1963 Aston Martin DB4 Series 5 Vantage by The-Transport-Guild on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Frequently mistaken for the DB5 that replaced it, the Aston Martin DB4 was the car that perfected the style that was to become the company's calling car, a long smooth body with a magnificent grille and powered by nothing but the finest the esteemed manufacturer had to offer!

The Aston Martin DB4 was designed in 1957 to replace the earlier DB Mark III, with its sleek, lightweight superleggera body being the product of Carrozzeria Touring in Milan. The European look of this magnificent machine took the world by storm when unveiled at the 1958 London Motor Show, and performance wise it wasn't bad either, being powered by a 3.7L double overhead cam straight-6 engine designed by Tadek Marek. This gave the car 240hp, with which it could gain a speed of 140mph at a rate of 0-60 in 9.1 seconds. Early models were sadly prone to overheating, which was later redressed in the twin-SU carburettor versions managed to reclaim a large part of its reputation.

The DB4 was also the first Aston Martin car to be built at their new Newport Pagnell works in Buckinghamshire, which built their cars until moving to Gaydon in Warwickshire in 2007 when the factory became outdated after 13,000 cars had been produced since opening in 1955.

This particular model is the DB4 GT version, a special lightweight, high-performance version that was introduced in 1959, and featured enclosed headlights and a thinner aluminium skin for lighter weight. The wheelbase was also reduced in comparison to the standard car, which resulted in many cars not being fitted with rear seats.

The engine, though, was what made the GT special. Available in 3.7 L and 3.8 L versions, the GT's engine had twin sparkplugs per cylinder with two distributors and three twin-choke Weber carburettors. Modifications to the cylinder head brought compression to 9.0:1 and power output was 302 hp. Maximum speed for the GT was 151 mph with a 6.1 second sprint to 60 mph.

Seventy-five GTs were built with this body style. Nineteen more were modified by the Zagato works in Italy into DB4 GT Zagatos, with plain oval grilles, sans the stock GT's tail fins, and a smoothed out rear end. A single car was also styled by Bertone and dubbed the Bertone Jet.

The car remained in production until 1963, when it was replaced by the aforementioned Aston Martin DB5, a car that would find fame in the James Bond movie Goldfinger as 007's first and probably most famous Bond Car!

Today Aston Martin DB6's are very rare wheels indeed. With 1,210 built, of which 100 were DB4GT/Zagatos they are more numerous than the later DB5, but like all cars of this period, they rarely venture out on a daily basis.