Chassis No. LML/725

Engine No. VB6H/483 (See Text)

Body No. EH811

A copy of its Aston Martin Lagonda factory build sheet shows that this DB2/4 Drophead Coupe, chassis number LML/725, was delivered on 5 April 1954 and sold new to Ets. Vernier-Leurent of Roubaix, France. Of approximately 102 DB2/4 Drophead Coupes built, 56 were destined for the home market and 46, including this car, for export. Built to left-hand drive specification, the car left Feltham with Alfin drums, twin SU HV6 carburetors, a DBCW/127 transmission, a 3.73:1 rear axle, and a Smiths speedometer calibrated in kilometers. Its Mulliners coachwork, body number EH811, was finished in Steel Dust over blue-piped Grey Connolly hide, along with a black soft top.

French registration papers place the Aston in the Gironde by 1990 and record its transfer on 11 March 2005 to a private collector in Saint-Germain-du-Puch, registered as "8565 JY 33." Arcaute-Audy entrusted the car to Castels Automobiles in the Dordogne, where it underwent a body-off rebuild between 2013 and 2014. The invoice on file, dated 15 October 2014, records the chassis stripped, sand blasted, straightened on a surface table, and repainted, and the rear axle mountings renewed. The body was stripped to bare metal, its lower panels and rear sections repaired or replaced before priming and refinishing, all of it accounting for 861 hours of labor and exceeding €57.000.

The interior went to the sellier Thierry Courbin at Bourg-sur-Gironde, whose quote covers a complete leather interior in Sofia Brandy hide, velvet carpeting, and a new Alpaga soft top and boot cover, at €17.786,02. His work on LML/725 was the subject of a Sud Ouest feature in May 2014.

That October, Aston Service Dorset certified the factory build sheet identifying the original engine as VB6E/50/1313, which at some point in the car's life was replaced by VB6H/483-the unit present in the car today. Now offered from a private German collector, this rare and exciting early Aston Martin grand tourer is highly eligible for myriad historic tours and rallies including the Mille Miglia.