The 1935 Aston Martin Works Ulster ‘LM19’ – one of four ultimate specification Ulsters constructed for Le Mans in 1935 – has been auctioned at GoodWood Festival of Speed for a whopping £2.9 million (£2,913,500 to be precise).
The car has set a record for one of the highest amounts ever achieved for a pre-war British sports car and has also smashed the existing record for a pre-war Aston Martin.
Described by designer A.C. Bertelli as “The best cars I ever built”, the Aston Martin Ulster ‘LM19’ has been part of some of world’s greatest, most gruelling and most charismatic endurance races ?including the French Le Mans 24-Hours, the Italian Mille Miglia, and the RAC Tourist Trophy on the fabulous Ards public road circuit in Northern Ireland.
Further, this car has also contested the 1936 Grand Prix de l’ACF – the French Grand Prix – run that year for sports cars, when it was driven by none other than the greatest British racing driver of the 1930s, the charismatic Dick Seaman.
The Aston Martin Ulster ‘LM19’ auctioned at FoS is one of the ultimate group of just four full-blown ‘works prepared’ Ulsters to bear the marque’s now legendary ‘LM’ suffix (derived simply from ‘Le Mans’). LM19’s three sister cars already reside in world-class collections.
The ‘LM19’ ?was one of the last Aston Martin works team cars to be run at Le Mans until after World War Two. This ultimate batch of four works team cars ? ‘LM18’, ‘LM19’, ‘LM20’ and ‘LM21’ ? featured 3-inch lower radiators than in 1934, producing their distinctive sloping bonnet line. Bertelli’s winter development wrung out of the engines 85bhp at 5,250rpm, with peak revs of 5,400. Chassis frames on these four cars were undrilled and again the bodies were painted as-new, bright red.
You can find more information about the other auctions at GoodWood FoS here.
