Though it may look it, David Brown’s new Speedback is anything but a thoroughbred. Unravelling its DNA will be the work of a few paragraphs (so bear with me); it really is very confusing and, hard not to suspect, almost meant to be.  It looks like an Aston Martin, like the Aston Martin, that one in the carpool over at MI6. Of course it doesn’t look as good, few cars can match the DB5 for the sheer elegance of its restraint. That’s why securing one of just over 1000 built will set you back north of £500,000. There’s no word on price on the Speedback yet, but despite its costly old-school hand manufacturing, it would have to be less than that? Surely?  And of course the Speedback sounds like it could be Aston Martin; it is after all brought to you by David Brown Automotive. The original David Brown (1904-1993) – the one whose initials still grace real Aston Martins today – bought the company after getting out of tractors. This new David Brown likewise came out of the muddy stuff, selling the earth-moving technology he developed with his father to Caterpillar. Brown Jnr is a bit of a dragon; today’s launch was in the premises of Lapicida, the London stone business he owns, and guests quaffed beer brewed at the craft brewery he also owns.  Then there is the car itself, built around the structure of a Jaguar XK and its supercharged V8 engine and its slightly dated – though not entirely unsuited – six-speed transmission. Again, the boundaries between real and ersatz Aston Martins are blurred; the DB7, arguably the car that saved Aston, was also a Jaguar under the skin, the luscious 1970s XJS.  So it looks like, introduces itself as, and shares an engineering philosophy with Aston Martin, yet the David Brown Automotive Speedback isn’t an Aston Martin. What then is it, and do you really want to know? After all when there are over a 1000 real DB5s out there, isn’t this tribute car a bit, you know, naff?  Regular readers here will know at times like this I like to speak to my chum Moneybags, a man of wealth and taste who has just doubled his investment in Aston Martins, adding a DB6 Volante to his DB5. Leaving aside the Speedback’s styling for now, his first response was almost positive. “There is so little out there for a man in his fifties. He doesn’t want a McLaren or a Ferrari. He wants the engine in the front and space for his children in the back. Since Ferrari abandoned this with the end of the 456 (the FF is just too polarising), there really hasn’t been that choice.”  He went on: “The XK platform doesn’t bode well tho’. It seems a bit lazy. There is so much engineering knowledge in the UK I would want to know it’s been exploited. That would tell me this car has really been loved in the way Horatio Pagani so clearly does with his cars. That – and their rarity – is what makes them so compelling.” But surely an owner of a real DB5 couldn’t help but find the Speedback embarrassing and presumptuous? “Not necessarily...”  So the Speedback passes that test. Personally I’m less offended by it than I thought I might be. The design, the work of Alan Mobberley who started his career back at Humber (anyone?) and ended it at Land Rover by way of BL where he played his part in the Marina, does echo more than just the DB5 once you’ve look at it for a while. There are little squeaks of Lamborghini 350GT, and contemporary Ferraris and Maseratis in there also. Don’t forget the DB5 was designed in Italy by Carrozzeria Touring, one of a cluster of coachbuilders thriving around Turin in the 1950s and 1960s.  If it wasn’t called a "David Brown" it might just be possible to see the Speedback as a rather lovely tribute to the Carrozzeria and their aluminium-beating craftsmen. But as it is, it’s hard to get beyond the "DB5 tribute" label.  The car is made the old-fashioned way, in hand rolled and hand-beaten alloy. It would be nice to think that, on top of the XK’s aluminum structure, the Speedback is a lightweight; it’s certainly no slouch, reaching 60mph in less than five seconds and cruising at a max of 155mph. That comparatively low top speed suggests the Speedback has been set up for comfort, so that interior, also hand-crafted in leather and elm should be an appropriately lovely place to be. A word of caution here, any car that doesn’t come from the production lines of the established marques may not have the quality you might expect. Pagani is the only exception to this rule.  So should you want one? Maybe… but it’s just impossible to say until we are told the price and that won’t be until it is officially launched on 17 April in Monaco. Brown owns a real DB5 so will appreciate the importance of getting the numbers right; not just the price, the supply will also dictate how the Speedback is valued. Rarity among the classics marques has a value almost over and above raw appeal.  That’s not to ignore raw appeal and the Speedback – on paper and in the showroom at least – certainly has that. But that appeal is hard to untangle and I’m still not sure, 10 paragraphs on. Recreations don’t bother me; Eagle’s re-created E-Type Jaguars are about as lovely as it gets. But the Speedback ain’t a recreation. But it’s also no more its own car than it is an Aston Martin.
The new Speedback from David Brown Automotive pays tribute to the Aston Martin DB5 without faithfully recreating it. So, asks Michael Harvey, does it pass the taste test?