Aston Martin DBR1 & Stirling Moss - start 1000km Nurburgring 1958 – photo

Description

A superb and rare photo, made from what we believe is the original negative, of the start of the
1958
1000km of the Nurburgring endurance race
. Shown in
WINNING
action is the magnificent
Stirling Moss
who had a head-start. For this race, Stirling Moss teamed up with the terrific Jack Brabham. They won (!) the race in a time of 7:23:33.000.
It was not the first time Stirling Moss won this very heavy race.
Even today he owns the record of most wins: 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960.
The
1000 km
of the Nürburgring
is an endurance race for racing cars that is held on the German Nürburgring circuit since 1953. It is organized by the German car club, the ADAC. On the traditional 22.8 km long Nordschleife ("
Northern Loop
") version, the competition took usually 44 laps and lasted about eight hours, later less than six hours. The first event that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship was won by Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina in a Ferrari. Due to disappointing attendance, the race was not held in the following two years. It became quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s though, and even more so after Formula One decided to boycott the Nürburgring after 1976. The last race on the
Northern Loop
in 1983 was won by a Porsche
956. In
that year, the track had been shorted to 20.8 km and provisional pits were used due to the ongoing construction work. Since 1984, the
1000 km
races were run on the new, much shorter Grand-Prix-Strecke, while the 24 Hours Nürburgring stayed on the legendary long track. In 1991, the
1000 km
races were first shortened to
480 km
, then discontinued overall due to the demise of the World Sportscar Championship. In 2000, the
1000 km
were resumed, with new competitive cars of BMW and Audi. The race was held as a part of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), the Euro version of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). In a wet race, the unusual front-engined Panoz of Jan Magnussen and David Brabham won, ahead of a BMW V12 LMR, an Audi R8 and the second Panoz. On
September 4, 2005
, the
1000 km
was held as a part of the Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES). The
500 km
Nürburgring was also similar event for smaller sportscars during the 1960s and 1970s. VLN has also run four hour endurance races where distances of well over
500 km
are covered by the winners. Current record of most wins belongs to Stirling Moss who won the race in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960.
The
Aston Martin DBR1
was a sports racing car built by Aston Martin starting in 1956, intended for the World Sportscar Championship as well as non-championship sportscar races at the time. It is most famous as the victor of the 1959 24 Hours of
Le Mans
, one of only two wins to date for Aston Martin at the endurance classic. Following changes to the rules for sportscar racing, entrants no longer had to use cars which were road legal, or based on road legal cars, such as the Aston Martin DB3S. Therefore, with the ability to create a sportscar from a clean slate for 1956, Aston Martin created the DBR1, with Ted Cutting as chief designer. The body evolved from the DB3S's shape, featuring a much lower profile. Most notable was that the back of the front wheel well was no longer left open. Instead, the DBR1 featured full bodywork with a large triangular vent on the side, a design trait which would become standard on all future Aston Martins. The DBR1 was initially fitted with a smaller 2.6L (2580 cc) Lagonda Straight-6 engine derived from the Aston Martin DB2 production car, even though the DBR1's predecessor, the DB3S, was at the time racing with a larger 2.9L (2922 cc) engine. Later DBR1s would feature the DBB-spec 2.9L Straight-6, rated at 195 hp (145 kW). Debuting at the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans, David Brown's Aston Martin racing team set out with the 2.6L DBR1/1 alongside two older 2.9L DB3Ss. Although performing well through most of the race, the DBR1 suffered gearbox failure after 246 laps, forcing drivers Reg Parnell and Tony Brooks to retire. Making a full debut in the 1957 World Sportscar Championship season as well as various non-championship races, DBR1/1 recorded its first finish, with a 2nd place for Roy Salvadori at the British Empire Trophy, followed by another 2nd place at the Goodwood Circuit's Sussex Trophy. DBR1/1 was then upgraded with the newer 2.9L engine, and joined by the identical DBR1/2. Together at the Spa Sportscar Race, Aston Martin took the top two spots, with Tony Brooks winning over Roy Salvadori. At the fourth round of the World Sportscar Championship, the 1000km Nürburgring, DBR1/2 took an overall victory at the hands of Tony Brooks and Noël Cunningham-Reid, earning Aston Martin its own championship points that season. Roy Salvadori and Les Leston would finish 6th in the same race. Unfortunately, at the 1957 24 Hours of
Le Mans
, both DBR1s failed to finish. DBR1/2 would take the only other victory of the season at the non-championship Spa Grand Prix. For 1958, DBR1/3 was completed and began to compete. David Brown chose to concentrate on the World Sportscar Championship exclusively, leaving the DBR2 for non-championship races. The team did not enter the opening round in
Buenos Aires
, choosing instead to race at the following round, the 12 Hours of Sebring. Neither DBR1 managed to finish, both suffering gearbox failure. This was followed at the Targa Florio, with the new DBR1/3 also suffering a gearbox failure and not finishing. At the 1000km Nürburgring, where the DBR1 had won the previous year, Aston Martin managed to repeat, with Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham's DBR1/3 beating a large contingent of Ferraris and Porsches. Unfortunately the bad luck returned at
Le Mans
, with all three DBR1s failing to finish again. However, at the season ending Tourist Trophy, Aston Martin managed a
1-2-3
