Photo: Andreas Ezelius on Artstation
Ever heard of a Texas chicken farmer called Carroll Shelby? Well, the man behind the Shelby Cobra, Shelby Mustang, and GT40 won the 1959 edition of Le Mans driving a DBR1 with British racer Roy Salvadori. This car isn’t only important to Aston Martin but the automotive world as a whole considering an auction result from 2017.
Three years ago, RM Sotheby’s hammered the open-top racing car for the princely sum of $22.6 million, setting the record for the most expensive British car ever. Before it, chassis XKD 501 of the Jaguar D-Type changed hands for $21.78 million in 2016.
Only five examples of the breed were made, and each one has a story to tell. The DBR1/2 mentioned beforehand has also participated at the Spa Sportscar Race of 1957, the Nurburgring 1,000-km race, Spa Grand Prix, Goodwood Tourist Trophy of 1958, and Rouen Grand Prix of 1960. In other words, that car has seen a lot of track action.
A fan of the two-seater sports racing car, 3D artist Andreas Ezelius has reimagined the DBR1 into the DBR1 X. “I took my old Aston Martin model and turned it into something a little more brutal,” he says on Artstation about the pixel manipulation before your eyes. “I wanted to try to do something with kit bashing and a more developed idea compared to my earlier works,” and hey presto, all of the paint is gone.
Now fitted with super-sticky tires and double-spoke alloy wheels as well as flared fenders on all four corners, the DBR1 in X flavor also loses the passenger’s seat and two parts of the hood. One of the two cutouts reveals eight velocity stacks, also known as intake trumpets. “So you’re telling me this thing has a V8 instead of the original straight-six engine?” From the looks of it, yes it does.
As for the remaining hole towards the front of the hood, well, check out that pushrod suspension with yellow springs and tell me you don’t like it what you see. The minimalist dashboard now features a digital display instead of old-school gauges, and the manual transmission’s metal gear lever looks like a work of art in its own right.
It’s surely wrong to modify a DBR1 to this degree but do bear in mind this is the digital world instead of a life-sized racing car worth tens of millions of dollars. “Beautiful sacrilege” are the words that best describe the DBR1 X.
Only five examples of the breed were made, and each one has a story to tell. The DBR1/2 mentioned beforehand has also participated at the Spa Sportscar Race of 1957, the Nurburgring 1,000-km race, Spa Grand Prix, Goodwood Tourist Trophy of 1958, and Rouen Grand Prix of 1960. In other words, that car has seen a lot of track action.
A fan of the two-seater sports racing car, 3D artist Andreas Ezelius has reimagined the DBR1 into the DBR1 X. “I took my old Aston Martin model and turned it into something a little more brutal,” he says on Artstation about the pixel manipulation before your eyes. “I wanted to try to do something with kit bashing and a more developed idea compared to my earlier works,” and hey presto, all of the paint is gone.
Now fitted with super-sticky tires and double-spoke alloy wheels as well as flared fenders on all four corners, the DBR1 in X flavor also loses the passenger’s seat and two parts of the hood. One of the two cutouts reveals eight velocity stacks, also known as intake trumpets. “So you’re telling me this thing has a V8 instead of the original straight-six engine?” From the looks of it, yes it does.
As for the remaining hole towards the front of the hood, well, check out that pushrod suspension with yellow springs and tell me you don’t like it what you see. The minimalist dashboard now features a digital display instead of old-school gauges, and the manual transmission’s metal gear lever looks like a work of art in its own right.
It’s surely wrong to modify a DBR1 to this degree but do bear in mind this is the digital world instead of a life-sized racing car worth tens of millions of dollars. “Beautiful sacrilege” are the words that best describe the DBR1 X.
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