Aston Martin LeMans 1959

This is some fun film, of reasonably good quality.  Winning LeMans had always been the goal of Aston Martin's owner, David Brown.  With the DBR 1, he finally had the car to do it.  The car's superb handling and John Wyer's ditto team management also won the sports car championship for Brown.  But Brown wasn't up for an attempted repeat.  Aston Martin sleeved and de-stroked the DBR 1's straight six down to 2.5 liters and put it into a very slow and unsuccessful Formula 1 car.  Brown lost even more interest, and sold Aston Martin a few years later.  LeMans had been at the top of his  professional bucket list.  Check.

Highlights (8 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZla3Wh2HOk

Part 1 (15 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83d0L3P-URI

Part 2 (15 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC2xSuj6Zpg

Roy Salvadori in the winning DBR 1 he shared with Carroll Shelby.

Shelby in the same car.  LeMans was a power and aero circuit, not a handling one, and the DBR 1 lacked the power of
Ferrari's Testa Rossa V-12.  So Wyer faired in the front wheels and put spats over the rear ones.

Knowing that the DBR 1 did not have the beans of a Ferrari, Wyer hired Stirling Moss to be Aston's hare, to set a pace
that would break up the opposition while the other two Astons ran to a predetermined lap speed.  The engine in the
Aston broke too, a price Wyer was more than willing to pay: mission accomplished.