Rare 1955 Aston Martin Found In Storage After 50 Years
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 COMM Worth a quarter of a million pounds, incredibly
00:09this Aston Martin hasn't been seen for almost 50 years.
00:14Discovered in a Gloucestershire barn, this is just one of the exciting projects currently
00:18being undertaken by Jonathan Wills and his company, Cotswold Classic Car Restorations.
00:2300.05 Jonathan Wills The company, we're really excited and it's
00:28a privilege to be involved with this.
00:3000.05 COMM Jonathan started restoring classic cars while
00:33he was still at school in the 1990s and set up Cotswold Classic Car Restorations around
00:39four years ago with the aim of working on mainly British models such as Aston Martins
00:45and Jaguars.
00:4600.15 COMM The company currently has a full workload
00:49and Jonathan shows us some of their current restoration projects.
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.
01:10What 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.
01:23The few that are left are absolutely cherished, command considerable values, ever rising
01:29and for the Aston collector, you're not going to find this again.
01:33Potentially that restoration typically takes about a year's worth of work.
01:38Here we have the Maserati Quattroporte 1970, this is one of only two in the world and this
01:45particular car is a special commission by the Argo con, the other one was a special
01:49commission by the King of Spain.
01:51It took three years to build this car, Maserati themselves.
01:55This 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 that
02:04you will not find on many, many cars at all.
02:07Lovely wooden dashboard with a very full complement of dials, this car would be apparently a discreet
02:14saloon, discreet isn't a word I would use with it.
02:18Propelling this beautiful saloon car is a quad cam V8, five litre in excess of 350 horsepower
02:25is a variation on Maserati's race engines.
02:28The design criteria from the Argo con is a car that we do not the 60 under six seconds
02:33and 170 miles an hour, it's really ahead of its time.
02:37It's in absolutely beautiful and original condition pretty much as it left the factory
02:41all those years ago.
02:43Restoration 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
02:53that are required as well.
02:55We can either build the car as completely original or we may be able to modify it slightly
02:59to make the car actually more up to current speed of traffic.
03:04The chassis and body would be acid dipped, that's where the actual body and chassis are
03:07put into an acid tank and left there for 48 hours and that removes all paint, it removes
03:13all the rust, all the sealers and corrosion and when the body is removed it is then put
03:17into a neutralising tank and then the car will come back to us and we'll inspect it
03:21for any cracks or you know perforation or where the panels have become thin through
03:26corrosion.
03:27Then we go through the various processes of the restoration which include body, paint,
03:32chassis rebuild and the retrimming 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 the customer
03:41requires.
03:42The main challenges in a restoration of a vehicle is getting the originality correct
03:48and working closely with the customer to ensure that the refinish 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
04:05would be an ex-Formula One car owned by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James
04:11Hunt.
04:11The history with those cars, the battles that they were involved with is just second
04:16to none and it would be an absolute privilege if one of those projects comes our way one
04:21day.
04:21It would be a dream of mine to restore one of those cars owned by one of those fantastic
04:25drivers.
04:27And 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 I see me doing to the day
04:36I die, being involved with them.
04:39When the cars are actually completed and leaving your workshop and you've seen them
04:42progress over one or two years, it's good to see them out there being used again and
04:46the customers enjoying them.