Thank Frankel it's Friday: The mysterious Aston Martin Project cars

But it is an identical recreation and he has it because it allows him to race a Project car while keeping his very real DP212 for the most special events like the RAC TT Celebration race at the Revival, which he won in 2013 with Simon Hadfield by coming through the pack when the weather turned bad, conditions that suited the reasonably soft and heavy Aston to perfection. 

Ever since then I’ve had a thing about these so-called ‘Project’ cars so, and for the benefit of those who don’t know about these cars and with apologies to those that do, here is a (very) potted history of these cars that, with just a little more time, money and luck, would now be regarded as Britain’s answer to the Ferrari 250 GTO. 

As most will know, after winning Le Mans and the World Sports Car Championship in 1959, then enduring a torrid couple of part seasons in F1, Aston Martin stopped all racing activities at the end of 1960. The DB4 was a runaway success so selling cars wasn’t a problem and they didn’t need the distraction let alone the bills. 

But old habits die hard and after a couple of years when dealers started to suggest sales could be even better with a race programme behind it, John Wyer, who had been the driving force behind the race team throughout the 1950s, decided to build a single prototype, and this was Project 212. It sat on a cut down DB4 chassis with an engine bored out from 3.7 to 4-litres. It was very much a toe dip in the water and was sent to Le Mans more in hope than expectation of a decent result. So imagine the surprise when, at the end of the first lap, Graham Hill came belting past the pits with the rest of the field barely in sight. It wasn’t to last and the car retired with engine trouble after little more than five hours of racing, but it certainly provided food for thought.

So for the following year, three more Project cars set off for Le Mans. Two were called Project 214 and competed in the GT class, while the other was Project 215 which looked very similar but boasted a DBR1 transaxle locating its gearbox between the rear wheels which meant it must run as a prototype. A lot of work had been done on these cars, particularly in the wind tunnel, refining the bodywork to eliminate the alarming float and wander exhibited by 212, and hopes were high. Indeed Wyer is on the record as saying he thought one of them could win the race.

All three qualified in the top 10, the 214s quickest of all the GT cars, including the GTOs, which must have raised a few eyebrows. But all three contained fatal flaws. The one that spelt the demise of the 215 was not difficult to guess: the transaxle gearbox had been DBR1’s weak link during four seasons of front-line competition so it was no great surprise to see that, when fitted to a heavier, more powerful car it failed all over again. But the 214s had standard gearboxes and could have done great things. Sadly both were undone by a batch of pistons that should have been forged but were instead cast.

By the time the championship headed to Goodwood for the Tourist Trophy the 214s had proper pistons again and a really good showing was expected. In practice, Innes Ireland was at least as fast as the quickest GTO but a scrutineer noticed the car had been homologated to run on 5.5in rims not the 6.5in items on which it sat and had been accepted for Le Mans. No amount of protestation nor pointing out that the road cars now had 6.5in rims would persuade him. The narrow rims wrecked the handling and both Ireland and Bruce McLaren in the second car found them almost undrivable. In the event, Bruce retired and Innes slid, slithered and spun his way home in seventh place.

There was just one last shot at glory. Wyer sent the 214s to Monza for the three-hour Coppa Inter Europa race before the Italian Grand Prix for Lucien Bianchi and Roy Salvadori to drive, two Astons against six GTOs.

After half distance pit-stops, the race came down to Salvadori and his Aston versus Mike Parkes in his GTO. At first, the crowd cheered wildly for Salvadori believing there to be an Italian behind the wheel until the commentator disabused them of that notion, swiftly returning their allegiances to Maranello. The racing was so close that Salvadori later wondered if the crowd thought they were deliberately taking turns to lead down the pit straight. The Aston had the higher top speed, the Ferrari the better acceleration out of the corners. Wyer, a man who’d go on to mastermind successful sportscar campaigns for Ford, Porsche and Mirage, called it one of the best races he’d ever seen, Salvadori simply the best he’d ever driven – and he was a Le Mans winner.

It was resolved when Parkes was minutely baulked by a back-marker, allowing Salvadori to break the tow and get away to win by a matter of yards. In John Wyer’s last race for Aston Martin, they had beaten not only Ferrari but the greatest GT car of its generation and done so in its back garden. Rarely would victory have tasted sweeter. Aston Martin would not race again as a factory team for 26 years.

Photography by Jochen Van Cauwenberge, Nigel Harniman, Tom Shaxson and Drew Gibson