In 1947
David Brown bought the Aston Martin and
Lagonda companies and incorporated them as
Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. Lagonda's 2.6 L (2580 cc/157 in3),
dual overhead cam,
straight-six engine, more powerful than the
pushrod 2.0 L
straight-four in the Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports, was the main objective in Brown's acquisition of the company.
W. O. Bentley had supervised the engine's design, which was largely by William (Willie) Watson, an engineer with the pre-war
Invicta company who had collaborated on Lagonda's pre-war V12 and also designed the short-lived post-war version. In its original form the Lagonda straight-6 had a 78 mm (3.07 in) bore and 90 mm (3.543 in) stroke, and produced about 105 hp (78 kW) with dual
SU carburettors. The DB2 utilized it in a shortened version of the
tube-frame chassis designed by Claude Hill for the Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports, with a
fastback coupé body designed by
Frank Feeley. Three pre-production cars were entered for the
1949 24 Hours of Le Mans. One, which would become the development car for the production DB2, had the Lagonda straight-6, while the four-cylinder Aston Martin 2-litre unit powered the other two. After six laps the Lagonda-powered car, driven by
Leslie Johnson, retired with overheating caused by failure of the water pump. One of the 2-litre cars was in 4th place and running without brakes when it crashed two hours short of the finish, fatally injuring driver
Pierre Maréchal. The other finished 7th, crewed by Arthur Jones and Nick Haines. A month later, the larger-engined car, driven by Leslie Johnson and Charles Brackenbury, finished 3rd in the
Spa 24-hour race, where one of the 2-litre cars was driven to 5th by Nick Haines and
Lance Macklin. For 1950 all three factory team cars were equipped with the Lagonda engine. At the
1950 Le Mans race the one driven by
George Abecassis and
Lance Macklin finished 5th, with Brackenbury and
Reg Parnell bringing another home 6th, which won Aston Martin 1st and 2nd in the 3-litre class. Across the Atlantic,
Briggs Cunningham drove his DB2 to 2nd in its class at the inaugural
Sebring race meeting in December 1950. The factory team cars continued racing in Europe throughout 1951, including at
Le Mans, where Macklin and
Eric Thompson took 3rd overall, with Abecassis and
Brian Shawe-Taylor 5th. David Brown soon embarked on a series of Aston Martins designed specifically for competition use, starting with the
DB3. ==Production==