1922 Aston Martin GP Zborowski

Aston Martin, founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, produced their first car in March 1915 by mating a Coventry Simplex side-valve engine to a Bugatti-designed Isotta-Fraschini chassis. Production could not start because of the outbreak of the first World War, but after the war the company was revitalized. With the financial help of Count Louis Zborowski, a wealthy British race car driver, they built two Grand Prix cars, the TT1 and TT2, to compete in the French Grand Prix in 1922. The cars were fitted with a twin-cam, 16-valve four-cylinder 1.5-litre engine. Aston Martin entered two new GP cars in 1922 French Grand Prix in Strasbourg for Louis Zborowski and Clive Gallop. The race was won by Felice Nazzaro in FIAT 804, while both Aston Martins retired due to engine troubles. Louis Zborowski was the son of Count William Eliot Morris Zborowski who had died in the La Turbine hillclimb at Nice in 1903. Louis’s life would end in similar fashion while racing. In 1923 Zborowski drove a Bugatti in Indianapolis 500, and then started in the 1923 Italian Grand Prix at Monza behind the wheel of American Miller car. In 1924 he joined Mercedes racing team. Zborowski retired from 1924 French Grand Prix and in the next Grand Epreuve, Italian Grand Prix at Monza, he died after hitting a tree in Lesmo curve. He was just 29 years old. Elliot and Louis Zborowski was, probably, the first father and son dynasty in Grand Prix racing, and both ended their lives in racing crashes driving a Mercedes.

Season	Series	Event
1922	Grand Prix	ACF Grand Prix
Driver	No.	Entrant
Louis Zborowski	15	Aston Martin Cars
Scale	Manufacturer	Collection
1:43	SMTS
Cat. No.	Quality	Rarity
RL131
Built kit