![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/310b62abf51df59ee1fd2eb965a8e130.jpeg\")
BBC Points West presenter David Garmston took a look at an Aston Martin restored at Haynes Motor Museum [BBC] <\/p>\n BBC Points West presenter David Garmston took a look at an Aston Martin restored at Haynes Motor Museum [BBC] <\/p>\n
A lovingly-restored 1961 Aston Martin DB4 is turning heads again at the Haynes Motor Museum. David Garmston is treated to a ride and discovers what makes the car so special.<\/p>\n
In the honey-coloured villages of south Somerset \u2013 the throb of an English classic vibrates the lazy spring air.<\/p>\n
An Aston Martin sports car comes into view \u2013 and it is a handsome beast that growls at you as if it is coming home from a night out at an elegant party.<\/p>\n
The car is an Aston Martin DB4, painted in red, with a 3.8 litre engine and only 18,000 miles (28968 km) on the clock.<\/p>\n
The low mileage is testament to a wild youth. It was built in 1961 and pranged the same year. It was repaired, badly, and crashed again the following year.<\/p>\n
Now it is a treasured exhibit at the Haynes Motor Museum at Sparkford near Yeovil after a restoration which has taken months.<\/p>\n
More from Somerset <\/p>\n
The work has been carried out at a little private garage at the back of the museum.<\/p>\n
Technician Alex Knight and his colleagues spent hundreds of hours turning a wreck into a highly-prized treasure worth about \u00a3400,000.<\/p>\n
“Every one of these cars was hand built. No one is the same.<\/p>\n
“If you take a step back you will see that one side is higher than the other side. That’s the way it came out of the factory,” Knight said.<\/p>\n
Understandably, he has grown attached to the Aston.<\/p>\n
“I love it. It’s elegant, it oozes class,” he said.<\/p>\n
Technician Alex Knight says the car is now worth about \u00a3400,000 [BBC] <\/p>\n
The car has been resprayed \u2013 the shade is officially known as “dubonnet”. Shaken, not stirred.<\/p>\n
The DB4 was the inspiration for the vehicles driven by James Bond, although Sean Connery got behind the wheel of the later DB5.<\/p>\n
Workshop manager Nick Lockey-May is the only person allowed to drive it and he took me for a spin. There are no seat belts, no power steering and only one mirror.<\/p>\n
“It’s an absolute pleasure to drive. We have put so much work into it and to finally have it out on the road it’s just fantastic to get behind the wheel.”<\/p>\n
The restoration has not just been about a vintage car \u2013 it is about the future.<\/p>\n
The museum is hoping the skills needed to restore the Aston Martin will encourage a new generation to consider a career in technology and engineering.<\/p>\n
As I sunk into the passenger seat, I turned around, half expecting we were being chased as the acceleration pushed me back into the soft leather.<\/p>\n
It is the kind of car where adventure is always around the corner. A trip to the Med would be fun but also a challenge. The vehicle is noisy, bumpy and smells of old leather, petrol and exhaust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Points West presenter David Garmston took a look at an Aston Martin restored at Haynes Motor Museum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[241853,585,241850,49,48,241852,241851,117823,61],"class_list":["post-651349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-alex-knight","tag-aston-martin","tag-aston-martin-db4","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-garmston","tag-haynes-motor-museum","tag-sports-car","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}