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Aston Martin DB5 Brakes?


Peter Roberts

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I am trying to discover what brakes were fitted to the original (ie. as originally manufactured) Aston Martin DB5 and have tried Google without success.

 

Am I correct in believing the original Aston Martin DB5 has drum brakes?

 

A search shows all sorts of disc brakes, but these look to be replacements or upgrades.

 

PR

Edited by Peter Roberts
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Are you specifically interested only in the use by Aston Martin?  Mike Hawthorn's Championship Year tells how Peter Collins insisted on disc brakes for his personal Ferrari (a 250GT?) and after Peter's death in 1958 Mike arranged to have them transferred to his Grand Prix Dino 246.  This must have predated the Aston DB4GT by a few years.

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  • 4 weeks later...

You might be interested in the original September 1964 Autocar road test of the DB5

Aston Martin DB5 Road Test 1964

 

Open the link in a new tab and click on each page to enlarge - they generally come up in two stages of enlargement

 

Edited by Work In Progress
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The Napier-Railton at Brooklands has disc brakes (rear only as far as I could see) fitted in late 40s for (aircraft) parachute braking testing.  But @elderly is right about first well known use being Le Mans Jags.  
In his books IIRC Hawthorn suggests Ferrari’s antipathy to discs was “not invented here” syndrome; pretty much everyone in the motor trade and racing knew discs were the way ahead from mid-50s, though it would be a while before some manufacturers could be bothered -BL I’m looking at you, cooking  Minis were  still drums all round well into the 80’s!  I still have the special spanner for the miserable fortnightly adjustment, though it’s fortunately remained unused for 35 years.

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I have a 1960 Mark 2 Jaguar, it has a badge on the rear bumper warning other drivers the car in front has disk brakes.

Presumably this was to stop them driving into the back of it when the Jaguar stopped quicker than they could !

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