Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

This was one of the competitors in the BRDC '60s GT Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

2 VEV is one of four special lightweight versions of the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato and is one of two such cars produced for John Ogier's Essex Racing team for the 1961 season. It had the straight-6 twin overhead cam 3,670cc engine and is chassis DB4GT/183/R, and its first race, together with the other Essex Racing Team car was the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hour Race where it was driven by Australians Lex Davison and Bib Stilwell. Both cars retired early in the race suffering from overheating because the cylinder heads had not been correctly tightened after engine rebuilds. It was subsequently driven to fourth place (stablemate 1 VEV finishing in third place) in the 1961 RAC Tourist Trophy Race at Goodwood by Jim Clark. The car was driven at this Silverstone meeting by Nick Cussons and the programme of the event says that its engine capacity was 3,761cc.

This is a photograph I took 31 years previously at the 1961 British Grand Prix meeting where the car had its second outing for the Essex Racing Team in the supporting GT race. It was driven by Lex Davison, who won the race ahead of the Jaguar E-Type of Jack Sears.

Rainy Day at Oulton Park

I took this photograph of two Aston Martins in the paddock at Oulton Park on a very wet day at the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting in September 1992.

On the right is Simon Draper's straight six 2,992cc 1954 Aston Martin DB3S, chassis #DB3S/7. Originally built with a coupe body but was rebuilt with an open body after an accident in the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hour race. The car on the left is a straight six 3,670cc 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, the first one built, and it's chassis #200R. On 23 January 2016 I showed a photograph of this car that I'd taken at Silverstone in 2010.

Aston Martin

Here are four cars that took part in the Aston Martin Owners Club's Autumn Historic Car Races meeting at Oulton Park in September 1993.

This car is shown in the programme of the event as a 1990 Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, entered and driven that day by Geoffrey Harris. It would therefore appear to be one of the four Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Sanction II cars built between 1989 and 1991.

Here is John Freeman's 1970 Aston Martin DBS V8. The original DBS produced from 1967 to 1972 used the straight-six engine from the DB6, and the DBS V8 joined it in 1969, remaining in production until 1989, from 1973 known simply as the Aston Martin V8.

This is Simon Draper's 1960 Aston Martin DB4, a car which replaced the DB MkIII and which  preceded the DB5, the famous 'James Bond' car.

Fourways Engineering Ltd's 1960 Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, driven by James Taylor. It's possibly a standard DB4 rebuilt with a Zagato style body by Fourways Engineering (see the link to the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Sanction II above).

Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato

This is a car in the paddock at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010 waiting to go out on a practice session.

It's a 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato which was driven by Julien and Matthew Draper at this meeting in the one hour long race for the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy for Historic Cars. It's the first DB4 GT Zagato built, chassis number 0200, and took part in the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hour race in the hands of Mike Salmon and Ian Baillie, but unfortunately failed to finish the race.

Deuteranomaly

Deuteranomaly is apparently the most common type of colour blindness. According to Wikipedia: "These individuals have a mutated form of the medium-wavelength (green) pigment. The medium-wavelength pigment is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum resulting in a reduction in sensitivity to the green area of the spectrum." Which means that these people have problems differentiating between red and green. The following photograph was taken at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1999.

Both cars were built (early 1930s and early 1960s) at a time when, by and large, racing cars were painted in their national racing colours. The green car is an Italian (racing colours: red) Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, and the red car is a British (racing colours: green) Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato.