Hitchcock's long lost Aston DB2 recovered!

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The long lost Aston Martin DB2 Drophead Coupe that was made famous in the Hitchcock movie ‘The Birds’ is supposedly found back just miles from the spot where the filming took place in California. While fans and dealers have been searching for the car for decades, the DB2 – notably driven by Tippi Hedren – has been hiding close to the sleepy town of Bodega Bay since the movie was shot there in 1962. That’s 54 years!

Here’s its story: the Aston Martin registered RUJ 655 was eight years old when it was bought by Walt Disney Productions, who were responsible for the movie’s special effects. It had supposedly clocked up over 76,000 miles, which made it a well used car at the time. What’s more: it was not handled too carefully during filming and believed to have been damaged significantly. And so, with the filming coming to an end, it was decided to donate the car to Susan Codding, who used to run the local restaurant (still there), where cast and crew came together after every filming day. Codding was a widow, whose late husband had been a great car enthusiast, but Susan herself perhaps not so much. She decided to store the car close by in a warehouse in Bloomfield. And she did remarkably well, as she managed to keep the great gift secret for decades. It’s only when she passed away late last year at the age of 94 that the paperwork of the car came out of the bottom of a drawer.

Extensive searching by Codding’s grandson David Ohrberg eventually led to Bloomfield, where the car was found hidden behind agricultural machines and old furniture and dragged from its hiding place since so many years. Ohrberg knew about his grandmother’s relation with Tippi Hedren and other stars Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy plus the rest of the Hitchcock filming crew, but says he never knew anything about the car. While the odometer still reads under 80,000 miles this day, it appears that a restoration was started at one point, but Ohrberg is still looking for more information about this. He plans to fully restore the car now and bring it over to one of the major US concourses when ready. Tippi will be exited!

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture courtesy Universal Pictures)
 

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