A rare Aston Martin that may have been used as an unmarked police car in the sixties has been found after half a century hidden in a garage. The DB24, built in 1955, was discovered at a property in Gloucestershire and is believed to be worth over $3000,000 when fully restored. The classic car, which became famous as the model driven by James Bond in Ian Fleming’s novels, was bought by a car enthusiast who intended to work on the engine when he retired. Instead it was covered by a sheet and forgotten by its owner, and was forgotten.
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MotorTranscript
00:0000.01 COMMS
00:06Worth a quarter of a million pounds, incredibly this Aston Martin hasn't been seen for almost
00:1250 years. Discovered in a Gloucestershire barn, this is just one of the exciting projects
00:17currently being undertaken by Jonathan Wills and his company, Cotswold Classic Car Restorations.
00:2300.05 JONATHAN WILLS
00:24As a company we're really excited and just it's a privilege to be involved with this.
00:31Jonathan started restoring classic cars while he was still at school in the 1990s and set
00:37up Cotswold Classic Car Restorations around four years ago with the aim of working on
00:42mainly British models such as Aston Martins and Jaguars. The company currently has a full
00:48workload and Jonathan shows us some of their current restoration projects.
00:5300.15 JONATHAN WILLS
00:54It's a three litre, six cylinder engine. It's stored conditions were perfect. It was in
01:01a dry, open, airy building that was heated during the winter. So the amount of corrosion
01:07that's occurred within the car is remarkable.
01:1100.30 JONATHAN WILLS
01:13What marks this car as absolutely unique is it's an Aston Martin DB2-4, which the build
01:19numbers are only in a few hundreds anyway. The few that are left are absolutely cherished,
01:26command considerable values ever rising and for the Aston collector, you're not going
01:32to find this again. Potentially that restoration typically takes about a year's worth of work.
01:38Here we have the Maserati Corsa Corte 1970. This is one of only two in the world and this
01:45particular car is a special commission by the Argonne. The other one was a special commission
01:49by the King of Spain. It took three years to build this car, Maserati themselves.
01:54This car features one of the most opulent interiors you'll ever see. The super soft
01:59calf leather that the seats are trimmed in, the deep Wilton style of carpet interior
02:04you will not find on many, many cars at all. Lovely wooden dashboard with a very full complement
02:09of dials. This car is apparently a discreet saloon. Discreet isn't a word I would use
02:16with it.
02:17And propelling this beautiful saloon car is a Quad Cam V8. Five litre in excess of 350
02:23horsepower is a variation on Maserati's race engines. The design criteria from the Argonne
02:31is that the car that we do, not the 60 and the 6 seconds, but 170 miles an hour, it's
02:36really ahead of its time. It's in absolutely beautiful and original condition, pretty much
02:41as it left the factory all those years ago.
02:44Restoration projects are very time consuming and incredibly detailed.
02:49We actually break the car down into all its component pieces. We mark out any repairs
02:54that are required as well. We can either build the car as completely original or we may be
02:59modifying slightly to make the car actually more up to current speed of traffic.
03:04The chassis and body would be acid dipped, so where the actual body and chassis are put
03:08into an acid tank and left there for 48 hours. And that removes all paint, it removes all
03:13the rust, all the sealers and corrosion. And when the body is removed, it is then put into
03:18a neutralising tank. Then the car will come back to us and we'll inspect it for any cracks
03:22or, you know, perforation or where the panels have become thin through corrosion.
03:27Then we go through the various processes of the restoration, which include body, paint,
03:32chassis rebuild and the re-trimming of the leather and the hide and even down to the
03:36glass. If the glass is marked or damaged, we'll be looking at replacing the glass if
03:40the customer requires.
03:42The main challenges in a restoration of a vehicle is getting the originality correct
03:47and working closely with the customer to ensure that the refinished article is exactly what
03:53he wants.
03:54Despite all the beautiful vehicles Jonathan has worked on, he still has a wish list.
03:59A car we're yet to restore that we would absolutely love to be commissioned to restore
04:04would be an ex-Formula One car owned by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James Hunt.
04:11The history with those cars, the battles that they were involved with is just second to
04:16none and it would be an absolute privilege if one of those projects comes our way one day.
04:22It would be a dream of mine to restore one of those cars owned by one of those fantastic drivers.
04:28And it seems Jonathan has no plans to stop working on these classic cars any time soon.
04:33Working on classic cars is an absolute joy. It's something that I see me doing to the
04:37day I die, being involved with them.
04:39When the cars are actually completed and leaving your workshop and you've seen them progress
04:43over one or two years, it's good to see them out there being used again and the customers
04:47enjoying them.