Though I'd posted a couple of items already, I decided to hold off on this one until after the Bonham's Aston Martin auction was over. Didn't want to tip my hand, lose my chance to scoop this baby up with a strategically timed offer, help a brother out by taking this rig off his hands.
This rig, of course, is one of just 12 DB5 Vantage Shooting Brakes, factory-commissioned from coachmaker Henry Radford in 1965. It was owned by the same Aston-loving family for nearly 40 years, who used it for "many annual family holidays in Devon."
The best part is not where, after twenty-plus years of meticulous care, the guy and his son pumped the DB5 up by replacing the original automatic with a ZF manual transmission, "much to his wife's disgust!" [Women!] It's how "The DB5 shooting brake was purchased with an extra mortgage on the house, because of its obvious utility and the need for a family vehicle."
Apparently, the need for such a family vehicle is so great, that it cannot be deterred by the absence of LATCH/ISOFIX. Or seat belts. Because I did not even get a chance to make my £10,000 bid.
