Aston Martin DBR4 – Wikipedia

L’ Aston Martin DBR4 It was the first Formula 1 car of the British house. He took part in some races of the Formula 1 1959 World Championship but without particular successes. Designed by Ted Cutting, it was based on DBR1 who competed in the Sport World Cup. With DBR4, Aston Martin hoped to repeat the successes achieved in the Sport championship in Formula 1.

In the 1950s the philosophy of Aston Martin was to compete in the Sport championship to get to contend for the title at Ferrari. However, in 1957 he built the DBR4/250, his first single -seater, and the tracks on the track showed that he was able to fight with the Maserati 250f, with whom Juan Manuel Fangio had won his fifth title Piloti that year, and Vanwall who had won the manufacturers’ title. Despite this, it was kept away from the races for the whole 1958 year in which in Formula 1 there was a substantial revolution: in fact, the first cooper – rear motor climax began to appear which immediately proved to be more agile and more agile than the front motor cars and only Pilots’ ability such as Tony Brooks, Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn meant that the heaviest Vanwall and Ferrari could excel for the last time in history. The DBR4 thus passed from the state of the art to that of of the technical obsolescence in a year. ^[first]

The DBR4 project was completely conventional. He had a steel tubular frame derived from DBR1 and who guaranteed him good dynamic skills; He mounted suspension with arms oscillating with helical springs to the front and a de dion bridge with twisting bars at the rear. The engine also derived from the DBR1, with a cylinder reduced from 3 to 2.5 liters, and it was a 6 -cylinder in -line range with two cylinder valves that provided about 260 HP. The gearbox was a 5 -speed David Brown, according to the regulation, and the braking system consisted of 4 disco girling brakes. ^[first]

For 1960 a modified version of the DBR4, DBR5 was built, with changes to the suspensions and the engine but did not prove to be competitive.

The advent of the new formula of the rear engine made the classic obsolete front -motor F1. In 1958 the powerful Vanwall and Ferrari still managed to bring home a world championship, but it would have been the last for the front engine F1. When the DBR4 made his debut at the Silverstone International Trophy, piloted by Roy Salvadori, he immediately proved to be very fast in qualifying, winning the pole position, and in the race he arrived second behind the cooper of Jack Brabham. In Aston Martin thus thought that the World Cup was at hand but Silverstone’s second place was the best result of the entire career of DBR4, in a race that, among other things, was not even valid for the world championship of that year. ^[first]

The results they followed showed how DBR4 was a slow and unreliable car. He was forced to retire in the GPs of Holland and Great Britain for boredoms to the engine. Other mechanical failures slowed down the race for the Portugal and Italy GPs. So in the 5 GP played, including the International Trophy, Salvadori collected two retreats and two sixth place and a second place while Shelby two retreats one sixth, an eighth and a tenth place. ^[first]

• Front road: 1.308 m
• Rear roadway: 1.308 m
• Step: 2,362 m
• Weight: 625 kg
• Frame (mechanics): steel tubular
• Rear-wheel Drive
• Clutch (mechanics): hydraulic
• Exchange: David Brown CG537 5 Manual gears
• Brakes: A Disco Girling
• Steering: rack
• Engine: Aston Martin
  • Num. Cylinders and arrangement: 6 in line
  • Cylinder: 2,493 cm³
  • Cooling: liquid
  • Power: ~ 260cv
  • Distribution: Bialbero
  • Valve: 12
• Suspensions: arms oscillating with helical springs (ant.); de dion bridge with twisting bars (post.)

Corsive races represent unreasigned events for the World Cup