1953 Aston Martin DB3S Works Race Car

The mid-'50s were the Golden Age of sports car racing. Hand-built cars designed on pen and paper by some of the most innovative engineers in automotive history required every ounce of skill and nerve a driver possessed. Tracks like Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and the Green Hell of the Nurburgring were little more than public roadways closed off — and sometimes not even that — for racing, and technology often pushed the human pilots over the edge of disaster. This was the stage that the Aston Martin DB3S entered into in 1953, as a radical development of the then-aging DB3. W.O. Bentley and Professor Robert Eberan von Eberhorst of Auto Union substantially lightened the car to make the most of its 3.0-liter inline-six. The works DB3S/2 pictured here competed at Le Mans, Silverstone, and the Millie Miglia, driven by legends like Peter Collins and Eric Thompson. One of the most historically significant Aston Martins, it will bring a price to match its racing pedigree.