GT7 HAGERTY COLLECTION 1953 Aston Martin DB3S

The Aston Martin DB3S is a special car although it may have been overshadowed as years came and went by a certain finned Jaguar and the DBR1/300 that won at La Sarthe for David Brown’s marque. However, its status as a bit of a giant killer and the fact that the boys in Feltham kept using it for four seasons in international competitions puts the DB3S in a unique spot in Jaguar’s racing history. This car, chassis #2, is one of only 11 works cars ever built and it won the Goodwood Nine Hours ahead of the D-Type and Ferrari’s 750 Monza. It is, then, no wonder that RM/Sotheby’s hoped it would sell for anywhere between $8.75 and $10 million when it crossed the block last Thursday during the Monterey Car Week. Well, it didn’t but you can’t deny this is one rare, gorgeous, and expensive product of the ’50s. Need further proof? A copy of the definitive book on this car sold 14 years ago for some $1,500.

When you talk ’50s sports cars, your mind slaloms between William Haynes’ C-Type and D-Type, together amassing five overall 24 Hours of Le Mans wins, the classic 250 Testa Rossa, the dominant but also infamous 300 SLR, and also the Lister Knobbly and Maserati’s 300S. Aston Martin isn’t among the names on the tip of your tongue despite it racking up quite an impressive number of wins between 1953 and 1959 with the DB3S and the DBR1 respectively. That’s because the Aston Martins were always seen as underdogs, always seen as members of the pack, those that’ll play second fiddle to the big fish when, in fact, it wasn’t like that at all. David Brown employed some of the best engineers and drivers at the time and his cars were some of the best. Yes, most often down on power, yes, most often with an Achilles’ heel (cough, the DBR1’s gearbox and ergonomics) but they were good cars. And now we’ll talk about the first one of those, the DB3S, offspring of the DB3 and a car that’s getting a bad rep for being actually friendly on the road.

So, it’s not surprising that a car such as the DB3S can be considered awkward if not downright ungainly by folks who really like the look of an Agera RS or a Chiron that was made yesterday. Having said this, the DB3S’ Frank Feeley-penned aesthetic definitely makes it stand out among other cars from its era, mostly due to its intensely well-defined nose with its curved surfaces that lead into strong character lines that drive the eye with consummate skill from the tip of the nose all the way back along the edges of the ever-broadening hood that ends right before the Perspex wind deflector.

Basically, the entirety of the car’s nose is modeled to follow the classic shape of the grille, one that was first seen on the Aston Martin Atom prototype of 1939. On the Atom, the grille wasn’t the result of a designer trying to make something out of an oval grille and coming up with this lopsided shape. In fact, the broader median section came about simply because the Atom featured a radiator in the middle with the two smaller sections of the grille on either side there to feed air into the front brake ducts. The shaped evolved when the DB2 came about after David Brown purchased the company post-WW2 and, on the DB3S, the shape of the grille is simpler, without a visible hump as the line at the top dwindles almost straight down to create a teardrop-esque shape. The shape of the main inlet would evolve further when the DBR1 appeared as that one featured a near oval opening with an egg-crate-like grille to cover it. It’s worth mentioning also that the shape of the inlet on the DB3S evolved as years went by.

Originally, the top bit extended further up the nose thus having a shape reminiscent of the original DB3 and the DB2 (as well as sporting the traditional egg-crate mesh) and it kept evolving until it looked like an oval on its side, with only the outline suggestive of the old, lopsided shape. By that time, in 1957, the DBR1 was almost ready and Aston Martin fitted the few DB3S still run by the factory with more aerodynamic headlights with clear covers that matched the shape of the fenders.

The top bit of the nose is accentuated by two creases that essentially follow the line of the grille and then continue backwards before they blend into the bodywork along the contour of the hood. Inboard, on either side of the tall headlights that sprout from the curved front fenders (with a crease at the top that cuts through the air), the nose is carved in and almost flattened. That’s where you’ll find the registration decal – UDV 609. The indicators are placed to the left and to the right of the lower edges of the main inlet, with the tow hook below the nose.