Aston Martin DBR4
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The Aston Martin DBR4/250, commonly referred to simply as the DBR4, is a
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
, designed by Ted Cutting for the sports car manufacturer
Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...
. Following notable successes in
sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
during the mid- to late-1950s — culminating in winning the
24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...
endurance race and the
World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...
title in — the DBR4 was intended to repeat this success in the highest tier of
open-wheel racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single-s ...
. The DBR4 was largely based on the DB3S sportscar, and borrowed that vehicle's basic chassis and engine layout. Although it was tested as early as 1957, the DBR4 did not make its World Championship debut until the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, driven by
Roy Salvadori Roy Francesco Salvadori (12 May 1922 – 3 June 2012) was a British racing driver and team manager. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent. He graduated to Formula One by 1952 and competed regularly until 1962 for a su ...
and
Carroll Shelby Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified duri ...
. However, its long gestation period meant that by the time it finally entered competition much of its concept and technology had been superseded, and the car was not a success. The DBR4 was replaced by the lighter
Aston Martin DBR5 The Aston Martin DBR5 (also known as DBR5/250) was a Formula One racing car, designed by the sports car manufacturer Aston Martin. Following the poor results of the Aston Martin DBR4 in the 1959 Formula One season the lighter and smaller DBR5 w ...
/250 in early 1960, but when that car also failed to provide competitive results Aston Martin abandoned Formula One to concentrate on their more successful sports car projects.


Design

A potential open-wheeled Aston Martin racing car had been discussed as early as 1955, and a hastily constructed prototype was tested in the Australian and New Zealand races in early 1956, driven by
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. Following successes in this Antipodean experiment, and despite the majority of Aston's racing department being fully occupied with the sports car program, Aston Martin decided to pursue a Formula One entry in earnest. However, the company's emphasis on sports car competitions meant that attention was often diverted from the Formula One program, and development delays were common almost from the outset. Building on Aston Martin's established road car and sports racer template, the chassis of the DBR4 was a conventional
spaceframe In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure ( 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with ...
structure, skinned with aluminium bodywork. Beneath the skin the DBR4's basic design was closely related to the DB3S sports car of 1956, but with its ancillary components more tightly packaged to enclose them in the smaller, single-seater body. Although some manufacturers had started to use
wind-tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
testing for racing cars, such as the Bristol 450,
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as a science was still in its infancy where road vehicles were concerned. As a result of this, although the DBR4's bodywork appeared svelte and streamlined, the effect was ruined by the decision to mount a large air intake on the side of the bonnet, and to install a relatively tall, near-vertical windscreen. Suspension was handled by double wishbones with
coil spring A selection of conical coil springs The most common type of spring is the coil spring, which is made out of a long piece of metal that is wound around itself. Coil springs were in use in Roman times, evidence of this can be found in bronze Fib ...
s and telescopic dampers at the front, and a
de Dion tube De Dion rear axle A de Dion tube is a form of non-independent automobile suspension. It is a considerable improvement over the swing axle, Hotchkiss drive, or live axle. Because it plays no part in transmitting power to the drive wheels, it is ...
system with
torsion bar A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...
springs at the rear. While this arrangement had been state-of-the-art in the early years of the 1950s, by the time that the DBR4 made its first public appearance most racing car manufacturers were moving to all-round
independent suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...
, offering better handling, traction and road-holding than the older system employed at the rear of the Aston. The DBR4 was the last new Grand Prix car to use the de Dion system. This same suspension system would be adapted to the DBR3 sports car which was being developed at the same time as the DBR4, but would be abandoned less than a year later when the DBR3 was considered a failure. To bring the car to a halt, Girling
disc brake A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
s were fitted all round. The DBR4 also shared the basic
double overhead camshaft An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
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Aston Martin engine design with its brethren, but sleeved to reduce its capacity to 2.5-litres. Although
Tadek Marek Tadeusz "Tadek" Marek (1908–1982) was a Polish automobile engineer, known for his Aston Martin engines. Marek was from Kraków and studied engineering at Technische Universität Berlin before working for Fiat in Poland and also for General Mo ...
's design was a reliable and powerful unit in its 3.7-litre road car form, the reduced capacity racing motor was hard-pressed to cope with the heavy chassis and poor aerodynamics, and frequent engine failures blighted the DBR4's brief racing career. Aston Martin claimed a output for the DBR4's engine. However, it was common practice at the time to overquote engine power, and a more realistic value is closer to . This value is still higher than that provided by the
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''FPF''
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, used by contemporary manufacturers such as Lotus and
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, but the Aston Martin engine weighed appreciably more. The engine drove the rear wheels through a proprietary David Brown gearbox, provided by Aston Martin's owners. A total of four Aston Martin DBR4/250s were built between 1957 and 1959, with three surviving to date. Recognising their failings, the Aston Martin race team reworked the DBR4 into the DBR5 for the season. The DBR5 was smaller and lighter, and engine modifications meant that the power output was finally close to the figure originally claimed by the Aston Martin workshop. The DBR5 also boasted all-independent suspension, but results did not improve from those of the DBR4 and both DBR5s were eventually broken up.


