1933 Aston Martin Le Mans The 'Green Monster'

SUPPLIED NEW IN 1933

Chassis H3/300/S was built as a ‘Le Mans’ 2/4-seater and first registered BPA 889 in November 1933, finished in green with green leather upholstery. It was supplied through Winter Garden Garages and Coombs of Guildford to its first owner, A. H. Boyd, who, having enlisted as a naval cadet in 1926, was advancing through his officer training, serving at H.M.S. Excellent, the Royal Navy's premier shore-based gunnery training establishment located on Whale Island in Portsmouth Harbour.  He left the Royal Navy in 1934, joining the RAF and becoming a pilot in June 1936 and rising to the rank of Wing Commander during World War II, a highly distinguished fighter ace credited with downing at least 18 enemy aircraft while flying Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires.  For his wartime leadership and aerial victories, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) & Bar.  The car’s original works service record survives, noting routine maintenance early in 1934 and — more dramatically — a substantial rebuild that May, when part of a new chassis side-member and front axle beam were fitted following an accident. Repaired by the works, the car was soon back on the road.

INTO COMPETITION — J. R. CARMICHAEL

The car’s competition life began in 1937 under J. R. Carmichael, who took it north to Scotland and campaigned it in earnest. In May 1937 it contested the Royal Scottish Automobile Club’s Coronation Rally and the Bo’ness Hill Climb at Kinneil — outings reported in The Autocar of 21 and 28 May 1937, one carrying a photograph of the car that was reproduced again, decades later, in the 2014 Bo’ness Hill Climb Revival programme. By the SSCC’s September 1937 Bo’ness meeting the Aston was already entered as ‘Supercharged’.

THE FOWLER YEARS

In 1939 the car was bought by William Basil ‘Bob’ Fowler — at first, as an everyday car, which he used throughout the war years. With peace restored, Fowler turned to competition, and the record he built over the following three decades — documented in detail in the AMOC register — is extraordinary. The car’s first post-war outing came at Gransden Lodge in 1947, and from there Fowler and the Le Mans took countless class wins, lap records and podium finishes at Silverstone, Snetterton, Oulton Park, Curborough and Mallory Park. He was a perennial runner-up for the Presidents’ Trophy through the 1950s and a winner of St. John Horsfall Trophy events, and he took the car to the Continent with real success — second in the historic races at Le Mans in 1973, fourth overall in the Coupe de l’Age d’Or at Le Mans in 1976, and, most memorably, winning the Coupe Historiques at Le Mans outright in 1977.

NICK MASON & MORNTANE ENGINEERING

In the late 1970s the Aston passed to Nick Mason — the Pink Floyd drummer, one of the most respected car collectors and historic racers. Mason ran the car through his own concern, Morntane Engineering: the business that would, in time, become Ecurie Bertelli itself. The Masons campaigned it with distinction, Mrs L. Mason taking a first in handicap at the VSCC Silverstone meeting in 1978 among further outings at Curborough and beyond.

THE BRASH FAMILY

At the close of the 1970s the car passed to the Brash family, with whom it remained an active VSCC competitor into the early 1980s — before, in 1985, it was acquired by its present owner, and its most transformative chapter began.

THE ULTIMATE RACING ASTON MARTIN

Under its current ownership the car has been raced harder, and faster, than ever. Through the late 1980s and 1990s it rewrote record books wherever it went, taking outright Aston Martin and pre-war lap records at Curborough, winning the St. John Horsfall Trophy for 1½-litre cars at Silverstone in 1990 and again in 1995, and carrying its Aston Martin lap records to Germany and to the Isle of Man’s Manx Classic. Determined to extract the very most from the car, its owner developed it into what is arguably the ultimate racing pre-war Aston Martin, fitting a supercharged Aston Martin 2-litre engine running on methanol and producing around 250 bhp and 300 lb-ft of torque. To handle the additional performance the brakes, wheels and tyres were uprated and further control arms added to the front and rear axles — but such is the quality of the original Aston Martin chassis dynamics, this is the full extent of the modifications.

If the 1990s were remarkable, what followed was extraordinary. In 2001 the car swept the Pre-War Aston Martin Championship outright, winning at Brands Hatch, Goodwood, Silverstone, Snetterton, Loton Park and Oulton Park and gathering the Bill Burton, Venerable and Derrick Edwards trophies along the way. In 2002 it set a new lap record in the VSCC British Empire Race at Donington and, at the Long Marston sprint, took the Pre-War Aston Martin standing-quarter-mile record at 13.88 seconds and 103 mph — third-fastest time of the day behind two works ERAs, and level with the mighty 24-litre Napier-Bentley. New hydraulically-operated brakes were designed, made and fitted in 2003–04, and the wins and records kept coming: a clean sweep of the Pre-War Team Challenge at Silverstone in 2007, second-fastest pre-war time at the Brighton Speed Trials that year behind only a 3.2 Tipo B Alfa Romeo, and a first in the VSCC Aston Martin Centenary Race in 2013. Fast, distinctive and much-filmed, the car had by now earned an affectionate nickname — the ‘Green Monster’. Then, in a fitting close, for now, to a competition career spanning nearly eighty years, it returned in 2014 to the Bo’ness Hill Climb Revival — the very venue where it had first competed in 1937 — where it was the fastest pre-war car present and took the Jimmy Gibbon Trophy, awarded to the fastest of all the cars that had originally competed at Bo’ness.

ENGINES & ORIGINALITY

The car is offered today with the option to include a rebuilt ‘Le Mans’ engine of notably strong specification — built around a new, stronger cylinder block with a modern crankshaft, steel connecting rods and shell bearings — which has covered very few miles since rebuild. The supercharged 2-litre methanol engine developed during the car’s most competitive period is fitted to the car. There is a substantial collection of original components retained throughout its life, allowing a future custodian to preserve, race or restore the car as they wish.

THE CAR TODAY

As it stands, chassis H3/300/S is ready to be campaigned after re-commissioning, regulations permitting or, with a programme of work, returned to full road use. Genuinely quick, superbly engineered and carrying a competition history matched by very few pre-war cars of any marque. The Le Mans model is welcome at the very finest historic events including 1000 Miglia, Le Mans Classic and Goodwood. This represents a rare opportunity to acquire a car that has been continuously and successfully raced for the better part of a century, with its original parts preserved for the future — and remains ready to be enjoyed for many years to come.