Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, Le Mans 1961

[Brian]

Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, 1961 Le Mans.
Driven by Jean Kerguen and Jacques Dewez.
The car did not finish the race due to engine problems, having covered 286 laps.

This is a beautiful GP Miniatures kit. PCS 32 chassis, NSR Shark 20 and Slot.it running gear. Ortmann Tyres on RS Slot wheels.





I have raced this car many times at my club and one day I will rebuild it to a better standard than it currently is.

This and a Jaguar MkX were my first builds

Thanks for looking.

Brian

[Chris Wright]

Very good looking car, I've always been a fan of Graham's cars, ever since day one when he and half the scratch builders on Slotforum went through the agonizing process of converting a Scalextric Aston Martin into a great looking slot car. (even if it was a little too big, much to grahams frustration).

Great work on a great kit!

[zagato]

A couple of shots of said DBR1.

[Brian]

Zagato,
Beautiful build.
I have 2 of Grahams DBR1's waiting in the eve's.
Can anyone tell me if the car was raced in any other colour than BRG? I hope there's a silver one.
Cheers.

Brian

[Chris Wright]

Hi Brian,

I've done exhaustive reserch on these cars, (not as much as Graham) the only one I found in a colour other than Aston Green was the 1960 Aston Martin DBR1 #7 Le Mans car of Jim Clark, entered by Border Reivers. This car is considerably altered from it's original configuration because of a silly rule that specified a suitcase had to fit in the boot!

Here are a picture of a model and the real thing.





If you've been looking for referrence online and found the built model of Graham's car in silver, that is a non-accurate "flashy" rendition done for re-sale by Chris Clark (bosmeck). It bears no resemblance to any DBR-1 past or present.

I also found our that there's several renditions of this car. like DBR-2's, (has a larger engine). There were several DBR-1's made. Every car is different (scoops, vents etc) and modern rebuilt cars add even more variations into the mix.

The bad news is that every one of them is painted Aston Martin Green! To add complication to the whole colour discussion here is a quote from Graham Poulton on the subject:

I've been studying Aston Martins for the last twenty years or so and this colour thing continues to rumble on. The fact is that they used whatever was on the shelf at the time. I also had the same email from Neil Murray. (By the tone of it he was sick and tired of beig asked!) The simple answer to all this is that the early DB2s were painted Cadillac Green. For that use BRG, nobody will know the difference. The DB3, DB3s and DBR1s were "painted" Almond Green Metallic. Now this really is where it get complicated as in fact they were not painted at all. Or at least in the true sense of the word. They were "painted" with varnish with a green pigment. My guess is that the metallic effect was in fact the aluminium showing through the varnish, but it's just a guess. All modern images of the DBR1 show an incorrect colour. I believe the colour they used on "restored" cars was/is Project Green. However a very simple solution to the Almond green problem is to use Ford Forest Green

[Brian]

I raced this Zagato at my club for a year or 2 and have recently just redid it.
Thanks to Graham for new etchings and decals.

[Brian]

The cars sitting on a set of Graham’s wheels too.