Competition career

The Aston Martin DBR4/250 was unveiled to the public in April 1959, and made its competition debut on 2 May in the non-Championship
BRDC International Trophy The International Trophy is a prize awarded annually by the British Racing Drivers' Club to the winner of a motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit, England. For many years it formed the premier non-championship Formula One event in Britain, al ...
race at
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. Two cars were entered, for works drivers
Roy Salvadori Roy Francesco Salvadori (12 May 1922 – 3 June 2012) was a British racing driver and team manager. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent. He graduated to Formula One by 1952 and competed regularly until 1962 for a su ...
and
Carroll Shelby Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified duri ...
. Salvadori immediately began to show some promise in the car, posting third fastest time in qualifying, beaten only by fellow Britons
Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
and Tony Brooks, driving a BRP
BRM P25 The BRM P25 was a Formula One racing car raced from 1956 to 1960 and the second car produced by the British Racing Motors consortium. After the failure of the complex BRM V16, the P25's design emphasized simplicity. The car was fitted with a 2.5- ...
and works Ferrari 246 Dino respectively. Shelby also posted some fast lap times, taking sixth place. In the race both Brooks and Moss retired with mechanical problems, but the Astons performed faultlessly for the majority of the distance, before Shelby's oil pump failed two laps from the finish. He placed sixth, two laps down. However, Salvadori was well-placed and competing hard for the lead. He posted the fastest lap of the race, en route to finishing second behind
Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One World Champion in , , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name. Brabham was a R ...
's works Cooper-Climax. Unfortunately for Aston Martin, the DBR4's debut performance flattered to deceive. At the DBR4's World Championship debut in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix on 31 May, Shelby and Salvadori could only manage 10th and 13th fastest in qualification, respectively. During the race both cars succumbed to engine problems in the early laps and failed to finish. Further delays and shifted priorities meant that the light green Astons only appeared at a further three races of the 1959 Formula One season. The DBR4s failed to score even a single point during this time; their best results being a pair of 6th places for Salvadori, taken at the
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and
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rounds. Following a second disappointing outing in the BRDC International Trophy (Trintignant was tenth and Salvadori's engine expired on lap 4), a solitary DBR4 appeared in practice for the
1960 Dutch Grand Prix The 1960 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zandvoort on 6 June 1960. It was race 4 of 10 in the 1960 World Championship of Drivers and race 3 of 9 in the 1960 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. Due to a crash by ...
, entered for Salvadori when the DBR5 was not ready. The car was saved further possible embarrassment when a starting money dispute caused Aston Martin to withdraw prior to the start. The coda to the DBR4's racing career came in mid-1960, when a car was shipped to Australia for local racers
Lex Davison Alexander Nicholas Davison (12 February 1923 – 20 February 1965) was a racing driver who won the Australian Grand Prix four times between 1954 Australian Grand Prix, 1954 and 1961 Australian Grand Prix, 1961 and won the Australian Drivers' ...
and
Bib Stillwell Bib Stillwell (born Bermar Sellars Stillwell; 31 July 1927 – 12 June 1999) was a racing driver who was active in Australian motor racing from 1947 to 1965. He won the Australian Drivers' Championship in each of the four years from 1962 to 1965 ...
to compete in the Australian and New Zealand national championship
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races. Fitted with a 3.0-litre engine the car performed much better than had been the case during its brief Formula One life, and Davison took second place in the 1960 Australian Grand Prix. To reflect the increase in engine capacity this car was officially known as the ''DBR4/300''. Stillwell retained the DBR4/300 until the end of the 1962–63 season.


Complete Formula One World Championship results

(
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)


Non-Championship results

(
key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)


References

* * * (World Championship statistics.) * (Race results.) *


External links


Photographs of DBR4/4
''AstonMartins.com''. {{F1 cars 1960 DBR4