The first journalist to actually
drive the oldest surviving Aston since its restoration, we take A3 on a
pilgrimage to the marque’s roots
There is a rich history of naming cars
after great competition victories – the Porsche Carrera, Ferrari Mondial and,
to a lesser extent, Daytona but very few actual marques owe their monikers to a
win. And only one to a short, moribund hill climb in a sleepy Buckinghamshire
village. Thanks to Lionel Martin’s prowess in his Singer specials, and his wife
Kate’s suggestion that his new car company should be named after his favorite
stomping ground on the Hertfordshire border, that is precisely what happened to
create one of the most enigmatic and revered brands in motoring.
Aston
Martin A3
Today, the Aston Martin name is so much
part of the fabric of the automotive world that it seems natural and familiar.
A century ago, however, it might have appeared a little perverse that Aston
Clinton and its brief burst of hill, with little more challenge than one 30º
right on a blind crest and a single sweeping left, would be the foundation for
such greatness.
To celebrate the centenary of this British
institution, we have returned to its roots. Not the Henniker Place (now Mews)
address where Bamford & Martin established its dealership for hot Singers,
but Aston Clinton, where its founder’s glory gave birth to a legend. And what
could be more suitable to tackle the hill than the oldest Aston Martin in the
world, the only survivor of the original prototypes built by unsung chief
mechanic Jack Addis?
Floors
are old pine, frame ash. Wheel is unnervingly flexible and brakes work on rear
wheels only; right-hand ’change has four speeds. Top left: in Brooklands
paddock
Each one had a name, of course. First there
was 1914’s ‘Coal Scuttle’. That was followed by ‘Bunny’, which, through
multiple record-breaking at Brooklands after a crash forced its chassis to be
shortened, helped garner much-needed publicity. Then, after the interruption of
The Great War, came this 1921 car, known as A3. In period it had a nickname,
too, but let’s just says that if it were in The Dam Busters, they would have
since edited it out.
A3 was built on a Rubery-Owen frame and
powered by a 1486cc monobloc engine designed by Hamilton Victor Robb – derived
from his own Coventry-Simplex 1389cc unit, as used in ‘Coal Scuttle’ and
fuelled by a single side draught ‘sloper’ SU via an Autovac from a tank at the
rear.
The reason why this remarkable and
historically important car survived is most likely the sleight of hand with
which the nascent company recast it and sold it on as a production car. Back
then, subsequent sellers wouldn’t have been keen to make a big deal of its
true, pre-production status and eventually that part of its history was buried
beneath the sands of time and swathes of ever more elaborate bodywork.
Until, that is, it came to auction a little
more than a decade ago. Initially assumed to simply be a very early Aston with
a later 1930s three-seat body, it was only when eagle-eyed Bonhams inspector
Stewart Skilbeck spotted the ‘3’ cast into the chassis that its significance
was revealed.
Clockwise:
single-carb side valve ‘four’ musters 40bhp, but A3 struggles up hills;
charming chassis plate
Its shape and stance, too, are more
sporting than you might expect, and this with the least racy of the three
bodies it was thought to have worn when it was a works hack cum- development
car.
The cabin is entered via wide running
boards. There’s cozy seating for two, squabs flat on the wooden floor,
passenger seat set back slightly from the driver’s so that it can accommodate
two grown men, as long as the passenger is able to furl his arm around behind
the driver.
The starting procedure is absolutely of the
era. Flick the electrics switch sprouting through the pine floorboards, move
the dash knob from ‘off’ to ‘magneto’ and push the starter button with your
foot. Once it has fired, move the dash knob to ‘D’ for dynamo and you are ready
to go.
First is right and back – reverse is even
further right and up, but accessed only via pressing a spring-loaded knob with
second directly above it and third back and left, under your knee. The
Hele-Shaw multi-plate clutch works well and, as soon as you are off the line,
you shove steadily to access second, thereafter staying in the tractable middle
two ratios unless you find yourself stationary or on a motorway.
‘Sankey’
wheels recreated in aluminum
The pedals are mounted on either side of
the steering column, the center throttle on the left with the clutch, but any
confusion that you fear this might generate is banished by the fact that you
never use the footbrake. It has far less feel and impact on your speed than the
handbrake and, particularly on these greasy roads, tends to instantly lock the
rear wheels.
Front brakes had been fitted when the car
was bought by the Trust but, for authenticity, the original arrangement, with
four shoes in each rear drum, was reinstated during the restoration.
On the hill the 1486cc side valve engine
does not perform as well as figures suggest on paper. That unit is an anomaly
because the ‘A’ of A3 should mean 1300cc and ‘B’ would mean 1500cc, but,
realizing that it was giving away 200cc in the voiturette class, Bamford &
Martin decided on the upgrade. “It doesn’t really like hills,” explains prewar
Aston guru Andy Bell of Ecurie Bertelli. Certainly claims of a 72mph maximum –
the Walford speedo reads to 90mph and 45bhp from the single-carburetor motor
seem fanciful in this environment.
