1937 Aston Martin 15/98 DHC

Bought new by Mr. John George Henderson in 1937, this orginal short-chassis drop head coupe has remained in the same family for the past 80 years and is currently the property of his two daughters. As such, its provenance and history is incomparable.

Mr. Henderson negotiated a hefty 17.5% discount on the brochure price of £625 due to his close friendship with the Sutherland family, the then owners of Aston Martin and the current vehicle's owners still remember Mr. Sutherland and his wife visiting them on occasion who were simply known to them as Uncle Gordon and Auntie Emily!

Built by the renowned coachbuilders E. D. Abbott Ltd. of Farnham on behalf of Aston Martin, this 15/98 was originally Polychromatic Maroon. It was resprayed green to match the owner’s Aston Martin Open Sports car in the sixties; but has now been changed back to its original colour through a period of sympathetic restoration over the past 18 years.

The coachwork is in good condition, having benefitted from a bare-metal restoration in 2011 that returned the car to its original colour. This has been done sympathetically, preserving the patina of the car where possible and the car has been in regular use since then. In a world where the over-restored classic is all too common, it is lovely to find a car that wears its original character with pride.

The restoration was comprehensive and a full photographic record is available below for potential bidders to reassure themselves as to the quality of the work that was carried out.

There are no signs of any rust or rot although the perfectionist may want to touch up the paint in a couple of places commensurate with use over the past 6 years.

The hood, although functional has not been touched in c30 years and would benefit from replacement in order to bring it up to the standard of the rest of the car.

As a four-seater vehicle (with the dickey seat), this car offers a textbook combination of grace and practicality; it is perfectly capable of moving your entire family in immense style while still retaining the rakish, short-wheelbase look that everybody desires.

The red leather seats were professionally retrimmed in 2011 and are starting to develop their own rich patina, which matches that of the rest of the car. 

The dashboard features a full array of instrumentation and is supplemented by a wonderful Silverstone Anniversary brass plaque from 1956.

As a detuned version of the earlier (and legendary) Speed Model’s engine, the four-cylinder, naturally aspirated 15/98 offered a better spread of power and torque (98hp and 95lb/ft of torque) from its 1949cc than its more overtly sporting sibling, making it more suited to what was a touring, rather than a racing, car.

This was made clear in the original publicity material, which stated: “whilst the ‘15/98’ is no mean performer it is offered not as a camouflaged racer but a safe all-purpose motor car having all the durability and lasting power of its forerunners”. 

The original engine was fully dismantled and then rebuilt with new parts as required in 1998/99 by Ecurie Bertelli, the renowned pre-war Aston Martin experts at a cost of over £50,000. As such, it runs like a well-oiled watch and performs exactly as it would have done when the owners’ father drove it out of the Aston Martin showroom in 1937. 

Sensible upgrade include an electronic ignition, a common conversion that helps make it more drivable in modern traffic. However, it should be noted that all the original parts, including the magnetos, are complete and come with the car should the new owner prize originality over all else.

Another sympathetic upgrade is the cylinder head, which has been professionally converted to run on unleaded petrol with the installation of hardened valve seats. 

The only other significant change from the car’s original factory specification is that the front wing-mounted lights have been wired to act as indicators, working in tandem with the car’s standard, and original, semaphore signals.

The history and provenance of this car is impeccable. Built in December 1937, the car is an original ‘Abbott’ Drophead Coupe built on a genuine short chassis supplied by the Aston Martin factory. 

It has since stayed within the family since that time and has never previously been offered for sale. This provides the discerning collector or enthusiast with a unique opportunity for to own a matching numbers car with a cast-iron and gratifyingly complete history.

Charming though they are, the family’s memories and private photographs are just the starting point of this car’s provenance as they are supplemented with a complete paper history of the vehicle including the initial Aston Martin brochure - complete with hand-written notation confirming the 17.5% discount that had been negotiated - through to the original owners’ handbooks, and even the factory build sheet for the car.

