This amazing Aston Martin on offer was extracted from dry, secure storage in Malibu, California just last month, seeing the light of day for the first time since the mid-1970s. Save one long-ago repaint in a non-original color, it is absolutely factory original and unmolested in every way, having lived its entire life in California. Its left-hand drive chassis appears rock solid, and its aluminum Tickford body panels wear the patina of decades of enjoyment, although the bodylines are straight and panel gaps uniform. Currently the property of its third owner, who decided she must have one when she saw a similar 1958 example belonging to an acquaintance and her husband. Our owner said, "It was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen," and asked to buy the '58 from her friends. The lady and gentleman politely declined to sell, as they loved their car and had searched years to find it, but agreed to help our consigner locate one; she acquired this car (one of just 764 DB2/4s produced between 1953 and 1957) in 1961 and employed it as her every day driver, which it remained until the mid-1970s when her changing family and transportation needs dictated that something more pedestrian was in order. The owner's now adult sons clearly remember hearing the car's distinctive exhaust note from some distance away as their mother drove to pick them up from school.

The DB 2/4 was the mainstay of the Aston Martin lineup throughout the mid 1950s. It is descended from the original DB2 model, additionally featuring 2+2 seating and a rear hatchback; one of the first European GT models to offer the latter. Its 2.9-liter, 140 horsepower DOHC inline six-cylinder engine belongs to an engine family designed by W.O. Bentley.

Despite the car's superficially tatty appearance, the beyond-skin-deep beauty of this example is that it has never been wrecked, disassembled, or improperly restored. Although the air cleaner housings have gone missing, the original jack, engine hand crank, toolbox sans most tools, and glass windscreen washer bottle are present and accounted for. There are at least two paths that could be followed in bringing this unprecedented offering back to life. One would be to strip and refurbish the interior, and then give the car new tires and a thorough mechanical recommissioning and detailing. The other would of course be disassembly and a complete, authentic, concours quality restoration. Often with such "barn finds" the car's condition pre-determines that it must be taken down one course or the other. In this case, that choice rests with the new owner.