Supercharged Racing Two-Seater Aston Martin

 

A supercharged 1½-litre side-valve of 1925 — one of the very first Aston Martins — recognised by both the AMOC and the AMHT. Rebuilt over two decades by Andy Bell of Ecurie Bertelli around a core of genuine components, including the crankcase and gearbox of the last Works Brooklands racer, and newly bodied as an accurate replica of the 1922 Strasbourg team cars. Completed in 2025, it looks, sounds and drives exactly as a hundred-year-old Aston should.

Car number 1954 was built by Bamford & Martin Ltd in 1925 as a standard 1½-litre side-valve — in the earliest Aston Martin idiom, when chassis and engine shared a single number and each car was almost entirely made by hand. Its original body style is not recorded. The car appears, listed simply as 'in stock', in the celebrated 1926 letter from G. L. Francis & Co to Lionel Martin, written when Martin asked his agents for a list of surviving owners; before that it had belonged to F. Cook, who sold it to Francis. It surfaces again in the Aston Martin Works records of 1931–33 — noted there, endearingly, as '1954 Old A.M.' — receiving attention to its front and rear axles and repairs following an accident.

Ecurie Bertelli tell the full story of 1954 up to today, where they are offering the car for sale at £175,000.