A lost LEGEND – a SURVIVOR that escaped being crushed by Aston Martin out of pure love for this truly special, one-of-a-kind automobile: a V8 powered Aston Martin DB5. Yes V8 not a tiddly 6-cylinder.. Imagine what 007 could have done with this baby!!

Like most James Bond fans I LOVE the DB5 – ever since it scythed across the screen in Goldfinger it became a thing of wonder. Synonymous with 007 getting out of trouble by any means possible. I never imagined that one day I would get to skid one around in a Bond movie, let alone three Bond movies: Skyfall, Spectre and then to Italy with No Time To Die.

In 2021, the DB5 got quite the upgrade for No Time To Die with some creative Q-branch re-imagining to give it more power and less weight. The result was remarkable – an agile machine that could dance with just a tickle of throttle.

It turns out that back in 1964 somebody very clever at Aston Martin had the same idea: Tadek Marek. Tadek was like James Bond and Q rolled into one man. A gifted engineer who escaped the clutches of the Nazis during World War 2 and made it to England where he repurposed Merlin engines from crashed Spitfire fighters into Cromwell tanks. You can bet they were bloody fast tanks.

Tadek enhanced W.O. Bentley’s 6 cylinder engine for the DB5 but he was also working on a special V8 engine.. Tadek reconfigured one, ONLY ONE, DB5 to accommodate that V8 engine. And after he departed Aston Martin – that car was lost.. Until now.

A few years ago when I was writing my book about Aston Martin (available in all good stores) I heard a rumour that turned out to be a fact. After a few phone calls with some very fine people – I got to drive it. Goosebumps.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aston-Martin...

Thanks to Nicholas Mee for helping organise this shoot and to Bryan Webb the fortunate owner for his generosity.

Thank you MAGAZYN CLASSICAUTO in Polska for filming this bad boy

https://classicautomag.pl/sklep/produ...

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