The build sheet is especially interesting as it details the optional extras that were fitted to the car at the factory as it was being built. These include extra exhaust silencers, a single front fog lamp, a thermometer in the dashboard instead of a clock, and a badge on the offside rear wing. It also shows the results of the post-build shakedown test drive, in which initial problems with the engine and rear axle are identified.

A hand-written factory service record has also been retained and made available, showing the maintenance that was undertaken on the car between 1937 and 1951. 

The current owner also commissioned the Aston Martin Heritage Trust to investigate and catalogue the history of the vehicle. This is documented in a four-page printed history, which can be seen, along with the rest of the documentation and history, below. 

In brief, the timeline is:

1937 – the 15/98 was built by Aston Martin and E.D. Abbott before being sold to John George Drysdale Henderson of Dunbartonshire, Scotland. 

1939-1945 – the car was laid up due to Mr. Henderson’s war service in the Merchant Navy.

1946 - the car was moved down from Scotland to Kensington, London.

1947-1968 – the 15/98 was regularly used by Mr. Henderson in London and moving with him and the family to Hoe House in Peaslake, Surrey. 

1965 – the years must have started to take their toll as Mr. Henderson commissioned Friary Motors (part of E.D. Abbott Ltd., the very same coachbuilders that built the car for Aston Martin) to rebuild the bodywork.

The car was painted green at some point in the 1960s, to match the owner’s Aston Martin Open Sports car. Given the timing, it is highly likely that Friary Motors would have changed the colour of the vehicle as part of the restoration.

1970 - upon Mr. Henderson’s death, the car passed to his two daughters and immediately placed into the care of the Doune Motor Museum in Scotland, where it remained on display for the next 28 years.

1998 – Upon the Museum's closure, the car was collected and taken straight to Ecurie Bertelli for an 18-month, c£50,000 ‘sympathetic mechanical restoration’. The work included a full rebuild of the engine and refurbishment of the gearbox. The suspension was also fully rebuilt at this time, work that included re-setting the leaf springs before reinstalling them with new dampers, bushes, pins, seals, and bearings. 

The braking system was similarly overhauled, with new components installed throughout. The Moss gearbox was found to be in good condition, needing only new seals, speedometer drive gears, and oil.

The opportunity was also taken to make the car more user-friendly, including lightening the flywheel, fitting high-compression (although standard-sized) pistons, and changing the oil filter to a modern cartridge type. The car was also fully rewired and halogen dipping headlamp bulbs fitted within the original headlamp shells. 

A complete set of invoices and correspondence is available to support this work, including the company’s initial assessment of the car’s condition in 1999 and is shown below.

Upon completion of the work, the car was displayed at the Louis Vuitton Show in Paris by Ecurie Bertelli.

2011- the coachwork was carefully and sympathetically restored back to its original condition and colour. The two-year restoration started with soda blasting the bodywork back to bare metal before cutting out and fabricating new metal to replace any that had rusted. 

The ash frame was restored with new wood let in as necessary. The car was then rebuilt and painted in its original colour. The interior was retrimmed in red leather. 

The car has since been regularly used by the current owner and her husband attending many official Aston Martin club events

To find a car that has stayed in one family for 80 years is remarkable enough, but when that car happens to be an original short-chassis Aston Martin Drophead Coupe the remarkable becomes almost miraculous.

E. D. Abbott Ltd. built just 25 cars on behalf of Aston Martin, and it is believed that this example is just one of six remaining. Just three remain in the United Kingdom; the other three having found homes in New Zealand, Italy and California.

This Aston Martin 15/98 is now ready to embark on the second part of its dynasty with a new owner where we hope it will be as cherished and loved as it has been for the past eight decades. 

Recent sales of the Aston Martin 15/98 have yielded strong results, even for cars that have been converted from long-chassis to short-chassis specification. As an original short chassis car that has never before been available for sale and with the finest provenance we expect SN 8264 to be highly sought after. 

Potential purchasers are invited to inspect the car and the original paperwork below for themselves to ensure that our description is accurate. We are confident that the time spent doing so will be amply rewarded as we think this is one of the most genuine example of its type to come to the market in recent years.