Thank you for dropping in. Why Aston's? Well, a number of my family members once worked for Aston Martin when it was located in Feltham, Middlesex, (England) in the 1950's.

  My mother, then Doreen Sherwood, joined Aston's as a secretary in 1949 and would later became secretary to Professor Eberan von Eberhorst (of Auto-Union fame) and racing team manager John Wyer. Out testing race cars at a local airfield, Doreen accompanied the crew to take notes, while there she learned to drive a car for the first time, not just any car, but a DB3S race car!  Her instructor? None other than Roy Parnell! Looking through John Wyer's AM racing reports from the 50's you'll find "DS" at the bottom of the pages. We have these reports too! Doreen's two brother's also worked at Astons, one in the drawing office (Roger) - who's claim to fame is designing the original "David Brown/Aston Martin" badge, the other was a panel beater (Brian) - and good at it! 

  After the war... Richard Green went back to his job as a draftsman at the Patent Office, which was short lived, for exchange it for a racing career. He was soon employed by Marcus Chambers, and later would join WADE Engineering, taking care of customers using their Superchargers on GP cars, such as Dennis Poore's Alfa and a brace of ERAs. Richard joined Aston Martin in 1952 and became part of the racing department. Richard was clearly the lucky one of the group, as he traveled all over Europe with the race team, driving the transporter or the cars themselves to/from the tracks. At the races he helped keep the cars going throughout the race, be it LeMans, Monza or the Isle of Man.  While there, Richard worked on some now very historic cars, such as; the DB2's, the DB3's, DB3S', DP-cars, the F1 cars and a number of prototypes. For the 1955 season Richard joined the MG team.

  When my parents moved to California in 1956 (February 5th for Richard & April for Doreen), Richard would need a "sponsor" to enter the USA, Ken Miles was that sponsor. Richard went to work for Tony Paravono as the Shop (racing) Foreman, taking care of his Ferrari's. Later he'd take care of Joe Lubin's Aston's, among others.  In April '58 Richard & Doreen would move to Northern California where Richard took the position of "Resident Engineer" for Aston Martin (NA), then based in San Lorenzo. I grew up in Aston's... having come home for the first time in a MkIII Notchback. I made many a trip in the back of Aston's to/from Los Angeles. The MkIII on the front page was Richard's last company car in 1959/60, #AM300/3/1661. My first race was the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in 1958 (& 59), Richard was there helping with the works DBR1 (and Moss in '58) and DBR2 with Salvadori in '59, in addition to Joe Lubin's DB3S'.  (note: In 1960 A-M closed their California office, hence Richard joined the Rover Motor Company of NA Ltd., based in South San Francisco).

  When I was still a little guy, Richard restored a 1932 1-1/2 Litre LeMans Aston...  which, as my mother claims, "You'd think it was Michael's car, as he was the only one allowed to ride in it!"  So true too! In 1964 we took 2nd a Peacock Gap Concourse first time out, followed by Best of Day at Cal State Hayward Concourse. The saddest day of my life was when I was told they'd sold it. Maybe one day I'll buy it back! In the early 1970's George Newell & Richard found a MkIII from a used car lot in Oakland, California. Upon opening the bonnet they found it to be AM300/3/1661, the last company car Richard had at Aston's (San Leandro, CA). Soon thereafter it was bought by Richard & Doreen, then restored by Richard during the 70s/80s; We still own it today. It's most recent outing being to Laguna Seca Historic Car Races & Danville Parkinson's Concourse in 2008. A lifetime member of the Aston Martin Owners Club, Richard became the Chairman of AMOC-West from 1969-79. 

In February 1960 Richard joined the Rover Motor Company of North America Ltd (Shaw Rd, South San Francisco, CA) as their Product Development Engineer. Richard built the first ever V8 Land Rover in 1966 (see GoldenRod Story), hence the Land Rover's on this site. He'd retire in late 1989 from Jaguar Cars Inc (Northwest Zone, Brisbane, CA) after seeing it from Rovers, British Leyland, JRT Inc to Jaguar. In retirement Richard was a common sight at West Coast British, fiddling with Land Rover's and Aston Martin's... he always enjoyed working on these lovely cars, and on our team of racing motorcycles.  

For those who have asked; YES!, I was (still am) a car nut since day one! I always dreamed of driving F1 & CanAm sports cars, but the opportunity never arose. I had hoped to drive the then current British Leyland sponsored Group-44 Jag XJR5 at one point, but BL pulled their plug not long after I won Daytona on my 250 and then talked with Bob... thus I kept racing motorcycles. Carroll Shelby once said to me; "When are you going to quit racing those xxxdamn motorcycles? Their dangerous!" I retired at the end of the 2004 season. In October 2005 I did send my resume to Pro-Drive regarding the DBR9 LeMans car!  For my racing career, click on the motorcycle picture below.

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.   Michael Green

Sept 2008: I just bought an MG race car! 

December 2008: On a sad note, Richard "Dickie" Green passed away at age 90 from Parkinson's.

  Photos are from the Richard F. Green collection & WCBR collection. Some photos we do not know who the original photographer is/was... so tell us, nor do we know some of the copyright holders due to age of these photographs Any information would be welcome and credit given.  Copyright 2004-2009WCBR. All Rights Reserved

Page links for your viewing pleasure:                             

Postwar    AM1952/53    AM1954    AM1955     MG1955    Ferrair1956    CA1956    CA1958/59    Bob Hammel's cars      

AM300/3/1661 1958 on   AM1959    Bluebird 1960    Our 1932 Aston 1964    GAN = Newall     DB3S: #117 #104 #113

OKV3 Jaguar    Friends 1 thru 3    British Leyland    John King before Aston's    RFG Motorcycles   

AMOC 1960s    AMOC Hillsborough 2005    AM-2005

Racing Stories    Parkinson's    Parkinson's Cars   MG gets an MG

Great Racing Engines     Racing Driver

Other links worth visiting;

Aston Martin and Lagonda unofficial pages     Aston Martin Picture Gallery     Aston Martin Owners' Club     Aston Martin.Biz

West Coast British Racing    Today at Tam's Old Race Car Site    Aussie Road Racing

http://www.classicscars.com/chassis/aston.htm

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