The Aston Martin Team Cars

The Aston Martin Team Cars

A really wonderful article on the 1931 Aston Martin Team Cars in the May issue, the excellent photos and detailed information provides very valuable Aston Martin history. 1 knew these cars well but I am no historian and missed many details that I find very interesting today. You say that “the long, rounded tails were unique to these team cars”. I knew two of the production Le Mans two-seaters produced in 1931 and I remember that their long rounded tails were the same as those fitted to the team cars except that the production cars had only one filler instead of two. Jimmy Nervo had one, to which he later fitted a different body, and the other that I knew was bought by Manby-Colegrave and yet another that Inner rode in mass blue one which had a unique right hand gear lever. In my opinion these cars are wrongly described by the Aston Martin Owners’ Club in their Register as “International Le Mans”. I remember these cars as the first genuine “Lc Mans Models” quite separate from the then current “International” model, catalogued, eanibited at

the Motor Show and sold before the second series of I1/2-litre cars produced in 1932.

The blue Le Mans model with the right hand gear lever W2S built for W. Cuthbert who was better known as a Riley driver at Brooklands. About forty years ago I wrote an article for the Autocar about Jimmy Nervo’s car. This was a great machine in which brand I enjoyed some fine long runs. Kineton A. F. RIVERS FLETCHER (E. Inman Hunter, the Aston Martin historian and an apprentice at Aston Martin in 1931, writes: I fear Rivers Fletcher is being a little pedantic. Certainly there were a few replicas of the 1931 team cars called “Lc Mans” two-seaters but I would agree with C.R. that the “long rounded tails were unique to the team cars”, emphasis on TEAM CARS. The “Le Mans” production models were in fact “International” chassis with special bodies which were less attractive than the team originals as they had the taller production radiators and more bulbous tails. Cuthbert’s and Jimmy Nerve’s cars are illustrated in my little book on pages 105 and 107.]