1953 Aston Martin

•Previously owned by former Aston Martin chairman Victor Gauntlett

•High-compression Vantage-spec model

•One of only 411 DB2s built

•Original right-hand-drive, UK-market car

Victor Gauntlett is a key figure in the long history of Aston Martin, helping to steer the company through a difficult period in the early 1980s and staying on as chairman after the Ford takeover in 1987. He was also a keen enthusiast and a discerning collector, and he owned this DB2 on two separate occasions.

Chassis number LML/50/396 was built on 11 April 1953 as a right-hand-drive, UK-market car. The Heritage Certificate notes that it was Black with Beige trim, and that it wasdispatched on 23 April to Brooklands of Bond St, London. The registration number that it still wears today – PAR 651 – was issued in Hertfordshire.

A black-and-white photograph in its file shows the car competing at Prescott hillclimb during the 1950s, and it was later owned by John Donner – another well-known collector who was noted for the quality of his restorations. Elsewhere in the file is a set of photographs documenting a rebuild during Donner’s ownership, in which the car was stripped all the way down to a bare chassis and its bodywork taken back to bare metal.

The DB2 was then acquired by Victor Gauntlett, whose son Richard has fond memories of high-speed runs in this car, including a cross-country drive from Essex to Gloucestershire in tandem with his father, who was at the wheel of his Blower Bentley. Even though Victor subsequently sold the Aston Martin, it must have made quite an impression on him because he bought it back only five months later.

In 1995, the DB2 played a central role in the Aston Martin Owners’ Club Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and was one of a select group of cars that were displayed inside the Dorchester Hotel in London during the Grand Jubilee Ball. It was subsequently bought from Gauntlett by a marque enthusiast as part of a small collection, and in 2010 its engine was rebuilt by Rex J Woodgate Automotive Consultants.

Now superbly presented in green with red wheels, this Aston Martin DB2 boasts a fascinating ownership history and is a fine example of this charismatic 1950s sports saloon.