It will be a busy couple of weeks for us with the Chantilly Concours d'Elegance and Goodwood Festival of Speed on the horizon. At the latter, Aston Martin will be the featured marque, so to get you in the mood we have taken a closer look at two great and very distinct examples of DB3S that starred at both events in the past.
Developed over the winter of 1952/53, the DB3S was a more refined evolution of Aston Martin's first sports racer. Compared to the DB3 of 1952, it was smaller, lighter and more powerful. It was raced with considerable success during the mid-1950s by the works team and customers but the much desired outright Le Mans victory proved a stretch too far. The feature example came very close by finishing second overall in 1955 and again in 1958. Chassis DB3S/6 actually started life as one of the two factory Coupes but after a disastrous 1954 Le Mans, it was raced with considerable more success as a Roadster. The second place at Le Mans in 1955 was also a first in class.
In addition to the cars raced by the Aston Martin works team, a further 20 examples were built for costumers to race. Of these, three were Coupes of which chassis DB3S/119 was the second. Not raced in period, it has been owned by several leading Aston Martin enthusiasts. Its most recent owner had the DB3S Fixed Head Coupe meticulously restored to its original configuration before showing it at Chantilly in 2015.

Enjoy the links:

1956 Aston Martin DB3S Fixed Head Coupe - Chassis DB3S/119 - Ultimatecarpage.com

1953 - 1957 Aston Martin DB3S - Images, Specifications and Information