finish for all cars, with Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks driving the winning car. This dominating victory allowed Aston Martin to finish 2nd in the constructor's championship behind Ferrari. Returning again for 1959, Aston Martin had completed two more chassis, DBR1/4 and DBR1/5. The first car was actually a conversion from a DBR3, while DBR1/5 was a spare chassis sold to privateer Graham Whitehead, the only car to do so. With four chassis, Aston Martin would again concentrate on the World Sportscar Championship. The season started slowly, with a sole DBR1 failing to finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring, then followed by the team not appearing at the Targa Florio. Luck returned again for Aston Martin, as the sole factory entry again won the 1000km Nürburgring, with Stirling Moss and Jack Fairman driving. However, Aston Martin's success would continue with what is considered their finest motorsports triumph. DBR1/2, driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori, took victory at the 1959 24 Hours of
Le Mans
. DBR1/4, driven by Maurice Trintignant and Paul Frére, managed second. The next closest competitor was a distant 25 laps behind the duo. With the constructors championship now closely contested by Ferrari and Aston Martin, the team appeared at the final round at Goodwood. Aston Martin entered three DBR1s, as well as privateer Graham Whitehead's DBR1/5. During the race, DBR1/3 caught fire in the pits, destroying the car and leaving Aston Martin without room to refuel their other cars. To salvage Aston Martin's hopes of a championship, Graham Whitehead withdrew his entry from the race in order to allow Aston Martin to use his pits stall and finish the race. Able to continue, Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby and Jack Fairman in DBR1/2 were able to secure victory and the championship over Ferrari, the only World Championship won by Aston Martin. Following Aston Martin's success in 1959, David Brown decided to make an unsuccessful move to Formula One with the DBR4 and DBR5. Thus the factory's David Brown Racing Department would no longer compete in sportscars, leaving the four DBR1s retained by the factory, including the rebuilt DBR1/3, were sold off to customers for use in various championships. DBR1/2 would be the only car to score a win in privateer hands, winning the 1960 Rouen Grand Prix. Following the 1962 season, all DBR1s would retire from racing and eventually end up in museums or private collections. The DBR1/4 is notable for having appeared in the 1960 film adaptation of The Sound and the Fury.
The magnificent
Stirling Moss
, who raced from 1948 to 1962, won 194 of the 497 races he entered, including 16 Formula One Grands Prix. He once told an interviewer that he had participated in 525 races overall, as many as
62 in
a single year, in 84 different cars. Like many drivers of the era, he competed in several formulae – sometimes on the same day. He was a true pioneer in the British Formula One racing scene and placed second in the Drivers' Championship four times in a row from 1955 to 1958. Moss's first Formula One win was in 1955 at his home race, the British Grand Prix at Aintree, driving the superb Mercedes-Benz W196 Single Seater for a convincing German 1-2-3-4 win, with Karl Kling and Piero Taruffi in the international driver line-up. It was the only race where he finished in front of Juan Manuel Fangio, his teammate, friend, mentor and arch rival at Mercedes. It is sometimes debated whether Fangio, one of the all-time great gentlemen of sport, yielded the lead at the last corner to let Moss win in front of his home crowd. Moss himself asked Fangio repeatedly, "Did you let me win?" and Fangio always replied, "No. You were just better than me that day". One of his most famous drives was in the 1955 Mille Miglia, the Italian
1597 km
open-road endurance race, which he won in the record time of 10 hours and 8 minutes, finishing almost half an hour ahead of teammate Fangio in second place. His navigator in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR #722 (indicating the time of the start) was journalist Denis Jenkinson. As navigator, he supported Moss with notes about details of the long road trip, then an innovative technique. This assistance helped Moss compete against drivers who had a lot of local knowledge of the route. Jenkinson later wrote extensively about the experience. In 1957 Moss won on the longest circuit to ever hold a Grand Prix, the daunting
25 kilometre
Pescara Circuit, again demonstrating his skills at high speed, long distance driving. He beat Fangio, who started on pole, by a little over 3 minutes over the course of a gruelling 3 hour race. Moss believed the manner in which the battle was fought was as important as the outcome. This sporting attitude cost him the 1958 World Championship. When rival Mike Hawthorn was threatened with a penalty in a
Portugal
race, Moss defended Hawthorn's actions. Hawthorn went on to beat Moss by one point, even though he had only won one race that year to Moss's four, making Hawthorn Britain's first World Champion. Moss was as gifted at the wheel of a sports car as he was in a Grand Prix car. For three consecutive years (1958–1960) he won the grueling
1000 km
race at
Germany
's Nürburgring, the first two years in an Aston Martin (where he won almost single-handedly) and the third in the memorable "birdcage" Maserati. For the 1961 F1 season, which was run under 1.5-litre rules, Enzo Ferrari rolled out his state-of-the-art Ferrari 156, also known as Sharknose. Moss was stuck with an underpowered Coventry-Climax-powered Lotus, but managed to win the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix by 3.6 seconds, and later also the partially wet 1961 German Grand Prix. In 1962, Moss was badly injured in a crash at Goodwood while driving a Lotus. The accident put him in a coma and partially paralyzed the left side of his body. He recovered but decided to retire from racing after a private test session the next year. He made a brief comeback in the British Touring Car Championship in 1980 with Audi, and in recent years has continued to race in historic cars. During his career, Moss drove a private Jaguar, and raced for Maserati, Vanwall, Cooper, and Lotus, as well as Mercedes-Benz. He preferred to race British cars stating "Better to lose honorably in a British car than win in a foreign one".
This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Aston Martin automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x
30 cm
).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.
Shipping costs will only be $ 7.00 regardless of how many photos you buy.   For 5 or more photos, shipping is free!
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