“My mum always said I was obsessed with cars… I used to get super excited about cars in general – whatever shape or form,” says James Brackenbury, Senior Certification Engineer at Aston Martin, whose day job involves testing the marque’s latest products for certification and homologation purposes. And it turns out working with cars – Aston Martins specifically – is in his blood.
Charles Brackenbury was a driver for the company from the 1930s all the way to the 1950s, and was responsible for Aston Martin’s class win at Le Mans in 1935 in the marque’s bright red Ulster, chassis LM20, the team’s best result until their famous outright victory in 1959. Charles was also James’ great-uncle.
“When I was a child, my granddad told me that my great uncle was a driver for Aston Martin, but my understanding was that he was a bit of a black sheep of the family. He spent his money doing things that others and the family didn’t approve of. Consequently, my grandfather had lost contact with him,” explains Brackenbury, “Also, Charles died in his 60s, well before I was born.”
His relative’s ghost haunted James, but he had no idea why until he was 13. Like many British school kids, James had to do work experience out in the real world to see what life outside the classroom was like. Rather than be bored out of his mind at a local supermarket, he managed to secure a placement at the world-famous Aston Martin Works. It was here, while elbow deep in a DB7, he got a tap on the shoulder and was told: “You’ve got a very famous last name…”
Brackenbury reflected: “It suddenly twigged who he was referencing. I didn’t really appreciate the sort of legend Charles was.”
Brackenbury was sat down and given the full brief on who his great-uncle really was. Long dead, a family story from the old days, but for Aston Martin, he was something of a hero. The younger Brackenbury learned that his relative worked for the company pre- and post-World War II, helping develop the DB2 under David Brown, as well as racing for the company when Bertelli was in charge. The news prompted Brackenbury and family to get researching.
Over time, they discovered he had a presence (James notes it as ‘James Hunt style’) at each track he went to, and that he was a rare works driver. Back then, the idea that a manufacturer would have its own team wasn’t common. For Brackenbury and co, the job was to win in an Aston on Sunday, and sell a boatload on Monday. James had loved Aston Martin since childhood, and had no clue his relative was such a part of it.
Fast forward to 2025, and James is doing a similar job to his great uncle, though without the stints at La Sarthe. In March this year, however, he managed to get closer to his uncle’s legendary car than he could have possibly imagined. He was told to head to Aston Martin’s test facility at Stowe Circuit, Silverstone, where Ulster chassis LM18, the sister car to Charles’ class-winning LM20, would be waiting for him for a photoshoot. What happened next was unexpected.
“I arrived at Stowe, and guess who arrives in a helicopter? Nick, Holly, and Chloe Mason.” Spending time with a special car is one thing, but doing so in the company of Pink Floyd drummer and car collector Nick Mason and his similarly car-mad daughters… that takes it to the next level. LM18 is Chloe Mason’s charge, and she gave James a spin. “We were doing speeds in a vehicle with a huge steering wheel, old brakes, skinny tyres, heading towards a hairpin at speeds I’d normally be doing in a modern car. Chloe Mason was throwing it into bends and I had nothing to hold on to bar the bodywork, acutely aware that there’s a scalding hot exhaust system just next to my arm.” He also noted that it was a little tight in LM18: “I’m broad, and was trying to make sure I wasn’t encroaching too much on Chloe while holding onto my camera…”
High speed ride done, Brackenbury had time to reflect on what he’d experienced. “I felt overwhelming pride. I woke up that morning thinking it would be a static shoot, and I didn’t think I’d be in the sister vehicle of my great uncle’s victory – and a vehicle that he would have driven as well by some point,” James beams, “It was a good day at the office.”
