What do you do with two Aston Martin DB3Ss?

From a distance they look the same, but peer closer and the clues emerge to their different provenances. The green car with the No.28 roundel and orange “mouth” is a customer car from 1956; the green car No.2 with mustard-yellow mouth is a works racer. This is DB3S chassis number two, with a history to die for – you can see it winning the Goodwood Nine Hours in 1953 in the short film below.

Aston loved the Nine Hours night race – the spirit of which is kept alive at Revival today by the Freddie March Memorial Trophy – winning all three of the events in the 1950s. In ’53 DB3S/2 was driven by Reg Parnell and Eric Thompson. Peter Collins also drove this car, at Le Mans, in whose hands it recorded one of the DB3S’s three second places. Famously, Aston’s best sports car never did quite make it to the top step of the Le Mans podium.

Revival regular Peter Bradfield will be racing it for its owner in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy this year, the car lining up alongside the Jaguar C-types and Ferraris it beat here 63 years ago. Having just been repatriated to the UK after a long spell in the US – it’s the latest acquisition by one of this country’s most prominent collectors – it’s conceivable the last time this car raced on the Goodwood circuit was actually in the 1950s…

“The Freddie March is going to be quite a race this year and it’s a fantastic honour to be asked to drive this car again at Goodwood,” Peter Bradfield told us. “I have never raced a DB3S before but, compared to the DB3 before it, the S is so light, nimble and benign and an absolute joy on the circuit.”

This ex-Le Mans works car is not for sale but, at maybe a third its estimated value, the No.28 DB3S certainly is. That still makes it a near £5m car, according to Peter, who is selling it from his collectors’ car dealership, Peter Bradfield Ltd, in Kensington.

This 1956 car, chassis number 118, is one of 20 privateer cars made by Aston Martin following the success of the 11 works cars. At £1,000 more than a Jaguar C-type at the time, it was more exclusive but certainly not a cheap option. DB3S/118 also comes with a great Goodwood story, as Peter explains: “It was sold new to the Dutch racer Hans Davids who ordered it in Dutch racing orange. The car made its racing debut at Goodwood in 1956, making quite an entrance as Davids arrived towing the bright orange car on an orange trailer behind a giant white Chrysler 300.”

Soon retro-fitted with the twin-plug cylinder head from the works cars, DB3S/118 went on to race at Goodwood, Silverstone, Spa – and Davids’ home track, Zandvoort, where the orange Aston was a frequent winner.

Since then the car has had several owners, mostly in the US, several colour changes (it reverted to orange in 2012 but is now green), and accolades that have included a second-in-class at the Pebble Beach Concours.

Throughout it all the car has retained its original chassis, engine, body, even registration number. “It is a completely original matching-numbers car with a documented and continuous history, and is eligible for all sorts of historic 1950s sports race racing events including Goodwood, the Mille Miglia, Monaco, and Le Mans,” says Peter. The car is offered with two twin-plug head engines and disc brake set-up.

Tempted? The car is on offer at £4.95m (you can see more on it here).

One man who doesn’t need convincing of the DB3S’s virtues is GRR’s Andrew Frankel, who was driving the works car during the test day for a feature in Motor Sport magazine. Andrew rates the DB3S highly: “For me it’s a clear number two in Aston’s all-time great sports cars, after the DBR1.

“It is such a beautiful car, much lighter and more aerodynamic than the DB3 before it. It is really delightful to drive, among the best balanced sports cars of its era with nothing tricky about it, though the drum brakes of the early cars (like the works car) were said to be not very good.”

Maybe because of that the DB3S was never quite as quick at Le Mans as the C-types and Ferraris,  but as Andrew says, “it did come  second three times so it shows you how competitive it was”.

Roll on the Freddie March Memorial Trophy over the Revival weekend and what promises to be a classic re-run of famous duels between some exquisite motor cars. 

Photography by Tom Shaxson