An ex-Le Mans and Spa 24 Hours Aston Martin has been reunited with its rightful owners 14 years after being stolen from a back garden. Despite two men being found guilty of the theft a year after the car went missing, the 1949 DB team car was only recovered from a storage facility in Eindhoven earlier this year.
The car’s long-term owner, Christopher Angell, passed away in 2003, so it became the property of his relative, Ashley Mack, who has consigned the car in Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale, where it is expected to fetch as much as £900,000.
The hugely significant racer was the first David Brown-era works racing model, and became the only one of three cars entered into the 1949 Le Mans 24 Hours to finish the race, having been driven to seventh place by Arthur Jones and Nick Haines. A Lagonda-engined car was also entered but suffered a water pump failure after six laps, while the third car, driven by Pierre Marechal and Taso Mathieson, fractured a brake line.
