Car of the Week: Aston Martin DP215

"lorem ipsum" (nothing123456789) 09/18/2013 at 06:20 • Filed to: Jalopnik

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I like Astons. Not all of them, and not always the ones that I should like, but I do like them. I recently found out about the DP series of cars they made in the early ‘60s for racing. I had never heard of them before, but I happened upon a picture of a DP212 and was a little curious why Aston had rebodied a 250-series Ferrari and painted it green. I did a little research after looking at the picture, and found the 215, which, in my opinion, is even better looking. You see, Ferraris are great. They’re my favorite manufacturer. But sometimes they miss the mark a little bit (or a lot bit) in terms of the designs of their cars. Aston Martin does as well, but much less frequently, and mostly not as severely.

The reason why this Aston caught my eye is because it doesn’t really look like a classic Aston design. The early DB models all look very good, but, and I know I’ll probably be sent death-threats for this, they don’t have that certain something about them that makes me take one look and think: “I would sell my firstborn into slavery for that”. This DP215, on the other hand, does. It’s got these wonderful curves on it that remind me of a 250 GTO, and whatever designer it was who said he modeled the shapes of his cars on the curves of a woman. It’s just really cool . I could imagine Steve McQueen driving one of them. Maybe Paul Newman as well. It doesn’t hurt that it has the obscurity factor, so people won’t necessarily know what you’re driving (not that you’d use it to make a grocery run).

Mostly what I like about this car, though, is that it’s kept all the best elements of its British heritage while ditching the bad ones in favor of better qualities. It’s left the prissy-poshness of its DB contemporaries behind in return for a bit of Italian feistiness, while retaining the sporting flavor and good looks that Aston is so well-known for. I guess the only thing wrong with it is that you can’t really rely on it to start in the morning.

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > lorem ipsum 09/18/2013 at 06:33

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Fun fact: the DP212 was one of the first race cars to use a spoiler.