Anyone that knows me, knows that while I love cars of any kind, Aston Martin’s have my heart. Whilst I’ve been lucky to get up close and personal with some incredible machinery in my 25-year life, for me, being around an Aston Martin of any age makes me feel all giddy inside. I’ve been lucky to be around some incredible Aston Martins in my life but nothing comes close to what I got to see lately – the 1930 Aston Martin LM4.

Built in 1930, The LM4 was built purely to go racing. Powered by a 1.5-litre 4-Cylinder engine, the LM4 was Aston Martin’s answer to Riley’s, Bentley’s, Bugatti’s & Frazer-Nashs. Even though a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine is considered small in this day and age, back in the ’30s, that was considered to be a large engine, especially considering that during its racing heyday, it was competing with cars that had anything from a 1100cc engine like seen in the Rileys all the way up to the Bugatti & Bentley brutes that were powered by 2300cc Supercharged & 4½ litre engines respectively. In Its racing days, LM4, piloted by Bert Bertelli, the owner of Aston Martin at the time, competed in the prestigious J.C.C ‘Double Twelve’ held at Brooklands, in June 1930 where it got 4th overall and 2nd in class. A couple months later, It won Its class at the R.I.A.C. Irish Grand Prix and came 7th overall with Sammy Davis behind the wheel.

Once the 1930 season of racing was over, LM4 was sold to her first owner, Henry Leeson in 1931. Henry owned it for a few months before he sold it to Rolland Cookson. Cookson was an interesting individual, to say the least. Cookson was a young businessman that lived in the North of England who later in life became a wealthy industrialist and local hero in the North East, Cookson was also very charitable as well. . However, when it came to recording the address for the car, he decided to put the address as Belleisle House & Park in Ayr, Scotland. Why he did this remains a history but two theories have come forward as to why he may have done this. The first is that Cookson spent an extended honeymoon at Belleisle House, fell in love with the place and decided to address the car there. The second theory was that he had some business at Belleisle House, loved his time and ultimately addressed the car to the house. What made him put Belleisle House as the address of the car we’ll probably never know but one thing is for sure, after seeing the car revealed there on Tuesday, I can personally see why!

After Cookson owned & raced the car for a little while, he decided to sell it and ultimately moved his interest to Bugatti’s. LM4 went through 6 owners throughout her life. The current owners have only had her for a year but since ownership, they have taken her to Goodwood for the ‘Festival of Speed 2022’, and Silverstone for ‘Silverstone Classic’ but plan to take her to other racing events during ownership. There is also a book that will be written about the car in the forthcoming future that will piece all the history & story together.

During the late ’90s, LM4 was restored to an extremely high standard, with all the unique factory-lightened castings retained. The car went through quite a lot of bodywork in that time but has maintained its originality whilst also remaining practical. LM4’s restoration left no stone unturned and you can really see that when looking around it. The engine was rebuilt to its full racing specification by Ecurie Bertelli. the original engine has been kept with the car, making it possible to rebuild if possible. In 2021/2022, the car went under a recommissioning overhaul by Ecurie Bertelli and the body was repainted in its correct shade of green by Aston Martin Works down in Newport Pagnell.

After restoration, LM4 went back to racing with its previous owner & has enjoyed outings at Le Mans Classic back in 2002, 2004 & 2006. in 2006, it was driven by-then CEO of Aston Martin, Dr Ulrich Bez, mirroring Bert Bertelli back in 1930. LM4 is also capable of racing at Monaco Classic, Goodwood Revival, Le Mans Classic, Silverstone Classic & potentially the Mille Miglia as well.

LM4 herself is very rare, but not for the reasons you might think. See, in the thirties, it was somewhat common practice to have a “Touring Body” put onto an already existing racing chassis and this was done to make it that bit more practical for everyday use. LM4 however, still has her original type of body that was used when it was raced. LM4 is known to be the best-looking pre-war Aston Martin ever made and that’s because of features like its cut-away doors, its exhaust that exits under the car making the bodywork look sleeker and its signature racing green paint. As already mentioned, LM4 is powered by a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine that is capable of speeds of approximately 90mph which might not sound like much in this day and age but when you consider that its 92 years old, doesn’t have any drivers aids whatsoever and it sits on very thin tyres and huge drum brakes, 90 mph sounds scarier than normal. The drivers in the period that were able to pilot LM4 were something else indeed!

Another thing to mention about LM4 is her overall size. While she isn’t exactly tiny, she isn’t overly huge either. The other thing to note is her weight too. Being a race car, LM4 is quite light and when you add that peppy little 4-cylinder engine into the equation, it was no surprise that in her heyday she took class wins and placed in the top ten both at Brooklands & the R.I.A.C Irish Grand Prix. LM4 isn’t incredibly wide, in fact, at Tuesday’s event where she was bought up to Belleisle House to potentially bring back some memories for some people, she was easily piloted down a footpath towards the Greenhouse where more pictures could be taken. try doing that in a modern race car and you’ll definitely struggle.

It also shows how easy it is to drive as well. even though it doesn’t have any kind of driver’s aids and is very much of the period, it drives really well in the modern day. One of the guys who was helping with the event had the pleasure of manoeuvring the car around and whilst chatting to him about the car, he was sure to tell me that driving LM4 around the House & Park was one of the easiest vehicles he’d ever piloted. This is also shown in any of the Youtube videos about it. LM4 is more in line with a classic Aston Martin Hill Climb car than a Grand Prix car.

Before I wrap this piece up, I would just like to thank Steve Waddingham and his crew for setting the event up on Tuesday. I’d also like to extend my thanks to the staff at Belleisle House & Park for their incredible hospitality too. Everyone that I spoke to was genuinely lovely to speak to and was super respectful to any stupid question I may have asked them. I truly & honestly believe that I’ll never get to experience a car like LM4 ever again unless I’m super lucky so for that reason alone, I have to thank everyone who set the event up for creating something that’ll stick with me for years to come!

Hope You Enjoy!

Alex Jebson