CLK 613, aka ‘E4/440/S’, or more commonly just ‘440’ is a bit of an enigma. The prefix E4 shows that the engine went through the test shop in May of 1934. The registrations starting CLK were not issued until December 1935. A long time lapse, but then it is known that stock was sometimes slow in moving.
The chassis however, is the original one from the crashed LM19 (Le Mans 1935), and that’s pretty much all that is known. The history file was lost by the previous owner.
The 3rd owner was Tom Stewart, who was one of those responsible for reforming the AMOC post-war.
The 5th owner put the car into a museum circa 1962 where it remained until 1975. That year it went to Germany where it remained in one family ownership for the following 44 years.
In about 1994 it had extensive work carried out where whilst a few original parts were replaced, the majority of the car is almost certainly original, or at least, original era.
440 was then extensively campaigned, in German events including the Ennstal Classic and the 2000km Deutschland as well as the Mille Miglia.
I bought the car in 2019 45 years after first trying to buy a Bertelli AM. I had been actively searching for a few years with a couple of Internationals and several Mk IIs having been considered. I was advised by Ecurie Bertelli that 440 was for sale. The car was subsequently viewed, tested and bought.
Like many cars, not just Astons, this 25 year old restoration requires a modest amount of work to put a few things right, but that of course is surely one of the pleasures of possessing a car like this?
At present alas in storage, so out of reach!
Lovely. Well done on finally acquiring your Bertelli era car.
A gorgeous car with a lovely history.