This 1935 Aston Martin 1.5 Ulster is being offered for Auction at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed event that is running on June 26, 2015.

From the lot listing for this 30s Aston Martin Le Mans Race Car for sale:

Ex-Works Racing Aston Martin Ulster Team Car, LM19, is an early consignment for Bonhams Festival of Speed Sale, and is estimated at £1,600,000-2,200,000. The LM series of pre-war Aston Martin Team Cars, produced to challenge at the prestigious annual Le Mans 24-Hour race, were individually numbered from LM1 to LM23.

The first team cars (LM1 and LM2) faced the challenge of Le Mans in 1928, and over the next seven years the LM series developed impressively. By 1935, with several Le Mans tries under their belts, this series of now much-coveted Aston Martin Works Team sports cars produced four very special LMs, commonly regarded as being some of the very best of all pre-war sports cars. These were described by A.C. ‘Bert’ Bertelli, chief designer and co-owner of Aston Martin, as ‘the best cars I ever built’.

Of these four cars, three – LM18, 19, and 20 – were built to compete in the prestigious and intensely grueling Le Mans 24-hour ‘Grand Prix d’Endurance’ in France. Aston Martin LM19 had an eventful race. With Thomas Fothringham at the wheel, it was running very strongly and disputing the class lead, but after an intense nine hours it sadly crashed, leaving its sister Works entry, LM20, to soldier on, finish third overall, and win for Aston Martin the coveted Biennial Cup.

LM19 was re-built by the Works and taken to Ards public-road circuit in Northern Ireland for that year’s Tourist Trophy Race. With the extrovert gentleman driver, Charlie Martin, behind the wheel, LM19 proved fastest amongst the pack of Works Team cars, only for a faulty batch of pipework to cause loss of oil pressure, eventually sending Martin and the rest of the Works Team cars into the pits. This caused such significant delay that LM19 fell two laps short of the required minimum distance to qualify as a finisher.

In 1936, the LM19 was then sent to Italy to compete in the legendary Mille Miglia, the thousand-mile road race. Driven by Tom Clarke and Maurice Falkner, the car yet again performed well, demonstrating its design’s characteristic pace and driveability by leading its class by an hour-and-a-half at the Rome control. However, after crossing the Apennines during the race’s return leg, a valve burned out, causing the car to retire at Fano, another disappointing end to a terrific performance.