It's the start of Race 2 at that meeting, the long-winded sounding 'Pre-War Feltham Aston Martin Sports Cars + Other Pre-War/50s Sports Cars' race. Leading off the grid is Alan Collett's 2,922cc 1958 Aston Martin DB MkIII (SXT 1), and behind him the 3,780cc 1952 Jaguar C-Type (PUG 676) of Ben Cussons alongside the 2,922cc 1950 Aston Martin DB2 (VMF 65) of Oliver Leyba. Just poking its nose into the picture is another DB MkIII (MSL 277), the red 1958 model of Michael Hudson.

Aston Martin DB2

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's a 1950 Aston Martin DB2 with the 2.6 litre straight-6 Lagonda engine. This was the first DB2 with the Vantage engine, chassis LML/50/21, and was delivered new in December 1950 to Briggs Cunningham who drove it to 17th place in the Sebring 6 Hours race the same month.

Aston Martin DB2

This is one of the cars that was on display at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993 where the theme of the meeting was 'British Racing Green'.

It's a 1949 Aston Martin DB2, one of three prototypes that were entered in the 1949 Le Mans 24 Hour race. The other two cars had the same 4-cylinder inline 1,970cc engine as the earlier Aston Martin 2-litre Sports, later known as the DB1, but UMC 66 (chassis number LML/49/3) had the 6-cylinder inline 2,580cc Lagonda engine. David Brown had bought both the Aston Martin and Lagonda companies in 1947 and incorporated them as Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. UMC 66 was to be driven at the 1949 Le Mans race by Leslie Johnson and Charles Brackenbury, but retired with a broken water pump after just 6 laps.

Aston Martin DB2

This car is approaching Lodge Corner during the Pre-1959 Aston Martin Race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

It's the 1952 Aston Martin DB2 of Martin Cheetham. The DB2 had a 2,580cc straight-6 engine, and it was produced between 1950 and 1953 before being superseded by the DB2/4. Martin Cheetham's car is chassis LML/50/201, and you can read this description of the car when it was offered for sale by Car & Classic on behalf of the Dutch Houtkamp Collection.

Aston Martin DB2 at Oulton Park

I didn't realise until I was back home and looking at the photographs I had taken at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May this year just how many photographs I had taken of one particular car.

It's not shown in the programme of the event, but it's the 1951 Aston Martin DB2 Lightweight of Glynn Allen and Julian Bailey-Watts, photographed here in the paddock.

It took part in two races at the meeting, the AMOC '50s Sports Car race and the Equipe GTS race.

The practicing/qualifying took place in the morning starting at 8.30, the racing started at 1.30 in the afternoon, and I went to various parts of the circuit throughout the day to watch and take photographs.

This is the map of the circuit printed in the programme. and I first went to Lodge Corner to watch the early part of practice.

Here's the DB2 at Lodge Corner

During that practice session I walked down to Old Hall Corner.....

.....where one of the photographs I took was of the same car.

After the lunch interval I went to Druids Corner for the first race then made my way to the furthest part of the circuit at Shell Oils Corner to watch the next couple of races.

Race 2 was the '50s Sports Car race and I took another photograph of the Aston going through the Britten's chicane. It was driven in this race by Darren Roberts.

I walked round towards Shell Oils Corner and took my next photograph of the car as it approached Island Bend.

From that point you can see the whole of Shell Oils Corner, as the next photograph shows - I took it to show the whole of the loop, but the car you can see on the extreme right of the group of 3 cars is the DB2.

When I first started going to Oulton Park in 1955 the corner was known as Esso Bend and spectators could only go round to just short of where Britten's chicane is now, so you couldn't see the loop at all.

Here's the Aston coming round the last part of the loop.....

.....and approaching the Britten's chicane.

The Equipe GTS race was Race 4 and when that race was in progress I was walking round the inside of the circuit from Cascades towards Old Hall Corner.

Here's the Aston approaching Cascades, being driven in Race 4 - the Equipe GTS race - by Glynn Allen.

Aston Martin DB2

Taking part in one of the races at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May 2002 was the car shown below.

It's an Aston Martin DB2, one of the Aston Martin team cars for the 1951 racing season and was driven at Oulton Park by Chris Woodgate. You can read about the car in this astonmartins.com article.

Aston Martin DB2

This photograph was taken at the Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in May 2002. It's a 1950 Aston Martin DB2, one of three cars which were built to take part in the 1950 Le Mans 24 hour race. Unfortunately it didn't take part in that race because of an accident en route to the circuit and this Bonhams website describes the history of the car when it was offered for auction in 2010. It was raced at the Oulton Park meeting by the then owner, Oliver Leyba of Hamburg, who is shown in action below at Lodge Corner.

Aston Martin DB2 Vantage Drophead Coupe

This is a car photographed in the Aston Martin Owners Club display area at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993. It's a 1952 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage Drophead Coupe with coachwork by Carrosserie Graber and you can read about the car on this Bonhams website.